This Hitchcockian comedy-thriller misfire re-united star Gene Wilder with actor-turned-director Poitier after the box-office success of STIR CRAZY (1980; which I should be getting to presently), but it was also the fourth and last collaboration between Poitier and Richard Widmark – the others being NO WAY OUT (1950; Poitier's debut), the similarly maligned THE LONG SHIPS (1963) and the superb THE BEDFORD INCIDENT (1965; produced by Widmark). Incidentally, HANKY PANKY was intended as a follow-up to SILVER STREAK (1976) and STIR CRAZY itself as yet another teaming of Wilder with Richard Pryor – but the latter's role eventually got turned into a female character and played by Gilda Radner (from TV's "Saturday Night Live"). The two stars would then fall in love and marry but, alas, the relationship was not long-lasting as Radner would die within 5 years! Anyway, while HANKY PANKY is hardly terrible, it is far from a classic either: the thrills are largely mechanical (leading predictably to violence, a case of mistaken identity for the bewildered hero, and elaborate action for the denouement) and the laughs – the genuine ones, that is – too few (mostly, it is Wilder doing his idiosyncratic hysterical shtick). Radner herself, to say nothing of Widmark (albeit still effortlessly intimidating at 68), is somewhat underused; notable supporting roles, then, are played by Kathleen Quinlan and Robert Prosky as Intelligence operatives – respectively pursued by and pursuing Widmark and his henchmen.
Review of Hanky Panky
