Top Secret!
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| Top Secret! | |
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 Top Secret! film poster |
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| Directed by | Jim Abrahams David Zucker Jerry Zucker |
| Produced by | Jon Davison Hunt Lowry |
| Written by | Jim Abrahams David Zucker Jerry Zucker Martyn Burke |
| Starring | Val Kilmer Lucy Gutteridge Omar Sharif Peter Cushing Michael Gough Jeremy Kemp |
| Music by | Maurice Jarre John Williams |
| Cinematography | Christopher Challis |
| Editing by | Francoise Bonnot Bernard Gribble |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 22, 1984[1] |
| Running time | 90 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Top Secret! is a 1984 comedy directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker. It stars Val Kilmer in his first feature film, Lucy Gutteridge, Omar Sharif, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough and Jeremy Kemp. The film is a parody of World War II films and Elvis films. The original music score is composed by Maurice Jarre. The film is marketed with the tagline Movie? What movie?
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[edit] Plot summary
The film tells the story of Nick Rivers (Kilmer), an American pop singer (whose songs sound suspiciously like those of Elvis Presley and The Beach Boys), who goes to East Germany to perform in a cultural festival. (Curiously, East Germany still seems to be controlled by Nazis and under attack by the French Resistance.) Whilst there, he becomes involved in a resistance movement, and helps the beautiful Hillary Flammond (Gutteridge) rescue her father (Gough), a brilliant scientist being held by the Germans and forced to build the deadly Polaris Mine.
The film also features short performances by Omar Sharif as Agent Cedric, and Peter Cushing as a Swedish bookstore proprietor, in a scene filmed completely in reverse.
[edit] Notable gags
- The East German guards' vehicle is forced to brake sharply upon seeing a car stopped ahead of it. It just touches the car--a Ford Pinto--which of course explodes violently.
- Nick and Nigel have an underwater fight scene, including an underwater Wild West Saloon.
- Hillary Flammond says she can help Nick as she knows "a little German" before pointing to a short man across the room.
- Peter Cushing's character is shown with a magnifying glass up to his eye. When he lowers the glass, the eye remains the same size.
[edit] Production notes
- Most of the "German" spoken in the film is actually Yiddish. Some of the "Latin" spoken is pig latin.
- According to the end credits, all songs performed by Nick in the movie were actually sung by Val Kilmer.
- This was Val Kilmer's first major film.
- Michael Gough later played Alfred and Val Kilmer played Batman in Batman Forever.
