Naked Gun film series
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) tries to uncover a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II, who is on a state visit to the USA. The main suspect is Vincent Ludwig, a rich businessman (Ricardo Montalbán), who uses a hypnotic device to turn others into murderers. As with previous ZAZ spoof comedies, the plot was mostly culled from another—more serious—movie. In this case, it was Telefon wherein people were triggered into assassins via hypnotic phone calls (indeed, dialogue in the post-hypnotic suggestion demonstration scene is copied word-for-word from Telefon).
On the case, Drebin falls in love with Ludwig’s assistant, Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley). She knows nothing about Ludwig’s plot, and after the pair spends the night together, Jane helps with Frank’s investigation.
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991)
Frank discovers that Jane’s new boyfriend, Quentin Hapsburg (Robert Goulet), is involved in an evil plan to kidnap Dr. Albert S. Meinheimer (Richard Griffiths), a scientist whom President George H. W. Bush (John Roarke) has chosen to determine a new national energy policy. Hapsburg plans to kidnap the real Dr. Meinheimer and replace him with a lookalike named Earl Hacker (also portrayed by Griffiths) who will endorse an energy policy according to the dictates of the energy lobby.
Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994)
In the third film of the series, Frank is married to Jane, and he has retired from Police Squad. The film introduces the criminal Rocco Dillon (Fred Ward), who is stuck in prison. He is contacted by someone called Papshmir to be given a target for a bombing. Frank is pulled out of retirement. He goes undercover pretending to be a prisoner named “Nick ‘the Slasher’ McGurk Jr., III” at the jail where Dillon is being held, and they break out of jail. Outside they are escorted by Dillon’s gangster mother (Kathleen Freeman) to his country retreat, where Frank also meets Rocco’s voluptuous moll (Anna Nicole Smith). The gang plots to blow up the Academy Awards. When Jane arrives looking for Frank, she is taken hostage.
Distributed by Paramount Pictures.
