Foul Play poster & wallpaper

Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith

Not short on murder, mayhem, or any other screwball '70s conventions, Foul Play is a wonderful vehicle for Goldie Hawn. She plays Gloria, a librarian "ready to take a chance again," who ends up...( read more  read more... ) the target of an assassination ring. Chevy Chase, fresh off of Saturday Night Live, does the closest thing to real acting he would ever achieve (okay, maybe Fletch) as Tony, the cop assigned to protect Gloria. Dudley Moore made an indelible impression on American audiences as Stanley Tibbets, a surprisingly kinky symphony conductor. But it's the quirky things that make this film: the grandmothers playing Scrabble with expletives, Burgess Meredith's snake Esme, the old Japanese couple in the back of the careening limo. From the opening credits with Barry Manilow crooning the title song, this is a fond trip down memory lane. --Keith Simanton

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70% liked it

6,806 ratings

PG, 116 min.

Directed by: Colin Higgins

Release Date: July 14, 1978

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DVD Release Date: November 16, 2004

Stats: 353 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (353)

  • franktowers
    March 25, 2009
    franktowers
    stupid, funny, and goldie hawn is lovely
  • bradwest
    December 18, 2008
    bradwest
    In the same vein as Silver Streak. A Hitchcock comedy as it were. Works in spite of Chase and gives Moore the opportunity to spring to leading man territory.
  • mwilliams078
    January 27, 2008
    mwilliams078
    Foul Play is such a good movie from the 70's. Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn are such a perfect match....I love them both. Dudly Moore has such a crazy role as a crazy bachelor trying to get Goldie. Great movie and another Goldie gem.
  • YosemiteSamFan
    August 10, 2007
    YosemiteSamFan
    The right chemistry between Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase! It's a great suspense comedy, with a shy librarian discovering a plot to assassinate the Pope when he visits San Francisco. It's got a great late-70's feeling and a bit of romance. A classic.
  • garyX
    March 29, 2007
    garyX
    An enjoyably daft screwball comedy featuring Chevy Chase when he used to be (almost) funny and a comparatively unannoying Goldie Hawn. Good fun.
  • alexbasketball
    October 25, 2009
    alexbasketball
    BORING!!!... i cant buy inot a goldie horne movie without an A1 (murray/candy) type comedian.

    the one star is for dudley moore's character.
  • dukeakasmudge
    October 22, 2009
    dukeakasmudge
    Did not find this movie funny at all
  • haroldchasen
    October 19, 2009
    haroldchasen
    A very '70s take on Hitchcock thrillers and old-fashioned screwball comedies. Worth seeing if you like thoses genres.
  • jackass001
    October 16, 2009
    jackass001
    wow this one of the funniest movie of an comedy with a mystery. leading star actress goldie hawn along with chevy chase's role as funniest cop i seen (lol). so also with both starring burgess meredith(role as mr. hennessey)that with little bit funny and with wild and the funny ka...( read more)rate & another funny actor dudley moore(role as stanley tibbets)who before leading starring "10" and i cant stop laughing at him that he doing.
  • briley9
    August 18, 2009
    briley9
    We enjoyed this outing from early in the careers of both Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase. It?s a strange movie, with a schizophrenic attitude that?s hard to place. Foul Play tells the story of a lonely librarian and a police detective who fall in love as they try to uncover the assas...( read more)sination plot in which the librarian has become entangled. Some thoughts:

    * The early parts of the film feel very Hitchcockian, with mysterious corpses turning up and vanishing, evil albinos hiding in libraries, and so on.
    * But as the film goes on, it gets this strange injection of humor that seems completely out of character for the earlier film. As the movie ended, we decided that two scripts, one a classic thriller drawn on early spy movies like The 39 Steps or The Man Who Knew Too Much, the other a Zucker brothers parody of the same.
    * In the more serious vein, there are some pretty intense chase sequences and some startling moments. In the other, we have a cackling snake, an old-man versus old-woman rumble in the living room, dirty old ladies playing Scrabble, and the senseless beating of a dwarf.
    * Given the early banter between Chase and Hawn, I expected the Chase character to be a bit more Fletch than he ended up being. Oh well. There were some amusing bumbles anyhow.
    * How come albinos always end up being henchmen in movies? I can only think of three other albinos in movies (offhand): the keeper of the cave of doom in The Princess Bride (henchman), the tall assassin in The Untouchables (henchman, but perhaps not an albino), and the kid in Powder (not a henchman).
    * I was trying to decide if a moment in the non-PC 1970s film was racist or not. Two elderly Japanese people ended up in the back of the car being driven crazily through the San Fransisco streets. Once they figured out CC was a cop (?Kojack, bang! bang!?), they thought it was a riot. They laughed uproariously and waved American flags. Admittedly, they caricatured Japanese-ness, but their particular ethnicity fit because the sequence was cross-cut with a production of The Mikado and the extra-digetic chase music drew on that opera for its themes. One could also suggest a diegetic logic for Japanese tourists to be present, as San Francisco (and California in general) are a big draw for Japanese tourists. Finally, I feel like ANY non-English speaking old people could have fit a similar niche for humor. These reasons aside, I still felt a little askew about the scene.
    * I need to see some more Burgess Meredith movies.

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Foul Play Trivia

  • Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith & Goldie Hawn thinks she sees an albino & a midget?  Answer »
  • What was Dudley Moore's character name in "Foul Play"?  Answer »
  • Goldie Hawn's starring role opposite Chevy Chase in Foul Play was supposed to be played by another actress who couldn't take the part due to a lawsuit against her. Who was that?  Answer »
  • Name the actress who appeared in all of the following films: Foul Play, The First Wives Club and Town and Country.  Answer »
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