Reel 71: Accidental Spies

Don’t you hate it when you’re just out there minding your own business, doing your job and the next thing you know you’re involved with a South American crime cartel, or you’re behind the Iron Curtain?

That’s what happens in this episode of the show. We find some fairly ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances. They’re just trying to do their thing and they find themselves in the middle of intrigue and espionage.

We start with 1979’s The In-Laws, directed by Arthur Hiller and starring Alan Arkin and Peter Falk. Arkin is a mild-mannered dentist whose daughter is about to marry Falk’s son, but there’s something not quite right about Falk. Before long, he finds himself tangled in international intrigue and on the verge of being killed by a firing squad. If you’ve seen the recent remake, don’t let it put you off of watching this much-better version.

From there we go to Top Secret! from 1984. It stars a very young Val Kilmer and a host of character actors, and was directed by Jim Abrahams along with brothers Jerry and David Zucker, more commonly known as ZAZ. It’s a spy comedy in the style of their earlier Airplane!, except that the story is more homage than a direct lift. But it’s still got deeply-layered jokes and a couple of scenes that have to be seen to be believed, including one which was shot like this…

…but it doesn’t appear on screen like this.


COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

We’re going to stick with the spy genre for the time being. Episode 72 features two films based on novels by John LeCarre. We start with The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, from 1965, and then it’s a visit to 1990’s The Russia House. Join us, won’t you?