Foul Play

Foul Play. 1978 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith, Brian Dennehy, Dudley Moore, Rachel Roberts, Eugene Roche, Billy Barty
Director: Colin Higgins
Available at Amazon as a single DVD, or part of a triple feature along with Planes, Trains and Automobiles & Summer Rental.

The Archbishop of San Francisco (Roche) is murdered right off the bat, by someone who looks and dresses identical to him.

Elsewhere, at a lavish afternoon party, we meet Gloria Mundy (Hawn) who after being talked up by an unidentified man (Chase), leaves to take a ride, and she picks up an attractive hitchhiker (Bruce Solomon). They hit it off well enough that they decide to go to the movies later. After Gloria drops him off, she fails to notice the man being chased by two men emerging from a limousine, and one's an albino. At the movies, the hitchhiker arrives late, having been shot, and he warns Gloria to "beware of the dwarf" before dying. While she's trying to find help, the body disappears, and no one believes her story. The next day, Gloria is confronted by the albino thug, but she escapes to safety with the help of Stanley, who she ran across at a bar, so he's obviously thinking she wants to go to bed with him.

At home, a man with a scar (Don Calfa) demands a pack of cigarettes that has a roll of film concealed within that the hitchhiker gave to her earlier. Suddenly, the albino appears to shoot "Scarface". Gloria faints, and when she comes to, all traces of what just happened are mysteriously gone. In her excited state, Gloria is unable to convey the events of the evening to two police officers, Fergy (Dennehy) and Tony (Chase), as well as her landlord Mr. Hennessy (Meredith). We now learn that Tony was the one at the party who unsuccessfully tried to pick her up. The day after this, Gloria is abducted by the albino and the limousine's chauffeur, but she escapes, and Tony takes her home. Tony knows something about this "Dwarf", who is an apparent contract killer, as well as the identity of the hitchhiker, who was a detective named Bob Scott who had been on Dwarf's trail prior to his demise.

Can Tony keep Gloria safe from the Dwarf and his surviving henchman? And what's this we hear about the Dwarf being hired to assassinate the Pope during his visit to San Francisco?

Recommended movie.