With Jim Sabatini

Once Upon A Crime

Rated: PG
Reviewed by: Frank and Chris
Release date: March 6, 1992	Released by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.

What better place to set a French farce than in France?

A wealthy woman's lost dachshund cozies up to an out-of-work actor, okayed by Richard Lewis, comedy's king of angst, and a tourist (Sean Young) in Rome. After reading an ad offering a hefty reward for the dog's return, the two head for the woman's villa in Monte Carlo. When they find the woman's dead body in her garage, they run off, leaving one of their suitcases behind.

Besides Young and Lewis, the chief inspector, played by Giancarlo Giannini (Swept Away), has an overabundance of suspicious characters to contend with. The dog, the body and the suitcase are passed around from suspect to suspect. John Candy plays a recovering gambler who's married to rich and beautiful Ornella Muti (Oscar). James Belushi and Cybill Shepherd play a married couple from New Jersey who are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary, and George "the tan man" Hamilton, plays himself, a ladies' man. They make up alibis, incriminate each other and concoct wild stories to confuse the gendarmes.

It's the kind of movie that you're almost embarrassed to say that you like. The characters are boisterous, insulting, conniving and not altogether moral. The acting is hammy, the dialogue silly and there's lots of falling down and hitting one another. But, this mindless fluff was funny, and I laughed. What can I say?