Review of The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) by Stuart K — 16 Jan 2012

From the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker partnership, who were at the top of their game in the 1980's, comes this big screen version of their sadly short-lived TV series Police Squad!, which was a work of genius.

6 years after it ended, they made the big screen version of it, and the result is one of the funniest films of the 1980's with it's star at his deadpan best. Lieutenant Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) is a bumbling officer, part of Police Squad, a division of the Los Angeles Police Department, who is investigating the attempted murder of his old partner Nordberg (O.

J. Simpson), who unsuccessfully tried to bust a heroin smuggling ring, and it leads him to rich industrialist Vincent Ludwig (Ricardo Montalban), who Drebin discovers has been paid $20 million to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II (Jeannette Charles), who is coming over to visit Los Angeles to visit.

Meanwhile, Frank falls for Ludwig's assistant Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley), and now it's up to Frank and partner Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) to put a stop to Ludwig's plan, but Frank has got into alot of trouble along the way.

This is one of the funniest films of the 1980's, with a gag rate that comes along fast and furious, if one doesn't work, there'll be another gag along that will work, but most of them do work ("Nice Beaver!!"), and the scenes with what happens to the Queen at the dinner reception and on the ledge with the "concrete dildo" are absolutely priceless.