The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)

A series of short, highly irreverent, and often tasteless skits.

Director:

John Landis

Writers:

David Zucker, Jim Abrahams

Stars:

Evan C. Kim, Bong Soo Han, Bill Bixby

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Marilyn Joi	...	Cleopatra Schwartz (segment "Cleopatra Schwartz")
Saul Kahan	...	Schwartz (segment "Cleopatra Schwartz")
David Zucker	...	Man (segment "His New Car") / Technician #2 (segment "Eyewitness News") / Grunwald (segment "Courtroom")
Marcy Goldman	...	Housewife (segment "Household Odors")
Dulcie Jordan	...	Guest #1 (segment "Household Odors")
Gracia Lee	...	Guest #2 (segment "Household Odors")
Sheila Rogers	...	Guest #3 (segment "Household Odors")
Joseph G. Medalis	...	Paul Burmaster (segment "High Adventure") (as Joe Medalis)
Barry Dennen	...	Claude LaMont (segment "High Adventure")
Colin Male	...	Spokesman (segment "Argon") / Voice Overs
Ed Griffith	...	Host (segment "Danger Seekers")
Robert Starr	...	Rex Kramer (segment "Danger Seekers")
Richard Gates	...	Boy (segment "Eyewitness News") (as Rick Gates)
Tara Strohmeier	...	Girl (segment "Eyewitness News") (as Tara Strohmeir)
Neil Thompson	...	Newscaster (segment "Eyewitness News")

Storyline

Madcap spoof, a collection of comedy skits includes the Kung-Fu parody, "A Fistful Of Yen" and "Catholic School Girls In Trouble." Enjoy the future of movie-going with the "Feel-A-Round" theater experience. See a notable and highly respected actor as the clumsiest waiter in motion picture history. Watch such character as Cleopatra Schwartz and Big Jim Slade tickle your funny bone until it has to be removed surgically!

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Plot Keywords:

sex scene | large breasts | female nudity | kissing breasts | two in a shower | 

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Taglines:

This movie is totally out of control!

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Korean

Release Date:

4 November 1978 (Japan)

Also Known As:

A Fistful of Yen

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$650,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$15,000,000, 31 December 1977

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$5,000,000, 31 December 1978

Company Credits

Production Co:

KFM Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first of a mini-cycle of movies with fast food titles, the others of which mostly got released during the 1980s. The films include Meatballs (1979), Fast Food (1989), Mystic Pizza (1988), Hamburger: The Motion Picture (1986), and Hot Dog... The Movie (1984).

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Goofs

When Paul Burmaster interviews Claude Lamont, the gag is that the roving boom mic picks up sounds that it otherwise wouldn't (heart beats and the like). But while the moving mic picks up these other noises, the voice levels of the actors do not vary. We know that within the sketch they are not otherwise miked because when the mic goes into the water pitcher their voices gurgle.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Newscaster: The popcorn you are eating has been pissed in. Film at eleven.

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Crazy Credits

Before the credits start, there is a short bit with the TV anchorman saying "The popcorn you're eating has been pissed in, film at eleven". For the TV version, this is replaced with "I'm not wearing any pants, film at 11"

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Alternate Versions

A version aired on Comedy Central (and perhaps on other channels) features a small variety of edits:

• The 'Cleopatra Schwartz' sequence is censored heavily for language and nudity
• During the closing sequence (where the teenagers are having sex on the couch, and the news crew is watching), the camera zoom is altered several times so that nothing but the teens' faces show. The zooms are awkward, and blatantly added.
• The entirety of the 'Catholic School Girls In Trouble' scene is missing. It is listed in the credits, however.

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Connections

Featured in Nostalgia Critic: Batman and Robin (2008)

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Soundtracks

Sergeant X2
(uncredited)
Music by Ralph Dollimore
KPM Music Ltd

User Reviews

The DVD of "Kentucky Fried Movie" Outshines "Airplane!"

In our millenial DVD culture, we demand plenty of extras and insights. "Kentucky Fried Movie," the little movie that could, delivers it. Regrettably, its successor "Airplane!" didn't. Both movies were made by the famous comedy moviemakers David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, best known as ZAZ. "Kentucky Fried Movie," or KFM as it is known, was directed by John Landis, who went to big projects as "Animal House" and "The Blues Brothers." As a small movie, KFM would pave the way for the filmmakers successes. But in DVD terms, KFM did a much better job than "Airplane!" with extras aplenty. "Airplane!" only had a trailer and ZAZ's mediocre commentary track, which ZAZ did much better in KFM. As for KFM's extras, they included a hilarious 8-minute home movie which ZAZ proved to their relatives they were making a real movie in Hollywood, a clear-cut photo gallery, bios of ZAZ and John Landis, and the best commentary track they have done so far.

As for KFM, what makes this small movie so special? Although much of the movie is done tastelessly, it is fun tastelessness that everyone in it is enjoying it. There is a lot of nudity and foul language, but it had it's heart in the right place. And as for the cast, there are mostly unknown actors, and many of them are quite attractive and talented, with cameos by more famous actors such as the late Bill Bixby in a headache sketch, Donald Sutherland as a clumsy waiter in a sketch spoofing disaster movies, and "Leave it to Beaver" stars Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow kidding themselves as bickering brother jurors in the courtroom sketch.

This movie, I think, is the best spoof of pop culture I've ever seen, outdoing its predecessor "The Groove Tube," made 3years earlier than KFM and featuring bits by a then-unknown and pre-Saturday Night Live Chevy Chase. One of my favorite skits are "A.M. Today" with a gorilla rampaging the studio, scaring off everyone, while a calm anchorwoman (played by the lovely little-known actress Janice Kent)continues her duties of reporting the news. Another favorite is"Sex Records," with a black couple being instructed on lovemaking by a record until the woman is whisked away by a black muscleman, Yet another favorite is "Feel-A-Round," where a theatre usher listens to the dialogue of a movie, gets out his props to feel a movie goer, even scaring him with a knife when the actress announces she'll cut up her lover with a knife. Then there is the final skit where a newsman from TV has the power to peer into the living room of a young couple having sex, and his crew (well-played by ZAZ themselves) leer on. But the best sketch of all is "A Fistful of Yen," a 17-minute takeoff of Bruce Lee Movies featuring a lisping Karate champ fighting against the master despot Dr. Klahn, who wants to take over the world, and ends with the Hero in Dorothy drag spoofing "The Wizard of Oz."

If you like your DVDs, and of a low-budget movie, KFM delivers the goods. Hopefully, there will be a special edition of "Airplane!" in the future for fans of that movie who were disappointed in the DVD treatment of that great classic , but let's not hold our breaths. But for ZAZ fans, KFM was the best DVD work they have done so far, and it's a special edition in its own right, outshining and outselling "Airplane!" by a substantial margin.