Top Secret (1984). As planned, I did watch both Airplane! and Top Secret last night. I’m making a new post for the latter because, imagine my surprise when it turned out that I had never seen it before! I must have gotten it confused with some other movie, possibly Hot Shots!.
It was terrific, so I have to walk back my earlier comments. I still say Airplane! is a real classic gem, but I have no argument with those who prefer Top Secret. It’s a different kind of movie but still very funny. .
There’s quite a large number of songs performed in it, all of which were sung by Val Kilmer himself, to the point that it’s almost a semi-musical. He’s pretty good at a 1950s Elvis Presley style rock’n’roll. But it’s all pertinent to the plot because Kilmer plays American rock musician Nick Rivers who gets involved in spy intrigue in East Germany. Fun fact: after the movie was released, Kilmer recorded an album that was released under the title “Nick Rivers”.
Pretty funny throughout with some really hilarious bits. Highly recommended for anyone who, like me, still had not seen it.
For those who may not know, Val Kilmer died just last year at the age of 65.
The writing team of the two Zuckers and Abrahams is frequently referred to as “ZAZ”. In fact, Airplane references this twice. When a bunch of reporters burst in to interview the air traffic controllers, one of them has a microphone labeled “WZAZ”, a fictional TV station. Near the end, when the plane is coming in for an emergency landing, it crashes through the transmission tower on top of a building with a big “WZAZ” sign, knocking out the power.
If you want to see a movie about Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper, try 1965’s A Study in Terror. It has John Neville and Donald Houstyon (who? and who?) as Sherlock and Watson, but has an impressive cast – Robert Morley as Mycroft Holmes, Judi Dench (!). Frank Finlay plays Lestrade, as he did in Murder by Decree, and Anthony Quayle is also there from Murder by Decree, although in a different role.
There are plenty of literary treatments of Holmes vs. the Ripper, but I only know of these two cinematic versions.
Yeah, I get the impression that that “Top Secret” songs collection is what’s being referenced here. (I mean, what buying public would really be that interested in hearing the fictional “Nick Rivers” sing anything else?)
I must go and revisit the Hot Shots and Hot Shots Part Deux (Directed by Jim Abrahams), which I watched at the time, and never since. Arguably it was Charlie Sheens greatest comedy.
And sadly I discovered that Jim Abrahams died in 2024, I’d missed that. So no more full ZAZ.
He sort of stopped making movies earlier than the rest. He’s the one of ZAZ involved with the third Naked Gun, and his last directed movie was Jane Austin’s Mafia from 1998 (another one I missed, need to remedy that). His last screenwriting credit was in Scary Movie 4 in 2006 (I think I watched that one because also directed by David Zucker so closer to ZAZ than Naked Gun 3).
The only one to really have commercial success post ZAZ was Jerry Zucker directing Ghost. Interestingly, I found out that Ruthless People was actually a sort of ZAZ movie, directed by all three but not written by them.
I’m pretty sure that’s all there is – he didn’t release an album of original songs of any other nature AFAIK. This was the statement from the original source which might be a bit misleading::
His first big break came a year later when he got the role in the comedy spoof of spy movies “Top Secret!”, where he played a rock-star Nick Rivers. Kilmer sang all the songs in the film and released an album under the name Nick Rivers.
This is the album. That site says there are two soundtrack albums from the movie. The other one is Maurice Jarre’s sound track music, no songs.
George C. Scott was a serious method actor who wanted to play General Turgidson with subtlety. Kubrick convinced Scott to deliver an over-the-top performance in what he assured Scott were only rehearsal takes, then used those takes in the film. Scott was furious and swore he’d never work with Kubrick again. Scott eventually came around and said it was one of his favorite performances.
Peter Sellers was originally supposed to play Major Kong in addition to his other three roles. Sellers begged off because of a leg injury (“The string in my leg’s gone”), so Kubrick cast Slim Pickens instead. The scenes on the bomber were shot separately, and to get Pickens to play it straight, Kubrick didn’t tell Pickens it was a comedy, and he only showed Pickens the parts of the script for the scenes he was in.
To me, the funniest of Seller’s three characters was President Merkin Muffley. I really love the phone calls with Premiere Kissoff.
It’s been at least a decade since the last time I saw it, but ISTR a morning-after scene that made it clear that they slept together. Or are you talking about some signs of affection leading up to that?
For Sellers, developing a character always started with the voice (cf. all his various characters in The Good Show), and I’ve heard he backed out of the Major Kong role because he couldn’t master a Southern US accent to his own satisfaction.
Although I revere Sellers as one of the funniest humans ever, IMO, he was never particularly good with American accents. His Merton Muffley isn’t bad a stereotypical comic Jewish American accent, but I don’t recall his ever doing a really convincing straight American accent.
The viewer is supposed to understand that they’re having a sexual relationship, but there is no actual physical intimacy (e.g. a kiss or foreplay) shown.
My guess is the film makers or distributors thought it would seem kind of… gross. The movie wanted to show uptight people getting uptight about the May-December affair, and let the audience feel open-minded. But, they were also afraid the audience would lose sympathy with the leads if they actually watched an 18 yo kissing a 70 yo with sexual intent.
Not unless I blinked and missed it. All I remember was him kissing her on the cheek, though it was a little more lingeringly than you’d kiss your grandma.
But I think @Baal_Houtham is right about the reason why they didn’t do much more to show or imply the intimacy between them. Except, of course, for the priest’s priceless reaction to the thought of “your firm, young… body… commingling with the… withered flesh… sagging breasts… and flabby b-b-buttocks… makes me want… to vomit.”
@Q.Q.Switcheroo: Thanks for finding that! I had never seen it. Looks like he finally mastered the Southern U.S. accent he wasn’t able to get 14 years earlier for Major Kong.
I’ve listened to all the extant Goon Shows many times over, and the American accents he did there were uniformly ridiculous attempts to copy the speech patterns picked up from American Westerns. For some reason, he and the other Goons thought Americans said “hern” a lot. No idea why or what it was supposed to mean.
Does anyone else know of other more believable Sellers American characters to prove me wronger? I’d be happy to see them.
Predator: Badlands on Disney+. Fans of the horror aspects of the franchise probably won’t like it but it’s a fun creature feature for a Saturday afternoon (very appropriate since that’s when I’m watching it).
I also watched Predator Badlands last night, and I agree, it was super great fun. It won’t set the world alight for originality, but it certainly is one of the better in the Predator franchise. Dan Trachtenberg (who also made Prey) really knows what he’s doing.
Elle Fanning seemed to be channelling Kim Cattrall.
Also I recognised New Zealand as the filming location immediately. I know my home country when I see it.
Saw Wall Street for the first time since it was on videotape. Excellent movie until the final scene. It should have ended with Bud being escorted out. But for whatever reason, they tacked on the final scene that turned Gekko into an idiot and ignored the paperwork that Bud filled out at the beginning so everything would bounce back on him. Cut that last scene, and Wall Street is a near perfect movie.
Prime recently put The 13th Warrior on free streaming for a while so that was my re-watch last night. Antonio Banderas is a middle eastern diplomat who falls in with a band of Northmen warriors. Adventure and combat ensues. Call me simple but I always enjoy this flick.
