how silly can you get?

Now, we let that madness go and return to childhood. I'm eight years old when Top Secret! arrives in theaters. It's absurdist visuals work for me very well. It's utter ridiculousness still holds up, unlike some other, similar comedies. I did write about Top Secret! in this blog before. But, no return to my childhood, and all the movies that were on regular repeat would be complete without this one.

(In other news, I saw Rampage in the theater today. Not much to say about it but if you want to see it, you will probably enjoy at least some of it. Of note for this blog, though, as I'm sitting through the end credits, a name jumps out. Rick LeFevour. Actually, it turns out it, double checking on IMDb when I got home, to be Rick LeFevour, Jr. (Also a Matt LeFevour listed under stunts for Rampage, but while all three work for Midwest Stunts, I have not confirmed that Matt is related to the Ricks.) Anyway, Rick LeFevour was the stuntman who jumped off the top of the Pennsylvanian Hotel in Groundhog Day. Note: the climax of Rampage takes place in Chicago. The LeFevours are Chicago-are stunt people.)

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Top Secret! plays and I find I can still find some of its craziest bits funny. "What phony dog poo?" "This isn't the Howard Johnson's." The East German National Anthem. HIllary means "she whose bosoms defy gravity" (and I definitely knew what bosoms meant because they used that in Private Eyes back in 1980.

I would figure out some other things from this movie, though...

(And, I only realized after choosing the image for today's blog entry that I used that same image when I wrote about the film before. My observations are repeating.)

So, here's this, too:

An aside that many won't get, Scream for Help may have been on video by the time Top Secret! was in theaters, too.

The bulges in the ballet were amusing back then, of course, but I just noticed just how quickly that old lady sitting next to Nick picks up her opera glasses when the first guy comes dancing onto stage.

And, the mouse that "crashes" when Hillary is looking down at the street below... That is just wrong. But, oh, so funny.

"Let me know if there's any change in his condition." Beat. "He's dead."

 

 

 

 

 

And then I spit a mouthful of Diet Dr. Pepper onto my iPad screen when Dr. Flammond tells Nick, "If they find out you've seen this, your life will be worth less than a truckload of dead rats in a tampon factory." I swear I have never heard that line before, and I'm still laughing after pausing the movie to clean up.

 

 

 

 

 

And later I feel like a fool because I never noticed a glaring mistake this film make (presumably on purpose). (And, I didn't even notice it now; I was browsing trivia and goofs on IMDb.) The film takes place in East Germany but there are still Nazis and there is still a French Resistance.

 

 

 

 

 

Throw in Nigel's experience as the backend of a cow and there was a lot of strange sexual things going on here.

And, when the Germans crash into the pinto, that dummy flying into the air only to come right back down is awesome.

Eight-year-old me definitely enjoyed this more than church or bible class.