Review: "THE NAKED GUN: From the Files of Police Squad!" is Still Comedy Gold

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 33 of 2025 (No. 2039) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)

Running time:  85 minutes (1 hour, 25 minutes)

MPAA – PG-13

DIRECTOR:  David Zucker

WRITERS:  Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker & Pat Proft

PRODUCER:  Robert K. Weiss

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Robert M. Stevens (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Michael Jablow

COMPOSER:  Ira Newborn

COMEDY/CRIME

Starring:  Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, O.J. Simpson, Ricardo Montalban, George Kennedy, Susan Beaubian, Nancy Marchand, Raye Birk, Jeannette Charles, Tiny Ron, “Weird Al” Yankovic, and Reggie Jackson

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! is a 1988 American crime comedy film from director David Zucker.  The film is also known simply as The Naked Gun (the title I will use for most of this review).  It is a continuation of the short-lived ABC sitcom, “Police Squad!” (1982), which was created by the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker, the comedy filmmaking trio known as “ZAZ.”  The Naked Gun the movie focuses on the sitcom's lead character, the bumbling and incompetent police lieutenant, Frank Drebin, as he attempts to foil an assassination plot against Queen Elizabeth II.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! reintroduces Lieutenant Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), a member of “Police Squad,” a special division within the Los Angeles Police Department.  Frank returns from a mission in Beirut to hear some bad news from Police Squad Captain Ed Hocken (George Kennedy).  Drebin's best friend and Police Squad colleague, Detective Nordberg (O.J. Simpson), is in a coma after his attempt to bust a heroin operation turned disastrous.

Drebin's investigation of what happened to Nordberg brings Vincent Ludwig (Ricardo Montalban), a highly-successful businessman, to his attention.  Drebin soon learns that Ludwig may be involved in a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II (Jeannette Charles) during her visit to Los Angeles, one of the three stops on her American tour.  Drebin's investigation is complicated by the fact that he falls in love with Ludwig's assistant, Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley).  Can Drebin save the Queen, or will his bumbling and incompetence lead to an international scandal?

I first saw The Naked Gun in the old Bon Marche Cinema 11 at the Bon Marche Mall in Baton Rouge, Louisiana during a midnight showing.  I went with some friends, and we laughed until we cried, doubled-over, chocked, and coughed.  Since that first time, I think that I have only seen the film in its entirety once, and that was well over thirty years ago.  Paramount Pictures just released a “legacy sequel,” also entitled The Naked Gun, from director Akiva Schaffer and producer Seth MacFarlane (“Family Guy”), with actor Liam Neeson playing “Lt. Frank Drebin, Jr.”  So I decided to give the 1988 film another watch, and I found myself laughing out loud again from start to finish.

The fast-paced slapstick comedy has not slowed with age; in fact, The Naked Gun has not aged, at least to me.  It doesn't feel like an “old movie,” and the visual and verbal puns and sight gags are as sharp as ever.  The team of Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, and their frequent collaborator, Pat Proft, deliver a film full of gags that are shamelessly unapologetic, goofy, brilliant, and truly hilarious.  As the film's director, David Zucker, does superb work, but it is clear that his film editor, Michael Jablow, also does some fantastic work here.

The Naked Gun also has a great cast with Leslie Nielsen as the center of this comic force of nature.  Nielsen reinvented himself as the star of parodies and satires during the last three decades of his prolific Hollywood career.  As Lt. Frank Drebin, he made The Naked Gun the crowning achievement of his career as comic lead.  Priscilla Presley is excellent in her turn as the dry and droll Jane, and George Kennedy is smooth as a kind of straight policeman to Nielsen's Drebin.  Every chance he had in his career, actor Ricardo Montalban showed his range, as he does here as the delightful villain, Vincent Ludwig.  Even future killer, O.J. Simpson, makes the most of his small role here, six years before the world would look at him differently.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! is one of the greatest American film comedies of the last quarter of the 20th century.  I hope this new film encourages audiences to see The Naked Gun for the first time or to see it again for the first time in a long time.  The original will make your laughter laugh. 

8 of 10

A

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Friday, August 1, 2025

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