Hanky Panky (1982)    Columbia/Comedy-Thriller    RT: 110 minutes    Rated PG (language, violence)    Director: Sidney Poitier    Screenplay: Henry Rosenbaum and David Taylor    Music: Tom Scott    Cinematography: Arthur J. Ornitz    Release date: June 4, 1982 (US)    Cast: Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, Kathleen Quinlan, Richard Widmark, Robert Prosky, Josef Sommer, Johnny Sekka, Jay O. Sanders, Sam Gray, Larry Bryggman, Pat Corley, Johnny Brown, James Tolkan.    Box Office: $9.8M (US)

Rating: ** ½

 Here’s an interesting trivia fact, Richard Pryor was supposed to reteam with Gene Wilder and director Sidney Poitier (Stir Crazy) for Hanky Panky, a comedic action-thriller about a mild-mannered architect who finds himself on the run from police and government thugs after being falsely accused of murder. Pryor dropped out, the part was rewritten for a female and Gilda Radner (original SNL player and Wilder’s future wife) signed on. It was both a critical and commercial failure when it played in theaters, but I don’t think it’s all that bad a movie. It’s definitely NOT a great movie by any means, but it’s not too bad either.

 The main problem with Hanky Panky is that it overstays its welcome and runs out of steam around the time our heroes find themselves in an out-of-control plane over the Grand Canyon. I went to see this with my younger brother at a Sunday afternoon matinee. I wanted to see Poltergeist, but the parental units didn’t want my brother having nightmares because of it, so I settled for Hanky Panky instead. What I remember most about that day is our shock when somebody said the f-word about 20 minutes into the movie. You almost never heard that particular obscenity uttered in a PG movie. It was the second PG movie in a year (the other being Mommie Dearest) in which somebody used the f-word. It turns out that this is acceptable as long as the word is used only once and NOT in a sexual context. At least that’s how it was in ’82. In any event, Hanky Panky gets by on the charm and chemistry of its two leads. The storyline isn’t anything special; it’s best described as “Hitchcock-lite” complete with the MacGuffin plot device.

 Chicago architect Michael Jordan (Wilder, Blazing Saddles) is in New York on business when he jumps into a cab with the wrong woman. Her name is Janet Dunn (Quinlan, Twilight Zone: The Movie) and she clearly has something weighing on her mind. Namely, her life is in danger by unknown persons. Michael nonetheless hits on her and even mails a package for her. A few hours later, a couple of goons abduct him and take him to a mysterious figure (Widmark, Kiss of Death) who demands to know the address on the package. When he can’t remember, they drug him. Michael manages to escape and report the incident to the police who naturally don’t believe him. All evidence of the encounter, including the railway car under Madison Square Garden, has mysteriously vanished.

 Michael confronts Janet at her hotel only moments before somebody kills her. Now an accused murderer, he prepares to leave the city when Kate Hellman (Radner) shows up claiming to be a reporter. She helps him elude the police and get out of the city. They decide to team up and find out why somebody wants to kill him. What was in the package he mailed? It must be something quite important as a few people (including Kate’s brother) have been killed because of it. This is the MacGuffin that I mentioned earlier. It turns out to be a computer tape with sensitive information on it, the kind that the government would rather keep top secret. It’s about here that Wilder and Radner find themselves in the aforementioned pilotless plane and the movie starts running out of gas.

  Wilder and Radner are both quite good in Hanky Panky, maybe better than the material deserves. I wonder if the movie would have worked better as an R-rated Pryor-Wilder vehicle. They did work very together in three of their four collaborations, the exception being the abysmal Another You (1991). However, fate dealt Wilder a good hand by putting him together with Radner in this movie. They would eventually fall in love, marry (September ’84) and make two more movies together (The Woman in Red and Haunted Honeymoon) before she succumbed to ovarian cancer in May ’89.

 Wilder delivers a nicely frantic performance in Hanky Panky as he attempts to elude all those trying to kill him. He has a funny scene on a city bus where his attempts to provide exact change result in an impromptu magic show for the passengers as the suit he’s wearing was stolen from a magician. I’ve always liked Radner, the world suffered a great loss with the death of this truly talented woman. She’s very funny in Hanky Panky. It helps greatly that their off-screen chemistry is evident on-screen as well.

 The movie features a fairly solid supporting cast, especially Widmark as the scary bad guy. Director Poitier handles the material adeptly, but like most comedies, not all of it works. If only he had managed to maintain a more consistent tone, especially in the final third of the movie. In terms of suspense, Hanky Panky doesn’t really deliver the goods. Once it’s revealed what’s in the package (about midway through the movie), the rest of it doesn’t seem to matter all that much. The plot twists don’t come as too much of a surprise, especially if you’re familiar with the conceits of the thriller genre. It does have a couple of mildly exciting action scenes. Like I said, Hanky Panky isn’t all that bad a movie. It’s watchable because of the two leads. It’s a passable time killer, nothing more.