Cinema Tuesdays {Foul Play}

From 1978, Foul Play is the first in a series of three Hitchcock inspired comedies made in the late Seventies, in this case it's The Man Who Knew Too Much with Jimmy Stewart.

I've always found the Seventies to be an interesting decade -style wise. And here we see a wide variety of Seventies fashions and fads.

Goldie Hawn plays a recently divorced librarian who meets Chevy Chase (who had just quit SNL in order to have a failed career in Hollywood after this movie) at a party, where he uses one of the worst pick-up lines I've ever heard in a motion picture.

While she's driving back to San Francisco, Goldie Hawn gives a ride to a hitchhiker.

The Hitchhiker is being followed by some men in a black limo (bad guys always drive black cars) who are trying to kill him. So naturally, he slips the very important film roll containing details on the assassination that will happen in two days into a pack of cigarettes that he slips into Goldie Hawn's purse. The cops know when the assassination will take place, but they don't know where it will happen or who will be killed.

Goldie Hawn is supposed to meet the Hitchhiker at an Alan Ladd movie, but he's late.

He stumbles in halfway through and whispers "Murder...Beware of the Dwarf"

And then he drops dead when he sees that some of his blood has ruined a perfectly nice gingham shirt.

By the time Goldie Hawn has had the projector stopped and called the manager, the body is gone.

She goes home to tell her landlord Burgess Meredith about what happened to her date. He doesn't really believe her, but he's so nice and he has a pet snake.

The lasting influence of Seventies fashions -layering!

Her friend Stella believes her though. Stella is like a girl scout, she's always prepared.

Isn't that a neat hat? The feather really makes it.

Goldie Hawn is shelving some books in the basement after closing when she meets the man who killed the Hitchhiker

The really creepy Albino!

She attacks him with her trusty yellow umbrella and ducks into the singles bar round the corner from the library.

When the Albino follows her in, she asks city employee Stanley to take her back to his place.

Stanley is always prepared too.

Dudley Moore is fantastically hilarious in this movie! He's barely in it, but he really steals the show. You have to watch this movie if only for this scene!

Goldie Hawn leaves poor Stanley and goes home and finds that the door is already unlocked. I don't think I've ever seen anyone else roll up the sleeves of their raincoat before.

A man with a scar and a Peter Lorre-type accent is waiting to kill her if she wont give him the pack of cigarettes.

So she stabs him with the knitting needles. Well, what would you do?

I love her blue and white kitchen.

Goldie Hawn calls the police, but Scarface isn't dead yet.

But he is now.

The Albino killed him because of his terrible shirt.

Goldie Hawn faints and awakens to find out that Chevy Chase is actually a detective. They don't believe her story that Scarface and the Albino tried to kill her because they were chain smokers.

The next day, Goldie Hawn in a pretty cream dress notices a black limo similar to the one that's been following her.

And the Albino is the one driving it. Coincidence?

She wakes up to find herself in a run down apartment and must climb down the fire escape in the pouring rain, without her umbrella.

Now Chevy Chase believes her. One just doesn't ruin a perfectly good dress in order to prove something.

I like her apartment, it's cosy and old-fashioned while still being slightly modern.

Chevy Chase learns that the run down apartment is leased by a known assassin nicknamed The Dwarf.

Is that him? No, too obvious and his suit looks like it's been made out of car seat covers.

And the black limo is owned by the Archbishop, but it was stolen last week.

Meanwhile, Goldie Hawn gets a call to meet Chevy Chase in a seedy part of town, next to a brothel.

Such a pretty bridesmaid's dress.

Since the call was obviously a trap, Goldie Hawn sneaks into the brothel and meets Stanley again.

Meanwhile, Stella and her cool belt buckle gives Chevy Chase some very important information involving an evil twin and he figures out where Goldie Hawn is being kept.

But his rescue mission doesn't go well.

Fortunately, Burgess Meredith tagged along and saves them. See Burgess Meredith fight a grown woman!

Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase must race across town in order to stop the Albino.

Guess who the target is. And also what Stanley's job is, which is pretty obvious given what Dudley Moore's training and degree was in.

This being a movie made in San Francisco, there has to be a car chase. Wait till you see how big the traditional fruit stand that's knocked over is.

And this being the Seventies, all of the cars were cheap and badly built and they go through a lot. It's also the second funniest San Francisco car chase ever.