Hanky Panky (1982) Online
Michael Jordon, a Chicago architect, is New York on business. A beautiful stranger identifying herself as Janet Dunn, runs into the taxi cab he's using. He volunteers to put a package into the mailbox for her after she hastily addresses the envelope. Infatuated with her goes to see her at her hotel. She brushes him off and closes the door in his face. He is about to leave when he hears a shot. Janet opens the door and falls into his arms dead. Now everyone believes that he's the killer. A mysterious group that's after the package is now after him. His only ally is Kate Hellman, who has secrets of her own. To clear his name they have to find out what was in the package, who wants it and why.
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
 | Gene Wilder | - | Michael Jordon |
 | Gilda Radner | - | Kate Hellman |
 | Kathleen Quinlan | - | Janet Dunn |
 | Richard Widmark | - | Ransom |
 | Robert Prosky | - | Hiram Calder |
 | Josef Sommer | - | Adrian Pruitt |
 | Johnny Sekka | - | Lacey |
 | Jay O. Sanders | - | Katz |
 | Sam Gray | - | Dr. John Wolff |
 | Larry Bryggman | - | Stacy |
 | Pat Corley | - | Pilot |
 | Johnny Brown | - | Bus Driver |
| Bill Beutel | - | Anchorman |
| Nat Habib | - | Cab Driver |
 | James Tolkan | - | Conferee |
According to Gene Wilder's autobiography "Kiss Me Like A Stranger" (2005), this was the picture in which he and Gilda Radner (who was married to G.E. Smith at the time) met. The two, who would later marry, quickly became friends.
The characters Kate Hellman and Michael Jordon in this movie were played by Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder respectively. In real life, Radner, who was already married, and Wilder fell in love, and later Radner divorced her husband and married Wilder.
This was to be another Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor star teaming, but according to dvdverdict.com, for some reason, Pryor backed out, and his part was re-written to be a female, and it went to Gilda Radner.
Some "hanky panky" occurred during the creation of this picture's marketing materials. On an alternate movie poster, Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner are seen flying a helicopter in a chase sequence involving another copter. No such scene exists in the movie. A helicopter and the Grand Canyon are seen in the movie, but Wilder and Radner fly through the Grand Canyon in a light aircraft flown by a pilot, but there is no helicopter chase sequence. As such, the tagline shown on this poster, "something funny's going on here" rings true for this poster's truth-in-advertising.
A financial disaster at the box-office, Gene Wilder said it was one of the worst movies, in which he had ever starred.
One of five movies in which Gene Wilder played a man wrongly accused of committing a crime. The others being Silver Streak (1976), The Frisco Kid (1979), Stir Crazy (1980), and Ei kuule, ei näe (1989).
First of three cinema movie collaborations between husband-and-wife comedy team Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder, though they were not married when making this movie. Their two subsequent films together were The Woman in Red (1984) and Haunted Honeymoon (1986).
This movie re-teamed Gene Wilder with Director Sidney Poitier for their final collaboration. The two had previously made Stir Crazy (1980) together with Richard Pryor, who was originally going to co-star in this film.
The "f" word is used at least once in this film, which was significant at the time, as the movie was rated PG in some territories such as the U.S. and Australia, and a 12 rating in West Germany, and something which was starting to set a precedent around this time. Territories which censorship classified the movie with a "14", "15", or "16" rating included Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the United Kingdom, where this film received an "AA" (or "15") rating. The picture was originally rated R by the MPAA (the Motion Picture Association of America) in the U.S. but upon appeal to the Classification and Rating Appeals Board by Columbia Pictures, the movie was re-rated and re-classified "PG".
Director Sidney Poitier, a stickler for realism, said of this movie's location shooting: "We had to film on-location. There is only one New York and one Boston. Each city has a character of its own which was essential to the film. You just can't fake it."
Final cinema movie collaboration of Sidney Poitier and Richard Widmark. Of this quartet of films, this was the only one where Poitier directed Widmark, the pair having co-starred in the first three films: No Way Out (1950), The Long Ships (1964), and The Bedford Incident (1965).
This movie's MacGuffin were top-secret computer tapes.
Some scenes were shot in the exclusive Knickerbocker Club in New York City, which was originally chartered in 1871. This was the first time a film had been granted permission to shoot there.
In New Salem, New York, a fully restored farmhouse built in 1798 was used as a filming location.
The picture was filmed across three American states: Arizona, New York, and Massachusetts.
The October 28, 1981 edition of "Daily Variety" reported that Gilda Radner had turned down opportunities to work with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, which was likely for a part in Neighbors (1981), in order to do Hanky Panky (1982).
Around three hundred Massachusettes locals including post office workers and fishing boat crew, according to the September 16, 1981 edition of "Variety", worked as extras for filming in the cities of Boston and Cambridge from August 24, 1981 to August 29, 1981.
The Massachusetts Film Bureau reported on June 9, 1982, that scenes filmed at the Central Wharf waterfront and New England Aquarium in Boston utilized live sharks and tons of fish.
Principal photography ran for about seventy-five days.
In Arizona, desert sites were chosen in and around Tucson, with key action shots taking place at various points along the Grand Canyon.
Many movie posters for the film featured a long blurb that read: "When you're wanted for a murder you didn't commit, Chased for secrets you didn't steal, And running from people who want to kill you, The worst mistake you can make is falling in love...Meet Michael Jordon. And his mistake. HANKY PANKY. Something funny's going on here."
The characters of Robert Hellman and hypnotherapist Dr. Peter Nowak were not billed in the movie's credits at all. The name of Gilda Radner's character is Kate Hellman, and the name of the film's Art Director was Christopher Nowak.
Final cinema movie collaboration of Gene Wilder and Producer Martin Ransohoff, who had previously collaborated on Silver Streak (1976).
The movie appears to have been first announced around the time of the July 31, 1979 edition of "The Hollywood Reporter" which reported Producer Martin Ransohoff had started pre-production on this movie, which was then known at that time by the working title of "Traces".
The movie was originally rated R by the MPAA (the Motion Picture Association of America) in the U.S., but upon appeal to the Classification and Rating Appeals Board by Columbia Pictures, the movie was re-rated and re-classified "PG".
According to the February 17, 1981 edition of "The Hollywood Reporter", Richard Pryor, who had co-starred with Gene Wilder in Silver Streak (1976) and Stir Crazy (1980) had "not been asked to join" the production of this movie, which was at the time still known under its working title of "Traces".
The movie's current title was announced by "The Hollywood Reporter" in their October 5, 1981 edition. The picture had been previously known by its working title of "Traces".
The movie was described as the sequel to Stir Crazy (1980) in the February 24, 1981 edition of "The Hollywood Reporter".
The February 24, 1981 edition of "The Hollywood Reporter" stated that Larry Cohen was re-writing the screenplay, but Cohen received no billing in the final film's credits.
The December 16, 1980 edition of "The Hollywood Reporter" announced that this movie would reunite Gene Wilder and Producer Martin Ransohoff, who had collaborated on Silver Streak (1976).
The December 22, 1980 edition of "Daily Variety" reported that this movie would, following the box-office success of Stir Crazy (1980), re-team Gene Wilder and Sidney Poitier, with an anticipated production start date of Spring 1981. In the end, principal photography started earlier, on July 24, 1981 prior to its last scheduled commencement time of August 1981.
The nickname of Dr. John Wolff (Sam Gray) was "Jake".
The names of intelligence agencies featured in the film included the C.I.A. and the U.S. National Security Directory.
The person, to whom Janet Dunn (Kathleen Quinlan) addressed the package, in the taxi cab, was "Terrance Martin".
Richard Widmark and Kathleen Quinlan appeared in Blackout (1985).
Debut produced screenplay for a cinema movie of television Writer David Taylor, who co-wrote the script with Henry Rosenbaum.
This movie's promotional material, such as movie posters formed the bottom torso of a man and woman out of its title logo. A man's legs and trousers were formed out of the capital "H" in the word "Hanky", and a skirt and pair of ladies' legs were formed out of the bottom part of the letter "K" in the word "Panky".
Debut theatrical feature film of Beau Starr.
The film's closing credits thank the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service for "making possible the aerial photography in Grand Canyon National Park." Also, thanks also went to the Motion Picture Development Office of the State of Arizona and the Tucson Film Commission for their assistance and co-operation during the movie's location filming in Tucson, Arizona.
Gene Wilder's character Michael Jordon had the same name as famous basketballer Michael Jordan, but spelled slightly different, though some media ironically have erroneously spelled Wilder's character's last name as "Jordan".
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