Hanky Panky ** (1982, Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, Kathleen Quinlan, Richard Widmark) – Classic Movie Review 9231

Sidney Poitier directs the 1982 Hitchcockian comedy thriller Hanky Panky, with Gene Wilder as an innocent architect, Michael Jordon, chased across country by spies and police.

Gilda Radner plays the mystery woman accompanying him and Richard Widmark plays the villain, Ransom. Kathleen Quinlan and Robert Prosky make their mark as as Intelligence operatives Janet Dunn and Hiram Calder.

Hanky Panky is lightweight and pleasant, and the stars are always welcome guests, but more laughs and thrills would have lifted it higher.

Hanky Panky was designed as a sequel to the 1980 Stir Crazy, with Radner replacing the absent Richard Pryor, who backed out, and his part was re-written as female.

Also in the cast are Josef Sommer, Johnny Sekka, Jay O Sanders, Pat Corley, Sam Gray, Larry Bryggman, Johnny Brown, Bill Beutel, Nat Habib and James Tolkan.

The writers are Henry Rosenbaum and David Taylor.

Principal photography on the complex film took 75 days. It was not a hit. It grossed $9,823,934 in the US. Wilder recalled it as one of his worst movies.

This was the movie on which Wilder met Radner (who was married to G E Smith). They quickly became friends, fell in love, and married after Radner divorced her husband.

Wilder was married to Gilda Radner from 18 September 1984 till her death on 20 May 1989 of ovarian cancer, aged 42. They made three movies together, Hanky Panky, The Woman in Red and Haunted Honeymoon.

Wilder directed four movies – The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother, The World’s Greatest Lover, The Woman in Red and Haunted Honeymoon.

Gene Wilder died on August 29 2016, aged 83.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9231

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