Foul Play

FOUL PLAY is a funny, successful, and very derivative crime-comedy that grossed about $30 million first time around. Higgins, who wrote and directed it, should have included Hitchcock's name in the credits, as the plot pivots on a twist from THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. Roberts, Roche, Lawrence, et al. want to end the exclusion of religious properties from taxation. To make their point they intend to murder the Pope, who is visiting San Francisco and will be attending a performance of "The Mikado" at the opera house. At the right musical moment, the whacky group plans to shoot him. Hawn, in her best performance to that time, picks up Solomon on the road. He posesses ...