Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs

Beverly Rossmore (Linda Purl) is a school teacher and the wife of Alan (Ed Begley, Jr.) whose friend Freddie Fallon (Harry Anderson) is a CIA agent chasing a female assassin at the International Arms apartment building where the Rossmore's live in New York. Both Alan and Beverly are persuaded to help Freddie investigate the suspects.

Purl wears spectales and her hair in a frizzy style, and a form fitting yellow dress where she attempts to entice Gunter Muntz, a German transexual. Beverly's antipathy for Freddie is based on his dumping of her best friend, Evelyn (Wendy Crewson), so Purl gets to play snide. She shows some comic skill, given lines like `I said she was my best friend. I didn't say she had any brains', and in response to Freddie having changed his cologne `They must have discontinued jungle passion for men'. Only her scene with Muntz allows Purl to let Beverly have any charm.

The teleplay by Bill Self has Alan a translator for the United Nations so that we expect him to get confused and cause an uproar, the humor includes Muntz' room divided like East and West Germany, a dog eating Chinaman, a Ronald Reagan impersonator, and Anderson asked to perform his range of impressions. There is a funny line by a waiter `Are you Swiss, by any chance? Why yes, how did you know? I noticed your neutral approach to the canopes'.

Director James Frawley's comedy is rarely funny, relying upon a less than slight premise, and the attempt to present Anderson in a starring vehicle falls flat.

Alan is a weak willed translator working at the UN in New York. One day he sees a friend from his past, Freddie, but "Freddie" admits that he is actually a CIA agent who has had surgery to look like Freddie in order to go unnoticed staying with Alan and his wife Evelyn. Evelyn doesn't buy any of it though and just sees it as Freddie up to his usual tricks. Alan though, agrees to held Freddie to uncover a plot to assassinate President Regan by seeking out the identity of a deadly assassin living in Alan's block.

Any film that opens with a "wacky" cartoon immediately worries me because of who it thinks it is aiming at. This isn't a problem in all cases but with SL&NT, it is indeed a shot across the bows because the rest of it is delivered at the same level. Built on a weak premise throughout the story is mostly silly at best and very much relies on the audience's laughter to get by. Sadly there isn't much of this at all, in fact I think I was only slightly amused by the funniest parts of it. The caper at the core of the film is deeply unfunny but there are a few chuckles along the way with a couple of national stereotypes rattling round in the background.

Without anything to work with the cast are abandoned by director Frawley in a very basic farce of a film. Anderson is annoying throughout and never made me even smile let alone laugh. Begley Jr mugs along beside him without adding much while Crewson does the same. Ticotin will be appreciated by male viewers but only for the obvious reason, not for her performance. The support cast fare no better with a load of weak and unfunny characters.

An unfunny, lazy and weak spy spoof that screams "tvm" from every scene and roundly failed to draw more than the odd chuckle from me.

I seem to recall that this made for television movie got a good review from the annual Leonard Maltin movie guide when it was still around. Watching the movie myself, I have to wonder how anyone could find something positive to say about this. It's not the worst comedy I have every seen - I admit that here and there were a few moments that made me smile slightly. But other from those isolated exception, my facial expression was one of stony tiredness. The main problem with the movie is that it simply isn't all that funny. The pacing is all off; while I was glad that the movie wasn't extremely fast-paced, the energy level here is extremely low, which doesn't exactly grab the viewer. This also extends to the story, which unfolds really slowly and is obviously padded. The cast tries its best, but with the lame script and direction, they can hardly do a thing to improve things (Harry Anderson is pushed to become quite irritating in his scenes.) If you should see a copy of this movie, simply read the title and move on - you'll have experienced the funniest thing about the movie without actually having to watch it.

My boyfriend made me sit through this ridiculous, slap stick, canned movie. The Three Stooges were funnier. Perhaps the script was for senior citizens? Harry Anderson is predictable in every role, and Ed Begley Jr flat. The wife hysterical and the seductress silly. Harry Anderson as a Government agent here to help us alter the history of our Country as Freddie. Why did they make this movie? They actually got paid for this? And there it is on Cable for my boyfriend to watch while I sit in the background trying not to groan, or slit my throat. It could not be over soon enough. And the fact IMDb wants me to write ten lines about it makes the whole thing worse.