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To me, this movie is perfection.

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It's summer of 1981 NYC. Janet Dunn (Kathleen Quinlan) steals secrets and gets into a cab with another passenger Michael Jordon (Gene Wilder). She's in the middle of a vast conspiracy. He's kidnapped by mysterious goons. He manages to escape but the police doesn't believe him. Janet Dunn is killed and Jordon becomes the main suspect. With the world searching for him, he is joined by Kate Hellman (Gilda Radner) who is looking for her brother's killer on a cross-country pursuit to uncover the secret conspiracy.The plot has a good slice of Hitchcock's "North by Northwest". It's a bit convoluted. Apparently Sidney Poitier wanted to make another Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder buddy movie before Pryor's death. Gilda Radner comes in to replace him. She shows that she's no shrinking violet and gives Gene Wilder a good partner (on film and in real life). They have a couple of good fun moments. There are far too few of them. This is a manic mess which could have been better if the script and Poitier allow the pair to shine with better material.

Although the title is Hanky Panky we get very little of that during the course of this movie. Kind of like Cary Grant in North By Northwest Gene Wilder gets caught up accidentally in a web of espionage and treason.Watching Hanky Panky I couldn't help think of the Alfred Hitchcock classic and how the unflappable and witty Cary Grant is chased from New York City to Rapid City, South Dakota with that climax on Mount Rushmore. What worked well for Grant and Hitchcock did not work well for the hysterical Gene Wilder who does that best on screen as he has since The Producers. Of course Gilda Radner is no Eva Marie Saint, in fact Gilda is surprisingly subdued in Hanky Panky.Gene is an innocent schnook who is subletting an apartment from a man who gets killed. Wilder is from Chicago and by being there gets himself involved with the poisoning of National Security chief Robert Prosky and the shooting of Kathleen Quinlan and has the cops and everyone else chasing him. The Hitchcockian McGuffin is a computer tape with all kinds of secret codes that can't be copied except it has. Richard Widmark who has reverted here to one of those villainous types from his early days in film is working for a high level traitor who we only learn the identity of in the last minutes of the film.Wilder's hysterical style was a bit over the top. Works much better with Cary Grant's charm and unflappability.

No, I'm not referring to Gene Wilder (extravagantly OTT) and Gilda Radner (in her tentative big screen debut) but to Richard Widmark, whose dour villain Ransom is a long, long way from his laughing killer Tommy Uddo way back in 1947, and director Poitier who played the noble victim of rat-like racist Widmark in Joseph L Mankiewicz's 'No Way Out' in 1950. Widmark was, it is said, troubled by the ferocity of his role but Poitier took it in good part and they acted together again in the daft but entertaining 'The Long Ships' in 1963, and, more rewardingly, in 'The Bedford Incident' in 1965. So, was Poitier doing veteran Widmark a favour by casting him in this so-so comedy, or was Widmark playing a (frankly unworthy) role for old time's sake? Anyway, seeing the film again 26 years on, in the wake of Widmark's death last month, I found myself laughing more than I'd expected (as well as lamenting the early demise of the gorgeous Kathleen Quinlan!).

Hanky Panky is our first look at Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner on the big screen together. The story goes as such: Michael Jordan (Wilder) is new in town, meets a woman with whom he tries to get a date. Nothing wrong with that right? Well he is chased by bad guys for having any contact with this woman and when she ends up dead he is sought for her murder. In comes Kate (Radner) who tries to help Michael find out why these guys are after him. Well he gets the girl in the end and everything turns out for the best, with a few laughs along the way. The pairing of these two comedians shows us why they have been loved by many for so many years. If you like romantic comedies then you will enjoy Hanky Panky.