Kevin Kline

Is A Fish Called Wanda still funny?

A restored version of the 1988 heist farce screens at the Berlin Film Festival later this month, and what works has as much to do with the craft of John Cleese and director Charles Crichton as the squashed lapdogs and swallowed fish, says Geoffrey Macnab.

Never a dull moment in Charles Crichton's lovely Ealing-esque comedy. A gallery of rogues includes barrister Archie (ohn Cleese) - who falls for gangster's moll Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) - stooge Michael Palin and, most of all, Kevin Kline as Wanda's psychotic boyfriend, Otto: he wants his jewels back, and he'll eat goldfish to get them.

Modern British farce - anything post-Carry On - is tricky to pull off: witness the dire remake of Run For Your Wife, released in cinemas last month, which quite rightly took less than £700 on its opening weekend. But John Cleese's 1988 heist comedy caper is a multi-award-winning classic. Cleese stars as married uptight barrister Archie Leach (the sort of part Colin Firth would play today) who falls for a sexy jewel thief called Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis). However, it's Kevin Kline's Oscar-winning turn as Wanda's psychotic, armpit-sniffing, Neitzsche-reading 'brother', Otto, who steals the film while Michael Palin puts in adorable comedy support as an animal-loving stutterer called Ken. Simply Wandaful.

This very daft yarn about a British zoo reunites the cast of A Fish Called Wanda - though it is not a sequel - and also stars John Cleese. He plays an eccentric manager who, in the face of being replaced by a US hotshot (Jamie Lee Curtis), decides the zoo should only keep dangerous animals. Kevin Kline co-stars in two roles.