An Appreciation by Jerry Saravia
There are some comedies that make you laugh because of the intrinsic humor derived from its situations. Then there are some movies that offer nothing but belly laughs, the intent being just to poke fun and have fun. There is nothing more uproarious in the 1980's (other than the original "The Naked Gun") where you have an anything-goes comedy meaning, quite literally, anything goes than "Top Secret!" The ZAZ comedy team (Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker) hope that some of the jokes land and many do. It is nonstop joke movie.
Val Kilmer is Nick (his acting debut role), a 50's Elvis singer who is touring East Germany and becomes embroiled in an espionage plot involving French Resistance fighters and Nazis as bad guys! Just what year is this movie is supposed to be set in? Oh, yeah, that's right, who cares? When you have anachronistic references to TV classics like Mary Tyler Moore Show and Bonanza and Montgomery Ward, then it is clear the year is not anyone's concern. Nick tries painting the landscape as he's traveling by train! Another tries to catch a tree train! A Nazi, in one of my favorite forced perspective shots ever, picks up a giant phone receiver! Omar Sharif ends up, sort of alive, inside a crushed car! Nick gets to sing some Elvis tunes, and one by Little Richard! On a marquee, Linda Ronstadt is singing and, with time permitting, Frank Sinatra! An underwater fight takes place within an underwater saloon! And there is one of the most hilarious and craziest dance sequences I've ever seen that has to be seen to be believed!
"Top Secret!" is the kind of crazy, anarchic movie that you can't wait to share with your friends. It is infectious and, though it is not as hilarious as ZAZ's other comedy-spoofs, primarily "The Naked Gun," it is still too damn funny to be ignored. When a movie starts off with a Nazi Germany meeting followed by a "Skeet Surfin" song (obviously parodying The Beach Boys), then you know you are in for a roller-coaster of laughs, puns and absurdity on the level of Mad Magazine. Pure anarchy.
