Find the Lady

This amiably scattershot British-Canadian Co-production sadly remains one of future comedy icon, John Candy's lesser known features. The chaotically pratfall-laden, proto-Police Academy, bungled kidnapping farce 'Find The Lady' is brought to witheringly noisome life by a remarkably ecclectic cast of entertainingly larger-than-life Thespians: Peter Cook, Mickey Rooney, Lawrence Dane, Alexandra Bastedo, Dick Emery, and a very young, effortlessly likeable, John Candy is a dunderheaded delight as the catastrophically inept, perpetually blundering cop, Kopek!

John Trent's overblown screwball comedy is an energetic, frequently misfiring, palpably unsophisticated 70s celluloid curiosity, and some may well find themselves immune to this gaudy lady's crudely comedic charms, but, to be fair, I sporadically enjoyed all the unrelentingly stupid slapstick shenanigans displayed so giddily herein! Peter Cook is miscast, the splendid, Dick Emery is sadly underused, Alexandra Bastedo is a distractingly beautiful kidnapee, and, frankly, it's all very, VERY silly indeed, but the hyperbolic, slapstick-on-acid finale in the fun house is arguably worth the price of admittance alone! As much as I hate to admit it, Mickey Rooney was a hoot as the anachronistic hood 'Trigger', and charismatic Canadian actor, Richard Monette, glistered no less gaudily than his sequinned bustier as serially quipping drag artiste, Bruce la Rousse.

Before John Candy was really famous, he starred in this rather silly Canadian movie about a series of kidnappings. He plays police officer Kopek, investigating the kidnappings and getting into a bunch of loopy situations along the way. The only other cast member whom I recognized was Mickey Rooney, playing a trigger-happy hit-man named Trigger (although apparently, Peter Cook also starred).

Overall, "Find the Lady" is nothing special, mostly a series of gags, but it's pretty fun, especially the end scene. I guess that you could say that it backs up what Michael Moore always says: Canada is the greatest place on earth.

It's generally the case that putting together a great international cast does not a great movie make. This is borne out by this dire 'comedy' that, on paper, looks like a winner but on screen is tired, dull and yields zero laughs. The comedy element relies on lots of people falling over, especially John Candy, and a script that contains no jokes whatsoever. It's embarrassing to see the likes of Peter Cook walking through the film almost comatose. One would think the producers were trying to cash in on the 'Pink Panther' movies, with many similarities in the style and story, heavy reliance on slapstick humour, and the two bungling detectives. They don't even come close. Perhaps the only interest is to see the bizarre pairing of Mickey Rooney and Dick Emery as the films' gangster villains.

Seeing John Candy on the video cover might give you a sense this movie would be a hilarious comedy, but it isn't the case for this one. This is an early acting appearance for Candy, who plays a bumbling detective named Kopek who, along with partner Broom (Lawrence Dane) tries to solve a complicated kidnapping case involving a businessman's daughter. These two characters reprise their roles from It Seemed Like A Good Idea at the Time, released the previous year, though their screen time was somewhat limited.

The casting is appropriate, though, confusing: Peter Cook, Mickey Rooney, and Dick Emery as the bad guys and plenty of product placement for the Canadian pizza chain Pizza Pizza. There's not too many laugh-out-loud moments in this film, aside from a few instances of physical slapstick, especially the first ten minutes of the film, but it's, at least, watchable.

This is sort-of a sequel to IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME. This one has cops Broom (Lawrence Dane) and about a 25 year old John Candy playing Kopek. They played smaller parts in the previous movie, but here they get their own movie now.

Through the years of film there have been some great bumbling cops like Peter Sellers as Detective Closeau in the PINK PANTHER movies or Lt. Frank Drebin by Leslie Nielsen in the NAKED GUN films. But, this ain't a film of that calibre. This is a real mixed bag, jokes that don't work, a little over-use of physical comedy and sadly only a few laugh-out-loud moments are had.

Broom and Kopek are on the trail of two members of the crime syndicate in Leo (Dick Emery) and Trigger (Mickey Rooney) who are looking to kidnap Victoria (Alexandra Bastedo) the niece of J.K.Lewenhak (Peter Cook) a local businessman. Both Emery and Rooney are actually quite good in their roles, but I did find that Cook had very little to work with really. I wanted to like it, but really may be of interest to only die-hard Candy fans. Filmed in Toronto.