Screwy

We watched Foul Play (1978) because I want to love 70s screwball comedy. Also, Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase!

It starts with Hawn at a San Francisco engagement party. She doesn't look very happy, but her friend catches her before she can leave and tells her she needs to try to connect with guys. Across the room, she spies Chevy Chase and their eyes meet. Then he pours his drink on himself and she isn't encouraged to follow up.

Taking a drive, she picks up a good looking hitch hiker Bruce Solomon, and lets him invite her on a date. What she doesn't realize is that he is being chased, and has slipped a McGuffin into her purse. When they meet for their date at the movies, he tells her, "Beware the dwarf" and dies.

When she tries to get the manager and police, the body has been moved and nobody believes her. Classic screwball setup. Hawn is attacked by any number of sinister fiends, including an albino and a Turkish chauffeur, and escapes through luck and spunk. And nobody believes her.

The best part - almost a separate movie unto itself - is when she gets Dudley Moore to help her hide from the baddies. He thinks it's a pick up, and takes her back to his hilariously set up sex apartment. When she realizes what's up, she escapes, and gets attacked again. This time, police detectives Brian Dennehy and -ta-da - Chevy Chase come to interview her.

I guess I don't have to tell you that Chase and Hawn wind up in bed on his fabulous Sausalito houseboat. That there is a plot to assassinate the pope, and that light opera plays a significant part. It's all part of the screwball game.

In the end, we enjoyed this without exactly being bowled over. For one thing, Hawn is a librarian, not an airhead. She has a tart put-down for every one of Chase's come-ons, and not the type Gracie Allen was known for. She does get a little flustered when romance is involved, and when targeted for murder.

All in all, not a bad movie, with the Dudley Moore interludes pushing it into the good category - not great maybe, but a solid watch. We will continue to check out Ms. Hawn's work.