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| The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! | |
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 original movie poster |
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| Directed by | David Zucker |
| Produced by | Robert K. Weiss |
| Written by | Jerry Zucker Jim Abrahams David Zucker Pat Proft |
| Starring | Leslie Nielsen Priscilla Presley Ricardo Montalbán George Kennedy O. J. Simpson Nancy Marchand |
| Music by | Ira Newborn |
| Cinematography | Robert M. Stevens |
| Editing by | Michael Jablow |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 2, 1988 |
| Running time | 85 minutes |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Followed by | The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991) Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! is a 1988 comedy film, the first in a series of movies starring Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, and O. J. Simpson. The three films (the other two being The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, and Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult) chronicle the adventures of Nielsen's character, the bumbling police detective Lieutenant Frank Drebin.
The film's title parodies The Nude Bomb, another film spun-off from a satirical TV series (Get Smart), but could also be interpreted as a general "sex and violence" cliché that is usually expected from a Hollywood film of the era. The film is marketed with the tagline "You've read the ad, now see the movie!"
The movie series is based on the character created by Nielsen in the television series Police Squad!. The core creative team behind Police Squad! and the movie series includes the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker as well as Pat Proft in varying combinations.
The films all feature extremely fast-paced, off-the-wall, slapstick style comedy, including a lot of visual and verbal puns and gags.
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Plot
The plot of the series is a basic parody of detective film clichés, featuring stereotypical characters, settings, and situations. Many other film genres and styles are mocked as well, and the movies are full of references to current events and contemporary pop culture.
The movie starts in a meeting in Beirut with a collection of anti-American leaders: Ayatollah Khomeini, Mikhail Gorbachev (who claims he has the Americans believing he is "a nice guy"), Yasser Arafat, Muammar al-Gaddafi and Idi Amin, who are planning a terrorist act. The man who is later shown to be Pahpshmir is seen at this meeting. It turns out that Frank Drebin has been posing undercover as a waiter; he beats up all the attendees, wipes off Gorbachev's forehead birthmark ("I knew it!!!", proclaims Drebin), and escapes/falls out the window.
Back in Los Angeles, Officer Nordberg is investigating a heroin drug operation at the docks when he is seen by villain-in-disguise Vincent Ludwig, and is shot numerous times by Ludwig's goons, then accidentally runs into a hot stove, a wedding cake, and then a bear trap, before falling into the harbor. (It is a running gag that Nordberg keeps getting badly injured, but somehow manages to survive). After being briefed on the case by his colleague Ed, Frank visits Nordberg in hospital, where there is later another attempt on the injured man's life. Frank chases the assassin (a doctor) in a commandeered car operated by a panicked student driver and Houseman's unflappable instructor, until the luckless assassin crashes an army rocket into a fireworks factory. Over the ensuing carnage, Drebin proclaims "There's nothing to see here!" to the assembled onlookers.
Pahpshmir is seen meeting with Vincent Ludwig in his office, where Ludwig says that he will assassinate Queen Elizabeth II (who is on a state visit to the USA) for $20 million. Ludwig demonstrates that he has a way of turning anyone into an unknowing assassin at the press of Ludwig's beeper; it appears that the victims are responding to a post-hypnotic suggestion, but the film makes no effort to clarify the point further (in fact, showing another instance minutes later where a doctor, hypnotized by the beeper, tries to smother Nordberg with a pillow).
As he works on the case, Drebin meets and falls in love with Ludwig's assistant Jane Spencer. It is eventually revealed that Jane knows nothing about Ludwig's plot, and after the pair spend the night together, she helps Frank with his investigation.
Following Drebin-inspired disasters at a reception for the Queen and Ludwig's penthouse, the climax of the film centers on the Queen's visit to a California Angels baseball game. Frank must find out how Ludwig plans to assassinate her, while also hiding from his fellow policemen, who are now under orders to arrest him. Frank knocks out "renowned opera singer" Enrico Pallazzo, takes his clothes and proceeds to brutally mangle the national anthem, along with Pallazzo's reputation. Frank then pretends to be an umpire to search the players for the assassin. He knows the assassination will take place during the seventh-inning stretch, and when he tries to delay the end of the top of the seventh inning by intentionally making bad calls, he inadvertently triggers an all-out brawl between the Angels and their opponent the Seattle Mariners. He eventually saves the Queen's life by accidentally shooting a fat woman with a sleep-inducing dart fired from his cufflinks; the woman falls on top of the hypnotized player (Reggie Jackson), who was about to shoot the Queen. The crowd cheers "Enrico Pallazzo's" heroics.
Ludwig escapes to the top of the stadium, and holds Jane hostage at gun-point, where Frank shoots him with his other cufflink dart. Ludwig falls several stories off the stadium balcony, smashing to earth in the parking lot and getting run over by both a bus and a steamroller. A marching band performing "Louie, Louie" then tromps over his flattened body, pressing the beeper which makes Jane try to kill Frank with Ludwig's gun. Frank talks her out of it, and gives her an engagement ring. His speech is broadcast on the stadium screen, causing the teams to stop fighting and make up. The mayor thanks Frank, saying the whole world owes him a debt of gratitude, and he is also congratulated by Nordberg. The latter, while still wheelchair-bound, seems much better until Frank pats him on the back, sending him zooming down the aisle and up over the edge of the stadium as the movie ends.
Cast
- Leslie Nielsen - Lt. Frank Drebin
- Priscilla Presley - Jane Spencer
- Ricardo Montalbán - Vincent Ludwig
- George Kennedy - Capt. Ed Hocken
- O. J. Simpson - Det. Nordberg
- Susan Beaubian - Wilma Nordberg
- Nancy Marchand - Mayor Barkley
- Raye Birk - Pahpshmir
- Jeannette Charles - Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II
- Ed Williams - Ted Olsen
- Tiny Ron - Al, Tall Lab Tech
- "Weird Al" Yankovic - Himself
- Leslie Maier - Herself
- Winifred Freedman - Stephanie
- Joe Grifasi - Pier 32 Dockman
In addition to the aforementioned cast, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! co-stars Ricardo Montalbán, Jeannette Charles, Raye Birk, and Nancy Marchand. "Weird Al" Yankovic, Joe Grifasi, Lawrence Tierney, John Houseman (his last film), and Mark Holton have cameo roles.
Major League Baseball players Reggie Jackson and Jay Johnstone have cameo roles as themselves, as do umpires Joe West and Hank Robinson. Professional announcers Curt Gowdy, Jim Palmer, Tim McCarver, Mel Allen, Dick Enberg and Dick Vitale appear as play-by-play commentators, as does Dr. Joyce Brothers.
Production
The film was shot at various locations in and around Los Angeles, California. The queen's reception was filmed at the Ambassador Hotel, which closed almost exactly a month after this film opened, so this may have been the last film to feature scenes at the Hotel while it was still in business. The Ambassador is noteworthy for having been the location where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. Although the film's climax takes place at a California Angels home game, the baseball scenes were also filmed in Los Angeles, at Dodger Stadium.
Reception
In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted the first Naked Gun the 39th greatest comedy film of all timecitation needed. It was also voted the 14th best comedy of all time in a Channel 4 poll.[1] It currently holds an 88% "Fresh" rating on movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 34 reviews.
Film links and references
Police Squad
- In one scene, the mayor refers to Frank's police department as "Police Squad, a special division of the police force".
- The television show had a character named Detective Norberg, a Caucasian, portrayed by Peter Lupus. The film replaces him with Detective Nordberg, played by African-American (O. J. Simpson). Captain Ed Hocken retains the same name, though he is played by a different actor in the film.
Film spoofs
- The plot is mostly based on the 1977 Charles Bronson movie Telefon, including a word-for-word copy of the scene in which the assassination method is revealed.
- When Frank and Ed are scolded by the mayor for destroying Ludwig's office, Frank's line about him shooting apparent murderers (who have turned out to be actors) closely parodies lines by Clint Eastwood's character in Dirty Harry.
- Ludwig's enraged rant against Drebin ("I want him dead! I want his family dead! I want his house burned to the ground! " etc.) comes word-for-word from Al Capone's tirade against Eliot Ness in The Untouchables. Note that this scene is present only in the Director's Cut and was not shown in the theatrical release.
- Frank's introduction to Jane, especially the voice-over, is lifted from the 1975 version of Farewell, My Lovely - right up to where she hits the wall.
- Frank's speech (and proposal) to Jane parodies Casablanca a number of times, most obviously the lines including "a hill of beans."
- The airport scene mirrors the beginning of Jean Renoir's Rules of the game, especially in terms of what is discussed between Frank and Ed (the former has just returned from a trip where he has achieved a great feat, but is saddened that his love is not there to greet him).
- Frank tells Jane "That's a honey of an ankle bracelet you're wearing," a spoof of a line from the film Double Indemnity.
Movie references
- The 2005 "PTV" episode of Family Guy parodies the Naked Gun films, namely the first scene in the first Naked Gun film in which Drebin spies on a terrorist meeting and starts a brawl. In the Family Guy version, Stewie Griffin spies on Osama bin Laden's terrorist meeting; the scene, in which Stewie attacks the terrorists, is accompanied by the overture "Drebin - Hero!", from the first and second Naked Gun films' pre-credit sequences. It goes on to mimic lines of dialogue and camera angles from the film, including a moment where Stewie tells the terrorists, "Don't ever let me catch you in Quahog" before he falls backwards out of a cave window. Afterward, the show parodies the opening sequence of the film series, in which a police car (in this case, Stewie on his tricycle) goes through unusual areas like a gay pride parade, Oz, Hoth, and even the video game Doom, before finally ending up running over Homer Simpson on his way into the Griffins' garage.
- The 2007 "Boys Do Cry" episode of Family Guy also parodies the Naked Gun films. Stewie is dressed as a girl in a beauty contest in Texas. After winning the competition, Stewie bows his head and his wig falls off. One audience member says, "It's not a girl". Then, another member of the audience points and says, "Hey, it's Enrico Pallazzo," a reference to the scene near the end of the movie when one of the baseball fans recognizes Drebin as the singer who performed the national anthem.
- The Simpsons episode "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" spoofs the death of Ricardo Montalbán's character, when Maude Flanders is knocked over a guard-rail of a stadium and falls into the parking lot. In the episode "Cape Feare", Sideshow Bob is run over by a marching band and elephants in a similar fashion.
References
External links
- Naked Gun quotes at MovieWavs.com
- Naked Gun at the Internet Movie Database
- The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! at Allmovie
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