The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) on Netflix
Twenty-six sketches parody commercials, newscasts and exploitation films, among them a kung fu feature with Loo and Dr. Klahn, a blaxploitation trailer and a prison picture.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.4/1021,877 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes81%
Trailer
Plot summary
Short sketches follow one another with no connecting story, sending up television commercials, newscasts, public service announcements and exploitation pictures. Fake trailers advertise invented movies, among them Cleopatra Schwartz, a blaxploitation parody, and Catholic High School Girls in Trouble, a women-in-prison parody. The longest segment, A Fistful of Yen, is a martial arts satire modeled on early kung fu pictures and built around Loo and the villain Dr. Klahn, who orders a captive CIA agent sent to Detroit. Another sketch mocks theater gimmicks through Feel-a-Round, in which an usher handles a patron. Detroit, pictured as a city of high crime, runs as a gag.
Cast
- Saul Kahanas Schwartz (segment "Cleopatra Schwartz")
- Dulcie Jordanas Guest #1 (segment "Household Odors")
- Gracia Leeas Guest #2 (segment "Household Odors")
- Sheila Rogersas Guest #3 (segment "Household Odors")
Show all 20 cast
- Colin Maleas Spokesman (segment "Argon") / Voice Overs
- Ed Griffithas Host (segment "Danger Seekers")
- Neil Thompsonas Newscaster (segment "Eyewitness News")
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- David Letterman auditioned for the role of the newscaster in The Kentucky Fried Movie but was not selected, according to writer David Zucker, who described the audition on the DVD commentary track.
- Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow were both approached to reprise their roles as Beaver and Wally Cleaver for the film's Courtroom segment. Talks with Mathers fell through, so writer David Zucker played Beaver instead.
- Exhibitor Kim Jorgensen was persuaded to screen Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker's short before one of his regular films; he fell out of his seat laughing, and then got fellow exhibitors to put up the $650,000 budget for the feature.
- Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker were so keen to shoot their short film that they paid for it themselves. The 10-minute excerpt cost $35,000, and they used it to approach Hollywood studios again.
- Because of the film's low budget and the many different sets needed, many sets were built outdoors without ceilings so they could be lit naturally by sunlight, reducing the need to build and maintain lighting equipment.
- John Landis was recommended to direct National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978 on the strength of his work on The Kentucky Fried Movie.
- The film launched the careers of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, who went on to write and direct Airplane!, Top Secret! and the Police Squad! television series and its Naked Gun films.
