Top Secret! (1984)

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1984
Running Times: 88 mins
Length: 2468 metres
Format: Metrocolor     35mm      Super 35
Ratio: 1.85:1
Sound: Dolby

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Paramount Pictures presents a Jon Davison production
In Charge of Production: Eric Rattray
Executive Producers: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Produced by: Jon Davison, Hunt Lowry
Associate Producer: Tom Jacobson
Production Manager: Donald Toms

SCRIPT
Written by: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Martyn Burke

DIRECTION
Directed by: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Assistant Director: Barry Langley
2nd Unit 1st Assistant Director: Gerry Gavigan
2nd Assistant Directors: Jerry Daly, Mike Higgins, Joe Powell

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Christopher Challis
Camera Operator: Freddie Cooper
Focus Puller: Tony Strachan
Gaffer: Joe Finn
Stills: Laurie Ridley
Grip and Lighting Equipment: Lee Lighting Ltd
Panaflex Camera and Lenses: Panavision

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Bernard Gribble
1st Assistant Editor: Michael John Bateman

MUSIC
Music Composed and Conducted by: Maurice Jarre

; John Williams (theme from Jaws); Jay Livingston, Ray Evans (theme from Bonanza)
Songs: Richard Penniman, Dorothy La Bostrie (Tutti Frutti); Phil Pickett (How Silly Can You Get); Mike Moran, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker (Spend the Night With Me); Roy Turk, Lou Handman (Are You Lonesome Tonight?); John Lennon, Paul McCartney (A Hard Day's Night); Paul Hudson (Straighten Out the Rug)
Songs Performed By: Val Kilmer (Tutti Frutti; How Silly Can You Get; Spend the Night With Me; Are You Lonesome Tonight?; Straighten Out the Rug)
Songs Produced By: Mike Moran

SOUND
Sound Recordist: Derek Ball
Boom Operator: Ken Nightingall
Re-Recording Mixer: Gerry Humphreys
Supervising Sound Editor: David Campling
Re-Recorded At: Twickenham Film Studios

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up Supervisor: Stuart Freeborn
Make Up: Kay Freeborn
Hair: Betty Glasow
Costume Designer: Emma Porteus
Wardrobe: Tiny Nicholls
Haberdasher: Helen Roberts

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects Supervisor: Nick Allder
Special Effects Technicians: Joe Fitt, John McGoldrick, Terry Schubert

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Peter Lamont
Art Directors: John Fenner, Michael Lamont
Assistant Art Director: Jim Morahan
Property Master: Brian Payne

MISCELLANEOUS
Choreographer: Gillian Gregory

SPOOF CREDITS
Worst Boy: Adolph Hitler
Habe Roasher: Helen Roberts
The Third Man: Guido Reidy
Focus Loader: Jack Williams
Focus Puller: Tony Strachan
Clapper Loader: John Fletcher
Clapper Puller: Tom Brown
Puller Clapper: Joe Taylor
Clapper Clapper: Edward Davis
Flipper Flapper: Jane Thomas
Hey Diddle Diddle: The Cat And The Fiddle
Foreez: A Jolly Good Fellow
This Space For Rent

LOCATIONS
Locations: Rockingham Castle, Rockingham, Corby, Northamptonshire, England, UK
Studio: Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
Locations Managers: Allan James, Vic Smith

STUNTS
Stunts: Dickey Beer, Doug Robinson

CASTING
Casting: Mary Selway, Lucy Boulting, Susan Arnold (U.S.A.)

CAST
Val Kilmer (Nick Rivers)
Lucy Gutteridge (Hillary Flammond)
Peter Cushing (bookstore proprietor)
Jeremy Kemp (General Streck)
Christopher Villiers (Nigel)
Warren Clarke (Colonel Von Horst)
Michael Gough (Dr Flammond)
Harry Ditson (Du Quois)
Jim Carter (Deja Vu)
Eddie Tagoe (Chocolate Mousse)

Omar Sharif (Cedric)

Tristram Jellinek (Major Crumpler)

Billy J. Mitchell (Martin)
Major Wiley (Porter)
Gertan Klauber (Mayor)
Richard Mayes (Biletnikov)
Vyvyan Lorrayne (Madam Bergerone)
Nancy Abrahams (pregnant woman)
Ian McNeice (blindman)
John Sharp (maitre d')
Michael Burlington (waiter)
Marcus Powell (little German)
Louise Yaffe, Charlotte Zucker, Susan Breslau, Helen Kahan (cafe diners)
Burton Zucker (chef)
Richard Pescud (priest)
John J. Carney (Klaus)
Russell Sommers (student)
Sara Montague (crying girl)
Gerry Paris, David Adams, Geoff Wayne (back-up singers)
Steve Libels, Chas Bryer, Mac McDonald (German soldiers)
Mandy Nunn (young Hillary)
Lee Sheward (young Nigel)
Janos Kurucz (wagon driver)
Sydney Arnold (Albert Potato)
Dimitri Andreas (Latrine)
Michelle Martin, Nicola Wright, Lisa Gruenberg (Pizzahaus girls)
Andrew Hawkins (pilot)
Richard Bonehill (scarecrow)

PLOT SUMMARY

An East European country bent on world domination stages a cultural festival as a distraction from their nefarious plans. But instead of getting Leonard Bernstein as they wanted, their American guest is rock star Nick Rivers who soon gets mixed up with a resistance movement and a damsel on distress whose scientist father has been imprisoned by the authorities.

Another fantastic spoof from the Airplane! (1980) team, this time turning their sights to war movies, spy films, Elvis Presley movies and lots more besides. The jokes are a mixed bag, but for every dud there's a gem and there are one or two classic sight gags - the station pulling away from the train, for example, or Peter Cushing's marvelous cameo. Somewhat lost now between Airplane! and the Naked Gun films, Top Secret! deserves a better reputation than it currently enjoys.

UK
Theatrical Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Laserdisc Distributor: CIC (LVG 2135)

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Laserdisc Distributor: Paramount (LV 1567-WS); Paramount (LV 1567)

Finland
Rating: K-12

Germany
Rating: 12

Norway
Rating: 15

Sweden
Rating: 11

UK
Rating: 15

USA
Rating: PG

1984
June
8: USA - theatrical release

September
14: Sweden - theatrical release
26: France - theatrical release

October
5: Finland - theatrical release
11: Norway - theatrical release

1995
May
9: USA - laserdisc release (Paramount (LV 1567-WS))

2007
February
10: UK - television broadcast (on Paramount Comedy / Paramount Comedy 2)

Movie? What movie?

It's not the first movie about a guy who fell in love with a woman that he met at a restaurant who turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist only to lose her to her childhood lover whom she last saw on a deserted island who then turned out fifteen years later to be the leader of the French Underground.

Top Secret - huippusalaista - Finnish title
Ultra Secreto - Portugese title

SEE ALSO
ET - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Goldfinger (1964)
Jaws (1975)
The Skull (1965)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)

INCLUDES FOOTAGE FROM
Pac-Man (1980)

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
Peter Cushing: A One-Way Ticket to Hollywood (1989)

MAGAZINES

Premiere September 1984 p.17 (France)
review (by Michele Halberstadt)

KEYWORDS

rock stars, submarines, spoofs, railways, trains, prisoners, parachutes, aircraft, rugs, musicians, underwater, tunnels, prisons, vibrators, surfing, spies, nazis, cows, islands, cars, motorcycles, war

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009