Naked Gun, The: From the Files of Police Squad! (DVD)

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Meanwhile, another of Drebin's colleagues in crime-busting, the equally inept Nordberg (Simpson), gets himself subjected to endless physical abuse at the hands of the bad guys (you may be cheering this today), winding up in the hospital where he remains for the rest of the picture continuing to endure Drebin's mistreatment (Drebin manages successfully to rebreak both of Nordberg's arms).

Then Drebin meets the love of his life, or at least the love of his next few movies, Jane Spencer, played by Priscilla Presley with an appropriately empty-headed serenity and a clumsiness to match Drebin's own. They're a perfect pair. Together, they are also too much for the villains, who turn out to be more than just drug smugglers but killers planning to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. The story winds up at a professional baseball game where the Queen is to make an appearance. The villains intend to shoot her during the seventh-inning stretch by using a person under sensory-induced hypnosis. Nielsen's sidesplitting singing of the national anthem at home plate is worth the price of the whole picture.

The sequels to "The Naked Gun" never quite captured the spirit of the original, perhaps because the filmmakers recycled so many of the gags, so it's nice to have original on hand, even if the studio hasn't added anything new to the package. The opening gambit during the credits, for instance, involving a police car seen from the driver's perspective motoring through highways, byways, buildings, living rooms, bath stalls, etc., is mildly amusing, and the rest of the film often gets laugh-out-loud funny, tears-to-the-eyes comical, sometimes fall-down-on-the-floor hysterical. We see echoes of "Airplane!" in it, for sure, and more often than not reflections of "MAD" magazine. Indeed, the whole movie plays out like one of those old Jack Davis cartoons so crammed full of business you have to look closely at everything in the background to get all the jokes.

Venerable police stories, and many new ones, may not be the same to you after watching "The Naked Gun." Also sprucing up things, look for cameos by "Weird Al" Yankovic, John Houseman, Reggie Jackson, and others, who add to the fun. There's even a lineup of sports announcers: Dick Vitale, Dick Enberg, Jim Palmer, Mel Allen, Curt Gowdy, Tim McCarver, and Dr. Joyce Brothers (?). Wonderful stuff.

Video:
As usual, Paramount's image quality is reasonably good in this 1.85:1 ratio, anamorphic transfer. The colors are bright, sometimes appearing too bright, but appropriate for such a cartoonlike film. The hues are fairly natural, though, with faces maybe a little dark; and there is not much noticeable bleed-through anywhere. Distractions are few, mainly a degree of natural film grain in larger patches of color, especially evident in nighttime shots. Some ticks and flecks remind us that the filmmakers shot the movie several decades ago, and that this is not a fully restored edition. Still and all, the video looks OK.

Audio:
The English soundtrack comes in Dolby Digital 5.1, and it, too, is above average, particularly for its day, just before the widespread use of 5.1 audio. The remixed sound features a broad front-channel stereo spread, while the rear-channels fill in mainly a pleasant musical bloom. Overall, the audio is a little bright and sharp-edged in the loudest passages but generally realistic. As we might expect, the dynamics are not too robust, and the frequency extremes appear limited.

Extras:
The primary (and practically only) bonus item is a group commentary by director David Zucker, producer Robert Weiss, and host Peter Tilden. They laugh and joke and have a high old time telling us about the making of the movie. Then there are twenty-seven scene selections, a widescreen theatrical trailer, English and French spoken languages, English captions for the hearing impaired, and the CD and slipcover I mentioned at the outset.

Parting Thoughts:
"The Naked Gun" may not be the greatest screen comedy of all time nor as innovative as its progenitor, "Airplane!"; nevertheless, it is still a hilarious movie and worthy of purchase by anyone with a funny bone in his body.

"Nice beaver!"

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