Top Secret!

 I first saw Top Secret! when I was twelve years old. That is, of course, the perfect age for this sort of thing to burrow out permanent habitation in your brain (see also: Weird Al Yankovic and MAD magazine). At this point I know it well enough that I don't find it all that funny anymore, even as I appreciate the density of its visual gags and puns and how far it's willing to go to get a laugh. It's become comfort viewing, and that kind of sucks.

 In all of the films written and directed, like this one, by the trio of Jim Abrahams plus brothers Jim and Jerry Zucker, the plot is barely a hook to hang as many jokes as possible. But by spoofing two genres at once - wartime espionage and Elvis Prestley films - the story here is almost schematic, relying more on our familiarity with the tropes in play than on any actual connective tissue to flow from scene to scene.

 And... it doesn't matter. It's always clear (more so than on Airplane! or Naked Gun) that the story takes a distant back seat to any sight gag, non-sequitur, cheesy pun or quick joke that gets within range. The sheer breadth and amount of humour on display is pretty impressive; All of these movies are known for having jokes going on both in the foreground and the background, often at the same time, but I think Top Secret! is probably the one that manages to squeeze in the most -if maybe not the best- gags. I mean, it even manages to sneak a (dumb) joke into its title, what with that exclamation mark.

 The best news is that it's not at all quantity over quality when it comes to its jokes. I mean, sure, there are a lot of groaners in there, but a surprising amount land. There's some real wit on display and a surrealist streak in both incidental gags (where the characters scare off parked bicycles as if they were horses at the hitching rail) and set pieces like the film's most infamous scene (a rendition of The Nutcracker where the dancers twirl around with raging boners).

 Incidentally: the (non-sensical) pun that functions as the raison d'etre for that scene does not translate to Spanish. I spent years thinking it was just another non-sequitur, until I saw it in English.

 

 Even the dumber jokes are often rescued by leaning into their idiocy: You might see the punchline coming after a setup ("Oh, I know a little German!"), but it's still funny when it's delivered with such cheesy verve (a dwarf in lederhosen stands up and starts waving). And there are some true classics in there, like a throwaway gag where our protagonist, crawling through a field, is confronted with a pair of boots; When he looks up, with a raising pedestal shot following his line of sight, he discovers that it's just that - a pair of nazi boots, no nazi wearing them, and he sighs in relief. Amazing.

 Elsewhere you get optical illusions, dumb details that barely count as humour but might still draw an appreciative chuckle (such as a helmet strap that stays on after the soldier takes off the helmet), some fun references, and plain old fashioned slapstick. Seriously, it's quite the spread.

 It's also nice to see a film like this with relatively decent production values. Enough that when a scene calls for an underwater saloon brawl - you know, that old standard - it can deliver in fairly impressive fashion.

  Val Kilmer stars as the Elvis stand-in (his first role) against Lucy Gutteridge, who plays the local resistance member he tries to woo. The film was shot in England (an early Beach Boys spoof, for example, was shot in Cornwall of all places!) and it features a horde of British actors - most notably Peter Cushing in a bit part in one of the film's most elaborate sequences*. Omar Shariff also puts in an extended appearance, and is involved in a really low-brow joke that I remember made my father huff in disapproval. For Shame, Mr. Shariff!

 No one really makes an impression besides Kilmer, who wholly commits to the role and also sings all of the songs in the soundtrack. Everyone else is, like the plot, pretty much just a joke dispensing machine.

 As a grown-up I recognize that both Airplane! and Naked Gun are better, possibly funnier ZAZ movies. But you know what? Fuck that; Top Secret! is still my favorite. Latrine!

*Fun fact: The cast mold taken of Cushing's head for this movie was retrieved thirty-odd years later and used to bring him back as a creepy digital puppet on Rogue One. This would be one of his final (in-person) roles, but not the last - that honour belongs to that weird Biggles movie, which I should really revisit one of these days.