A long, long time ago I saw the Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn’s Foul Play in a Virginia movie theater with my sister Jennifer and my cousin Kimberly. To this day I vividly remember the car chase scene over the hills of San Francisco. Chevy had stolen a cab and it turned out there was a Japanese couple in the back. They didn’t speak any English, but Goldie explained they were police, you know, like Kojak. Bang bang. Then the tourists went from scared hostages to thrilled participants. I’ve never seen the movie since that first time, but I can tell you all of those details from that scene.
A cab ride in SF prompted this tweet:
My evening cab ride through SF was insane! Cab left the ground 3 times going over hills and screeched to a stop once. #foulplay
Over on Facebook, my sister sent me the YouTube video for that scene. The first thing I noticed was that they were playing music from The Mikado. Wow! Then they were cutting to scenes of the actual Mikado being performed. It’s where they were racing to, to prevent a murder or something.
I was turned on to The Mikado by an issue of The Question I read in high school. Written by Denny O’Neil and edited by my ComicMix partner Mike Gold. In college I bought the double disc musical and many years later Niki and I saw The Mikado live in New York City.
My object all sublime
I shall achieve in time
To let the punishment fit the crime
The punishment fit the crime.
And make each prisoner pent
Unwillingly represent
A source of innocent merriment
Of innocent merriment!
Brian Alvey 