I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

In 1982, Gene Wilder took a break from writing and the director's chair to solely serve as the star of Sidney Poitier's 1982 film Hanky Panky. Pairing with him as a female lead was Gilda Radner. The two first met on the set and love quickly blossomed culminating in a marriage a few years later. It all began on Hanky Panky where the two principles become two people, one wrongly accused of a crime, running from the law together to protect their names and solve a mystery while they're at it. Michael Jordon (Gene Wilder) is an architect visiting New York on business when he jumps into a cab with a distressed woman, Janet Dunn (Kathleen Quinlan). Through flirting and trying to get Janet to have a drink with him, she tells him she is on the run and asks him to put an envelope into a mailbox for him. Michael obliges and unwittingly puts himself in harms way delivering this package. to try to clear things up, Michael travels back to the hotel she was staying in, only to find her in a scuffle with another man. Being filmed on camera at the scuffle with a gun in his hand, he is believed to be the nefarious character she was fighting with. With everyone chasing him despite his innocence, Michael tries to evade, seeking refuge in the apartment he was staying in while in New York. As he is packing his suitcase in the apartment, a woman Kate Hellman (Gilda Radner) comes in, and believing she is a burglar, Michael fights her until the lights are turned on and the two realize neither is a danger. When the police show up at the apartment, Michael has to leave immediately, and Kate decides to come with him to both aid in clearing his name and investigate her brother's death personally. Neither can expect just what they will have to do to get these goals accomplished, but are in it together, as long as it takes. It is almost magical to see a real life romance blossom on-screen. Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner's incredible chemistry is apparent, even if one is only half watching the film. The chemistry is sensational; you can really tell the two are falling in love, and makes Hanky Panky all the more fun to watch. There were also a number of great comedic gags in the film. The scene in which Michael takes over flying a plane is almost as hilarious as the scene in which Michael needs a change of clothes and takes a magic suit and can't find his change on a bus. The comedy was not without its flaws, however. For instance, there is so much going on in the film that not everything gets fleshed out by the film's end. The entire mystery is never solved, or revealed to the audience, so it is a little hard to become too invested in the film. That being so, Hanky Panky is a good Saturday night comedy that you won't regret watching, even if it's only to see Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner fall in love.

Every time I decide to watch this little gem, I'm reminded of how well it was made and how much I like it! Richard Widmark is one of my favorite actors, and he really adds a nice touch of malicious villainy as he pursues Wilder.I agree that the scene in the airplane is one of the funniest.This film could have been directed by Mel Brooks.I remember Gene Wilder from many other wonderful films: Young Frankenstein, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Silver Streak, The Adventure of Sherlock Holme's Smarter Brother, Blazing Saddles, The Producers, and Everything You've Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask.It's very hard to find a copy of "Smarter Brother..." but it's well worth the search.You'll enjoy it very much. You've probably seen the others.

No, I'm not referring to Gene Wilder (extravagantly OTT) and Gilda Radner (in her tentative big screen debut) but to Richard Widmark, whose dour villain Ransom is a long, long way from his laughing killer Tommy Uddo way back in 1947, and director Poitier who played the noble victim of rat-like racist Widmark in Joseph L Mankiewicz's 'No Way Out' in 1950. Widmark was, it is said, troubled by the ferocity of his role but Poitier took it in good part and they acted together again in the daft but entertaining 'The Long Ships' in 1963, and, more rewardingly, in 'The Bedford Incident' in 1965. So, was Poitier doing veteran Widmark a favour by casting him in this so-so comedy, or was Widmark playing a (frankly unworthy) role for old time's sake? Anyway, seeing the film again 26 years on, in the wake of Widmark's death last month, I found myself laughing more than I'd expected (as well as lamenting the early demise of the gorgeous Kathleen Quinlan!).

A mildly engrossing, tepid suspenser that apparently bombed in theaters and drew the ire and castigation of moviegoers - an overreaction if ever there were one. Granted, it will never be taken for a masterpiece - the comic elements of the film consistently fall flat, and the plot is a fourth-rate knockoff of Hitchcock - but it isn't a complete dud either. At least 'Hanky Panky' manages to be consistently engaging as an actioner/thriller (as far as I'm concerned) and it is fun to see Gene Wilder and Richard Widmark sharing screen credit. And it boasts a fun supporting cast: Robert Prosky, James Tolkan, Kathleen Quinlan, the wonderful Josef Sommer (of Lydie Breeze fame), and even a young Larry Pine pop up and keep things hopping. Overall, a passable movie experience - it works as a time-filler if nothing else - but some of the attempts at comedy are pretty pathetic. If the scriptwriters had spiced up the scenario with a bit of wild physical comedy and more amusing situations, they probably could have saved the picture. No, Mr. Poitier - sorry to disappoint you, but watching a helicopter pilot belch for two minutes does not, by any stretch of the imagination, qualify as intrinsically funny.