The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

"You've read the ad, now see the movie!"

1988 1h 26m EN

👍

7.3

SOLID

★7.3TMDB · 4,711

ComedyCrime

Synopsis

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When the bumbling Lieutenant Frank Drebin investigates events following the shooting of his partner, he stumbles upon an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.

“You've read the ad, now see the movie!”

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Cast

Leslie Nielsen
Frank Drebin
Priscilla Presley
Jane Spencer
Ricardo Montalban
Vincent Ludwig
George Kennedy
Ed Hocken
O. J. Simpson
Nordberg
Susan Beaubian
Mrs. Nordberg
Nancy Marchand
Mayor
Raye Birk
Pahpshmir

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: David Zucker
Writers: David Zucker, Pat Proft, Jim Abrahams
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

86 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $152M — a 12.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

38 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Naked Gun Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by David Zucker, shot by Robert M. Stevens. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Ira Newborn. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Michael Jablow shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Leslie Nielsen and Priscilla Presley and Ricardo Montalban carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

David Zucker directs. Robert M. Stevens behind the camera. Ira Newborn scores. Michael Jablow cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

186 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Grossed $152M — a 12.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
338 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Part of the "The Naked Gun Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by David Zucker, shot by Robert M. Stevens. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Ira Newborn. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Michael Jablow shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Leslie Nielsen and Priscilla Presley and Ricardo Montalban carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "You've read the ad, now see the movie!".
10IMDB entry: tt0095705 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 17 themes, including "assassination", "police", "aquarium", "satire".
12Released under 11 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Robert M. Stevens
Original score: Ira Newborn
Editing: Michael Jablow
Production design: John J. Lloyd
Costume design: Mary E. Vogt
Makeup / hair: Robert Ryan
VFX supervisor: Bruce A. Block
Stunt coordinator: Conrad E. Palmisano
Runtime: 86 min · 1h 26m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $12,000,000
Box office: $152,356,177
Return: 1270% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)

Part of

The Naked Gun Collection

The Naked Gun Collection is a series of hilarious, slapstick comedy films centered around the bumbling police detective, Frank Drebin, played by the iconic Leslie Nielsen. Filled with puns, visual gags, and absurd situations, these films poke fun at the conventions of the crime and detective genre, providing endless laughs and entertainment.

Also by

David Zucker

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Nutshell2019-07-16
★ 10/10
One of the funniest and most politically incorrect movies ever made, and yes it's more than a bit crass... The laughs come rapid-fire and never let up for an instant. Leslie Nielsen is brilliant, and within 15 minutes or so you feel you know Frank Drebin inside and out. The supporting cast is also excellent, notably Ricardo Montalban and Priscilla Presley. There are too many hilarious scenes to even think of listing here, but unless you are easily offended, you are guaranteed a great time with this one. Be sure to seek out the 2 sequels, as well as the ill-fated TV series Police Squad, which inspired this comic masterpiece.
CinemaSerf2022-07-10
★ 7/10
Leslie Nielsen is on great form here as the hapless "Lt. Drebin" charged with the security of Queen Elizabeth on Her Majesty's forthcoming visit to Los Angeles. Unfortunately for him, criminal mastermind "Ludwig" (Ricardo Montalban) has been offered $20 million if he arranges for her assassination. Can "Drebin" and his boss "Hocken" (George Kennedy) thwart this complicated and dastardly plan? Well the Queen has just celebrated her platinum jubilee, so I guess we don't need to dwell on the jeopardy here. What we do have, right from the start, are some fun slapstick scenarios that see our accident prone hero cause chaos and mayhem as he manages to wreck just about every state occasion lined up for their visitor by mayor Nancy Marchand, whilst falling in love with the menacing baddie's girlfriend "Jane" (Priscilla Presley). The dialogue is pithy and entertaining - if at times a little puerile, and both Nielsen and Presley have great timing as this calamitous series of scenarios build to a suitably daft conclusion with an on-form Montalban. Along the way the score and the script manage to parody quite a few other films and that raises a smile too. At times, the humour is a little close to the politically correct bone - smutty, even - so I doubt very much it would ever be made nowadays - but, of it's time, it's actually quite enjoyable.
Filipe Manuel Neto2023-11-22
★ 5/10
Another interesting comedy with Leslie Nielsen. This film is one of those comedies that established the humor of Leslie Nielsen, an actor who would become one of the most relevant in North American comedy in the 80s and 90s. His comic vein may not be to everyone's liking, with the quick succession of jokes and the very recurrent choice of nonsense or “slapstick” humor. However, we have to accept the fact that the film works and achieves the intended effect: to entertain us. The script is overall very weak and focuses on the threat to the life of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, who is traveling to the USA on an official visit. It was strange to see the queen go to a baseball match, which the real monarch would never have done because it is not an activity that serves the interests of international diplomacy. It's nonsense at work. Even stranger was seeing an authentic “axis of evil” (which included at the same table the African dictators Idi Amin and Muhammar Gaddafi, the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the fanatical Iranian theocrat Ayatollah Khomeini and Mr. Gorbachev, last head of the Soviet Union) decide that the most appropriate way to teach Americans a lesson was to kill the British queen. On the other hand, this round table says a lot about what was thought of each of these international leaders at this time, included in a comprehensive group of “terrorists” without any reflection on it. In the midst of all this succession of insanity and idiocy, it is really Nielsem who stands out and deserves applause for, once again, securing a solid leading role and asserting himself as a master in this style of comedy, someone who manages, in some mysterious way, make it less vulgar and cheap. Of course, most of the jokes are weak or tire us out due to non-stop sexual allusions. However, the actor manages to overcome this and show value.