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NEW YORK POST, MONDAY, JUty

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t988

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I By FRANK TOVECE i IOHN CLEIESE is a trapezold. , I tnrt is, he has four irr'egular : aides. , The most obvious is the manic ,;Brit of "Monty Python" a.nd

GLEESE'S 1ffAilDA' LUST

"Fawlty Towers," who wields :meat cleavers and dead parrots . with equal ease. Another is the dryly brutal pitchman ln TV commercials for Sony, Kronenmaker of lndustrial films.

other companies. -., -b*9, and ts the sober co-Then there ifounder of Video Arts Ltd., a
Ftnally there is the seriocomic star and writer of "A Fish Called W&nda," which opened Friday. In what oldtime Hollywood wrlters would flash as "John Cleese ln his flrst dramatic role!" the 48-year-old comedian proves lhe can act and emote three-dimensionally while find- this, lng himself buck naked in front 1of an astonished famlly, or hang-

ltng upside down from a fifthfloor window, delivering anr

.apolog'y in legalese. In "F'ish," Cleese plays a lone-

ly, married barrister - a British trial attorney - smitten with i con-al'tist/thief Jamie Lee Curitis. (Hig name in the movle, e"!ri-a Leach, is a cinematic inloke: It was Cary Grant's real
,

name.) Animal-loving assassin rMichael Palin and ex-CIA klller Kevin Kline round out the
comedy of Elros. movie, or at least thinking about

"I've been working on

this. the

partner was no less than the legeudary British director Charles Crichton, whose "The Lavender Hill Mob" (1951) is a landmark
of movie comedy. Since the ??-year-old Crichton hadn't directed a fuature ln more than 20 years, preferring the easier load of televlsion a"nd short

delighttully droll though properly proper Cleese. His creatlve

it, on and off since

1983," says

S:IIQUS FUHXYnAtt
them away."

,troh,n Cleese

of *Mantg Python' and'rwu4"A Fish, Called. Wand,a;'

Now York Post: Dovid Rcntql

track them or pan them or throw

Cleese wrote the screenplay in collaboration wtth the stbrs he says he had in mind from the begtnning Kline, and - C\rrtls, former "P5rthon" partner Palin. One other player is even closer home: l?-year-old Cynthia lo Caylgr, playing Archie's daughter Portia, is Cleese's real-life daughter from ex-wlfe Connie Booth, the l'Fawlty Towers" co- ster and co.creator. 'I dldn't want Cynthia sterted in acting wlth the name Cleese," says dad, "because there'd be such expectations. So she's taken her mother's mother'g n&me." He remembers growlng uP aB "an only child, rather solitary, not a particularly good mixer. Then I found I could get laughs saying funny things like my fa.

the last day of shootlngi a^nd he was, how shall we say, still wlth w a"nd looking about 15 years got onto MGM

training fllms for Cleese's company, "I knew," says Cleese matterof-factly, '"that if I went to MGM and said: 'Challie's directing the picture,' they would think'Okay, so what happens lf he dies of old age?'So I satd that I would direct tt wtth Ctrarlie. But once we got to

lustration, "we were driving down a narrow, windlng road, and a ear c&me by very fast -off.' round the corner and hit its

ther used to." "One timer" Cleese says

in ll-

gentleman, no?' "The guy looked at my dad arr then sort of hammphed:'WelL d a matter of fact I am,'and droq
Cleese went on to Cambridge

oWh,et

study law. There, with futun

t4

I il,un:t
JOHNCLEESE

know is where to

Wt

tlrp ca,rnerq,s."
lts horn. The guy

"Moilty" mate Graham Chapma{ he made a splash with the univeq sity's famed Footlights Revt{ Just before going on to Join a fird of solicitors, Cleese was whiske{ away by BBC a.nd has since rg
mained studlously funny.

- than when he started younger

' my credit off."

i

- I and said to ta}e

in-

volvement, sayg Cleese, was eastlngthe main characters "and also hterferihg with the acting. I can do that, because I know about act. lng. What I dont know is where to 'ptt the cameras and whether to

His own only dlrectorlal

ing shouting at my father, who to the rym for a workout. "I'vl sat there calmly, smiling very Itked a lot of it, but I still donl beatifically at him. And at the .have the feeling," he says withorj end of this tlrade, my father said the trace of a punchline, "that f'vt (ln a F'rench accent): Ah! You quite found out what I want to dt must be ze fine old Eeenglish dQ*yllfg.r" .

Jumped out in a frenzy and start.

brakes and

show bustness," says the Renald sa.noe comedlan a few momen{ before taking his 6-foot-b frame ui

"I've ben very amused

b!