Foul Play (1978 film)

Foul Play
Promotional poster
Directed by	Colin Higgins
Produced by	Edward K. Milkis Thomas L. Miller
Written by	Colin Higgins
Starring	Goldie Hawn Chevy Chase Burgess Meredith Rachel Roberts Eugene Roche Dudley Moore
Music by	Charles Fox
Cinematography	David M. Walsh
Edited by	Pembroke J. Herring
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	July 14, 1978
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$44,999,621

Foul Play is a 1978 American comedy mystery-thriller film written and directed by Colin Higgins, and starring Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Dudley Moore, Burgess Meredith, Eugene Roche, Rachel Roberts, Brian Dennehy and Billy Barty. In it, a recently divorced librarian is drawn into a mystery when a stranger hides a roll of film in a pack of cigarettes and gives it to her for safekeeping.

The film inspired an ABC television series starring Barry Bostwick and Deborah Raffin that aired in early 1981, and was cancelled after six episodes.

Recent divorcée Gloria Mundy (Goldie Hawn) is a San Francisco librarian. While attending a party, she is encouraged by a friend to leave herself open to new experiences. On the way home, Gloria picks up an attractive man named Bob "Scotty" Scott (Bruce Solomon) when she encounters him and his disabled car on Highway 1. She impulsively accepts Scotty's invitation to join him at the movies that evening, and before they part ways he asks her to take his pack of cigarettes in order to help him curb his smoking. Unbeknownst to her, Scotty has secreted a roll of film in the pack. That evening, a seriously wounded Scotty meets Gloria in the theater and warns her to "beware of the dwarf" before dying. When his body mysteriously disappears while Gloria seeks help from the theater manager, she is unable to convince anyone of what has transpired.

At the end of the following work day, Gloria is attacked in the library by albino Whitey Jackson (William Frankfather). She manages to escape and seeks refuge with Stanley Tibbets (Dudley Moore), a would-be who assumes she is picking him up to have sex. Shocked by his misunderstanding, she flees and returns to her apartment, where she is attacked by a man with a scar who demands the cigarette pack Scotty had given her. When he attempts to strangle her with a scarf, Gloria stabs him in the stomach with a pair of knitting needles and calls the police for help. When her attacker tries to stop her, he is killed by Whitey through the kitchen window, and Gloria faints. When she awakens, all traces of what has happened have disappeared, and she is unable to convince two San Francisco policemen, Lt. Tony Carlson (Chevy Chase) and his partner Inspector "Fergie" Ferguson (Brian Dennehy), or even her landlord Mr. Hennessy (Burgess Meredith) that she was attacked.