Goldie has difficulty convincing the police that people are trying to kill her, but eventually wins over clumsy Chevy Chase, in more ways than one. Also in the Goldie camp is Chase's buddy cop, Brian Dennehy, and Goldie's (grand)father figure, Burgess Meredith. Dudley Moore has a recurring bit as a sex-obsessed oddball, and midget Billy Barty is a door-to-door salesman who has a bad day.
How others will see it. Since Goldie Hawn is in most scenes, it helps if you like Goldie Hawn. Or can at least appreciate her extensive portfolio of cute faces. The film itself tries hard to be cute, despite its standard thriller story. The violence is almost always comic, as are two supporting characters, Moore and Barty. The romance between Hawn and Chase is so inevitable that one almost suspects that their adventure is simply a means for God to play matchmaker.
One warning: the soundtrack features a Barry Manilow hit. But if you're watching at home, it's not so bad, since you can turn the volume down.
How I felt about it. Various scenes made me uncomfortable. Chief among them is Barty's big scene, which ends with him flying through a manhole, presumably toward his death (since it is a movie, he ends up only hospitalized in a body cast). The problem is, we are supposed to laugh during his human cannonball stunt.
Yes, I've seen Three Stooges shorts, and I've also suffered through some shows of "America's Funniest Home Videos", and I realize that no midgets were harmed in the making of this film. Still, we are not amused, just we are not amused by Moore's swinger/loser character, with the single exception of the best line of the film. Goldie Hawn sees Moore's closet full of sex toys, and in the epitome of 1970s naivete, marvels "Where did you get this stuff? I never knew there was such diversity!"
Hawn has two additional random encounters with Hawn. The first one, in a cathouse, is appropriate for the movie's comic theme. But his third appearance is ridiculous: he's the symphony conductor at the opera house. The shoe doesn't fit.
But the biggest gaffe has Chase driving recklessly across town in three different cars, wrecking them all and nearly killing himself, Goldie, and stereotyped innocents such as a redneck who can only say "Far Out!" and Japanese tourists who just love America and Kojack-bang-bang. Couldn't Chase have simply made a phone call to a police station house and told them there was going to be an assassination attempt on the Pope at the Opera house? Sure, only Goldie knows what the Albino looks like. But the Pope can see "The Mikado" some other night.