Casey Chong looks at the best spoof movies from the late, great Leslie Nielsen…
The late Leslie Nielsen was one of a kind, whose comedy repertoire remains the greatest achievement of his decades-long acting career. It’s hard to believe the star famous for his deadpan comedy style was originally a dramatic actor. You might remember him playing the captain in The Poseidon Adventure or the school principal in Prom Night, neither of which suggested he would later re-establish his career as a comedian. With the long-awaited legacy sequel The Naked Gun starring Liam Neeson as Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. (yup, he’s playing Nielsen’s Drebin’s son) arriving this summer, let’s take a trip down memory lane as we list seven of the best Leslie Nielsen spoof movies…
Airplane! (1980)
The 1980s marked a turning point for Leslie Nielsen, whose career had previously leaned toward dramatic roles. It wasn’t until the arrival of Airplane!, a spoof movie of the disaster genre, that follows most of the flight crew and a few passengers suffer from food poisoning after eating fish mid-flight. Among the affected ones are the pilots, leaving Otto, the human-sized inflated dummy autopilot, in charge of flying the plane. Not that “he’s” capable of landing the plane, and the only hope is a PTSD-inflicted former fighter pilot, Ted Striker (Robert Hays), to fly the aircraft.
Nielsen, who shows up after half an hour as one of the passengers, Dr. Rumack, significantly levels up this hilarious parody with his knack for deadpan comedy. He maintains a straight face throughout the movie and he is even given some of the best lines, notably “I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley.” Nielsen may have been a supporting actor in Airplane!, and yet it’s hard to ignore how important his presence is in turning this parody into one of the funniest movies ever made. The directing trio – Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker – has a field day parodying movies from Jaws to Saturday Night Fever, From Here to Eternity and of course, Zero Hour!, where the latter serves as the main inspiration for their movie.
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
Inspired by the 1982 TV show Police Squad!, The Naked Gun cemented Leslie Nielsen as the master of deadpan comedy, with the actor reprising his role as Frank Drebin, a detective working for a special unit of the Los Angeles Police Department. Directed by David Zucker, the jokes fly thick and fast right from the get-go, where Frank goes undercover in Beirut and single-handedly takes down the foreign enemies (among them include Yasser Arafat and Mikhail Gorbachev).
Nielsen’s trademark deadpan-comedy appearance is on point. Whether he’s bribing a dockman for information or taking a long piss in the bathroom without realizing his microphone is still connected, Nielsen’s Frank Drebin is the reason The Naked Gun is such a hit. His best moments come from the third act as he impersonates an Italian opera singer and later, an umpire during a baseball game. David Zucker is at the top of his game here, where he deftly combines the serious with the straight-faced and slapstick comedies while throwing in enough verbal puns (“Nice beaver!”) for good measure.
The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear (1991)
Although The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear doesn’t reach the same creative heights as its funnier predecessor, David Zucker’s 1991 sequel still retains most of the comedic hijinks with all the usual slapsticks and puns that define the franchise.
Likewise, Niesen is the reason that holds everything together as the oblivious and accident-prone Frank Drebin. He sure knows how to make an entrance – both literally and figuratively – during the opening scene at the White House reception. He is also backed by his solid co-stars George Kennedy, Priscilla Presley and O.J. Simpson, the trio returning to their roles from the first movie. The sequel also sees Zucker poking fun at his brother Jerry’s 1990 gargantuan box-office smash, Ghost, during the iconic pottery-wheel romance scene between Nielsen and Presley.
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)
This third and final (for Nielsen, at least) Naked Gun movie may be seen as the weakest entry in the franchise, but even at its “weakest”, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult still reigns supreme with its entertaining barrage of parody-heavy humor from the opening scene – which pokes fun at The Untouchables’ iconic train station shootout – to The Great Escape, The Shawshank Redemption and the unlikeliest one of them all, The Crying Game.
Peter Segal, who replaced David Zucker from the first two movies, does a better-than-expected job for a then-first-time feature director. He keeps the pace brisk and leaves his actors, particularly Leslie Nielsen, who returns for one last time as Frank Drebin, enough room to showcase their comedic talents. Interestingly, the third movie was set to feature Pamela Anderson to play the blonde femme fatale, Tanya Peters, but she forced to back out due to scheduling issues and was replaced by Anna Nicole Smith instead. It would take Anderson over three decades to finally appear in the 2025 legacy sequel opposite Liam Neeson.
Spy Hard (1996)
Spy Hard sees Leslie Nielsen spoofing James Bond under the name of Dick Steele, Agent WD-40, who has all the characteristics of 007, except for one major problem: he’s incompetent and prone to accidents and silly mistakes that echo Nielsen’s signature Frank Drebin role in the Naked Gun trilogy, transplanted here from his cop role to a secret agent character.
The movie runs at an ideally trim 81 minutes with Rick Friedberg, who also co-wrote the screenplay, blasting every imaginable joke as well as slapstick humor and puns to keep the pace alive. No James Bond movie would be complete without the elaborate opening credits filled with the theme song, and the same goes for Spy Hard featuring ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic. The movie also parodies everything from the Mission: Impossible TV series to several Bond films like Goldfinger, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice.
Wrongfully Accused (1998)
Instead of Harrison Ford’s renowned surgeon being charged with a murder he didn’t commit in The Fugitive, Wrongfully Accused features Leslie Nielsen as a world-class violinist Ryan Harrison, who finds himself well, wrongfully accused, of murder. Pat Proft, the seasoned comedy writer behind the likes of Police Academy and the Naked Gun trilogy, made his only directorial effort by using Andrew Davis’ 1993 box-office hit as the basis for Wrongfully Accused.
The movie benefits from a sub-90 minute runtime, allowing Proft to stretch out his genre know-how direction in parodying movies from North by Northwest to Clear and Present Danger, The Usual Suspects and even Braveheart. Wrongfully Accused may have failed to replicate the box-office success seen in Nielsen’s earlier hits, but the movie itself contains enough irreverent fun while Nielsen still has what it takes to pull off his signature deadpan comedy schtick to mostly hilarious results.
Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
The idea of seeing Mel Brooks and Leslie Nielsen teaming up for a comedy is like a dream come true, especially for fans of either of these legendary two talents. Brooks of course is no stranger to comedy, having given us genre classics like Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. Here, he is spoofing the 1937 Bela Lugosi-led classic Dracula, with the movie purposefully shot in an old-school style reminiscent of the Hammer Horror era.
Nielsen plays Count Dracula, combining his signature straight-faced expression and a flair for sight gags that match the weird eccentricities of his character. He also stars alongside Ghostbusters II’s Peter MacNicol, where the latter does a good job playing Dracula’s dim-witted assistant Renfield, who often causes more harm than good. Dracula: Dead and Loving It may have lacked the creative heights seen in Brooks’ earlier comedies but the movie contains enough slapstick and deadpan humor, thanks largely to Nielsen and MacNicol’s funny performances, and Brooks’ knowingly stab at horror classics from Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror to The Fearless Vampire Killers and Horror of Dracula.
What are your favourite Leslie Nielsen spoof movies? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Casey Chong
