A Fish Called Wanda
(Wanda) is a woman painter who adores diamonds, collaborates with her boyfriend (Otto) gangster and his colleagues (George); the mastermind, the demented follower (Kane), on stealing a rare collection of diamonds. Wanda intends to take the diamonds for herself with the help of Otto. The police are told about George and he is arrested, but he has hidden the diamonds in a secret location. Wanda finds that the best way to find out where the diamonds are is to approach George's lawyer and seduce him.
13 April 1931, Staines, Middlesex, England, UK
15 July 1924, South Africa
18 June 1901, Charmouth, Dorset, England, UK
20 September 1944, Woking, Surrey, England, UK
4 June 1927, London, England, UK
24 June 1955, Northampton, England, UK
1952, London, England, UK
August 28, 1928 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, UK
9 October 1932, Wembley, Middlesex, England, UK
5 May 1943, Ranmoor, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, UK
22 December 1909, Wandsworth, London, England, UK
12 September 1945, Dublin, Ireland
21 July 1964, Ireland
22 November 1958, Los Angeles, California, USA
22 November 1936, Nottingham, England, UK
24 August 1957, Hampstead, London, England, UK
July 30, 2013
As in most of his Python parts... Cleese's character is an extended riff on the concept of pomposity. But Archie is more leavened with humanity than any of his other roles.
July 30, 2013
This hilarious tale of criminal incompetence and transatlantic eccentricity is easily John Cleese's finest achievement since Fawlty Towers.
July 30, 2013
There are a few hilarious moments, and a few more that are foolish and even disgusting.
July 30, 2013
Cleese's cracking script gives it a solid foundation, but it's the supporting cast who make this movie wanda-ful.
July 30, 2013
The movie's basic joke holds that the overbearing, unselfconscious Americans will do anything and say anything (and usually as loudly as possible), while the timorous British are nearly too polite to breathe.
July 30, 2013
A Fish Called Wanda is vintage black comedy, British-style -- a cruel, dastardly, down-and-dirty jewel-robbery romp that pits thief against thief, while entangling an innocent bystander in the web of greed, romance and decidedly cockeyed high jinks.
April 27, 2009
Wanda defies gravity, in both senses of the word, and redefines a great comic tradition.
July 30, 2013
Somehow, the movie manages to do the impossible: It makes John Cleese less than hilarious.
July 30, 2013
Putting heart and heat into a film that could have easily slid by on silliness, Cleese proves himself a master actor.
July 30, 2013
Low comedy at high speed, it pretends to be a caper movie about a smooth London jewel heist and its infinitely complex aftermath. Actually, it's a smart farce about ingrained cultural differences.
April 27, 2009
Like many of the best English comedies, much of the humor here is based on character, good-natured high spirits, and fairly uninhibited vulgarity.
July 30, 2013
Perhaps the most unusual aspect of what is surely the year's most original and daring comedy is that John Cleese is not the funniest performer in it. Believe it or not, that honor goes to none other than the usually somber Kevin Kline.
