The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! **** (1988, Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, Ricardo Montalban, O J Simpson) – Classic Movie Review 3433

The 1988 slapstick comedy film The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! stars the superbly droll Leslie Nielsen as crackpot cop Frank Drebin, who uncovers a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth II (impersonator Jeannette Charles) on a visit to Los Angeles.

Director David Zucker’s hilarious 1988 police drama spoof thriller film The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! stars the superbly droll Leslie Nielsen as incompetent crackpot LA cop Lieutenant Frank Drebin. He has to get to frenzied slapstick work when he uncovers a plot to kill Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England (impersonator Jeannette Charles) on a visit to Los Angeles and falls in love with the gorgeous heroine Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley).

The Naked Gun also stars disaster movie king George Kennedy as Captain Ed Hocken, Ricardo Montalban as Vincent Ludwig and O J Simpson as Detective Nordberg. Montalban’s Vincent Ludwig has plans to assassinate the Queen using brainwashed baseball player Nordberg.

Made by the makers of the hysterical Airplane! (1980), it is very nearly as funny, thanks to the lovely, funny stuff in the screenplay by Jim Abrahams, Pat Proft, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker, full of brilliant sight-gags, crazy non-sequiturs and corny jokes ‘(Would you like a nightcap?’ – ‘No, thank you, I don’t wear them!’).

Based on Abrahams and the Zucker brothers’ short-lived TV show Police Squad! (which starred Nielsen as Drebin and was cancelled after only six episodes), it piles on the wacky gags so thick and fast that you’ll want to see it at least half a dozen times.

It is one of the few hit films ever to be based on a flop TV show. It was a much deserved, enormous hit, and spawned two sequels: The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991) and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994).

Also in the cast are Susan Beaubian as Mrs Nordberg, Nancy Marchand as the Mayor, Raye Birk, John Houseman, Reggie Jackson, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, Joyce Brothers and Bob Arthur.

Leslie Nielsen (11 February 1926 – 28 November 2010) eventually got to meet the real Queen Elizabeth II – in 2005.

Nielsen made his film debut in 1956, and films like Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure gave him standing as a serious actor. That all changed when he was cast in Airplane!

The cast are Leslie Nielsen as Lieutenant Frank Drebin, Priscilla Presley as Jane Spencer,,Ricardo Montalbán as Vincent Ludwig, George Kennedy as Captain Ed Hocken, O J Simpson as Detective Nordberg, Susan Beaubian as Mrs Wilma Nordberg, Nancy Marchand as Mayor Lillian Barkley, Raye Birk as Pahpshmir, Jeannette Charles as Queen Elizabeth II, Ed Williams as Ted Olsen, Tiny Ron as Tall Lab Tech Al, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic as himself, Winifred Freedman as Stephanie, Joe Grifasi as Pier 32 Dockman, Lawrence Tierney as the Angels’ manager, Reggie Jackson as himself, Dr Joyce Brothers as herself, and John Houseman as a driving teacher.

George Kennedy, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Cool Hand Luke (1967), died on February 28 2016, aged 91. He was memorable in Charade (1963) and was a fixture of Seventies disaster movies, including Airport (1970) and its three sequels and Earthquake (1974). The studio wanted an Oscar winner in one of the star roles, which led to the casting of Kennedy, who had been campaigning for the role of Ed Hocken for months, disgruntled at having missed his chance to spoof his Airport roles in Airplane! (1980).

In 2007, former football star O J Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, and charged with armed robbery and kidnapping,  In 2008, he was convicted and sentenced to 33 years’ imprisonment. until being paroled and released in 2017. He died of cancer on 10 April 2024, aged 76.

His success as an American football player was also overshadowed by his trial and controversial acquittal for the murders of his former wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.

British actress Jeannette Charles (15 October 1927 – 2 June 2024) appears as Queen Elizabeth II.

Charles acted in repertory theatre in her twenties, but her resemblance to the monarch made it difficult to find work, and she left acting to become a secretary. But in 1972, a self-commissioned painting of herself was displayed by the artist at the Royal Academy in London, where it was mistaken for a portrait of the Queen, leading to press attention and offers to portray Her Majesty. She played the Queen in many films, including Secrets of a Superstud (1976), Queen Kong (1976), The Rutles’ movie All You Need Is Cash (1978), National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985), The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3433

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