A Fish Called Wanda

A Fish Called Wanda. 1988 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Starring: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Maria Aitken, Tom Georgeson
Written by John Cleese and Charles Crichton
Director: Charles Crichton
Available at Amazon: Single DVD, or the two-disc collectors' edition.

We start the film with a planned jewel heist masterminded by George Thomason (Georgeson) and stuttering Ken Pile (Palin), a beleaguered animal lover. They bring in two Americans to help, two lovers pretending to be siblings, Wanda Gershwitz (Curtis) and "weapons man" Otto West (Kline). The two Yanks pretend to be brother and sister to lure George and Ken into a false sense of security since they plan to betray them after the heist goes down. George and Ken secretly have the same plan, and they've quickly moved the stolen jewels to a new location. Wanda also intends to betray Otto!

As they planned, Wanda and Otto report George to the police, and discover that the loot is not where they originally planned as a group. Wanda decides to make a move on George's lawyer, the unhappily married lawyer Archie Leach (Cleese), to see if he knows where the jewels are. Ken is assigned by George to silence a key witness, which proves traumatic to him after he accidentally kills the witness' three Yorkshire Terriers. Meanwhile, Otto finds himself in fits of jealousy over Wanda and Archie's affair, while growing more impatient with Ken and Britain in general.

Hilarious film. Highly recommended.