HOPSCOTCH (1980)

To read history write it, Hopscotch was a film that came and largely went in 1980, but with the DVD/Blu-ray era unearthing more obscure fare, it has gained an enthusiastic following in the years since.

Walter Matthau as Miles Kendig

Glenda Jackson as Isobel von Schonenberg

Ned Beatty as G.P. Myerson

Sam Waterston as Joe Cutter (Yes, I know...)

David Matthau as Leonard Ross

Douglas Dirkson as Follett

Herbert Lom as Mikhail Yaskov

After refusing to arrest European KGB head Yaskov (Lom), veteran CIA field agent Miles Kendig (Matthau) is reassigned to a desk job by his irritable superior Myerson (Beatty). On the fly and with stunning cunning, Kendig takes it upon himself to write a tell-all book to humiliate his bosses, all the while "playing hopscotch" away from them all over the western hemisphere.

Basically, Kendig is the 80s' first big troll.

Kendig gets his tell-all idea from Yaskov as the two enjoy a sip of vodka together.

Based on the 1975 novel by Brian Garfield (who also penned Death Wish and disliked the violence of the 1974 film), Hopscotch benefits from the talent and experience behind the camera (Garfield and Bryan Forbes (The Naked Face) adapting, Ronald Neame directing) as well as in front of it.

A running theme is Kendig valuing cunning, long-term goals, and pragmatism

over Myerson's take-no-prisoners, "guns-a-blazing" approach.

Like Charley Varrick before it, Hopscotch gets us to relate to the lead by having him

display more values, morals, and charm than some of the people after him.

Not a difficult task, given how much of a profane hothead Myerson is.

While Garfield's novel was said to be darker with humorous touches (and a different ending), casting Walter Matthau as Hopscotch's lead led to a rewrite that better suited his dry-humored persona, and by gum, does this movie succeed at it. (For the opposite situation, see 1983's The Survivors.)

While less gritty than in most of his other beloved roles, Matthau's pretty much 

at the top of his game, and his slick energy propels the film beautifully.

Hopscotch has such a constant, overarching sense of fun that it carries its other elements all the way through, with Garfield and Forbes' snappy screenplay crackling great with Neame's direction. Some reviews (from 1980 and now) have pointed out that it has a relative lack of thrills for the spy genre, but I find the film makes its characters, stunts, and performances so enjoyable that most viewers likely won't feel shortchanged.

Not present in the novel, Isobel may be a smaller role given Jackson's level 

of fame at the time, but she is by no means wasted here.

Suggesting Jackson after their successful pairing in House Calls (1978),

Matthau and her are so believably fun and effortless, much like the film itself.

Like Charade before it, Hopscotch goes down and digests so easily that it almost needs little said about it. Matthau is effortlessly awesome, and the film could be called an ensemble piece given how entertaining the rest of the cast are.

I love Sam Waterston from his Law & Order days, and his Cutter

is one of the film's few "straight men", who deep down still roots

for former superior Kendig just a little.

Each of Hopscotch's characters have clear "voices" and dynamics,

putting little "wrinkles" into your run-of-the-mill spy thriller tropes.

Cutter's concern about KGB agents going after Kendig certainly

would have been valid in 1980, but true to its lighter nature, 

the film doesn't really follow up or elaborate on it further.

Lom's role isn't substantial, but it's understandably subdued

given the other characters already in the film.

On a subtextual level, Hopscotch, with its ad-libs and in-jokes, will especially be a treat for Matthau fans and the like.

Arguably the film's other "straight man", David Matthau's Ross

is the subject of several of Kendig's stunts, meaning that in this scene,

Walter Matthau amusingly takes his own son hostage. 

Ross is later the victim of a prank call...

...from a rather-Thatcher-sounding Kendig.

(Geez, why couldn't this have been the ending for For Your Eyes Only?)

With the use of a biplane in Kendig's plan to evade his pursuers, Hopscotch could serve as

a "best-of" to Matthau's career, barring the inclusion of Jack Lemmon and a racetrack scene.

Indeed, the film rests on Matthau, his charm, and his obvious enjoyment to add that much satisfaction to the film's setups and payoffs. Certainly, the audience wouldn't be thinking "will he make it?", but rather "how's he gonna get out of this one?".

Kendig uses firecrackers to fake out the CIA and FBI men outside the house he was in.

At this point you may ask, "But what about Snakes?"

Due to Waterston's clear exhaustion from the overrun filming of

Heaven's Gate, lines were written in mentioning Cutter's "jet lag".

Some reviews note the lessened and more passive roles of most of the other characters,

but it wasn't an aspect I noticed all that much until after the film was over.

AND THE REST...

Hopscotch has a large cast of well-known British and American (mostly) character actors that include (but are not limited to)...

Jacquelyn Hyde as a Savannah, GA realtor,

who sounds like she was voiced by Nancy Cartwright.

Matthau's stepdaughter Lucy Saroyan (who looks so much like her mother)

as "discreet" seaplane pilot Carla Fleming

Severn Darden (The President's Analyst, Back to School)

as Leroy Maddox, Fleming's "connection"

Anne Haney (Liar Liar, Mrs. Doubtfire) has a small role as Myerson's wife.

Allan Cuthbertson (who also appeared in The Mirror Crack'd's film-within-a-film)

as Sir Giles Chartermain

George Baker (Sir Hilary Bray in On Her Majesty's Secret Service)

as publisher Parker Westlake

LOGO GEMS

The 1968-1982 Avco Embassy logo may not technically be rare, but it sure is unusual seeing it out in the wild nowadays. 

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

Well what do you know? Dreyfus made it to Oktoberfest after all!

Insert Buddy Buddy joke here.

Oh my god. If these two don't run into Ingrid Bergman and a bulldog in a Volvo,

I'm gonna be extremely disappointed!

Kendig in brownface disguise to buy his own book? Not good even back then.

Isobel berating him for it and its ridiculousness? Hilarious.

In view of the camera, Kendig and Isobel pretty much shoplift Kendig's own book.

TIDBITS AND SUCH

I'm going to assume Hopscotch didn't have the most tonally indicative of ad campaigns, seeing as how one U.S. poster (left) is clearly riffing on The Spy Who Loved Me (another Bond film George Baker appeared in). The Italian poster (right) is almost worse, making the film out to be a Pink Panther-esque sex comedy. Would the posters have been easier to conceptualize in the wake of more straight-faced spoofs like The Naked Gun? Who knows.

Hopscotch may have been seen as a bit too light-hearted in 1980, but its comfortable tone has aged surprisingly well given its subject matter. I made the mistake of putting this film off for so long after first reading about it, so take my advice and see it when and where you can, preferably with a spilled beer and an ever-changing photo of your boss.

Copyright © Chynna Moore

RUNNING GAGS, "CHEKHOV'S GUN"S, AND THE RULE OF THREE

When it comes to the smaller "setups and payoffs" of your script, the role of a running gag, "Chekhov's Gun", or the "rule of three" will be dependent on how much of the same or similar thing an audience will allow until they tire of it.

Introduce an important prop (the "Chekhov's Gun") without ever coming back to it later, and your audience will feel shortchanged. Go back to the well of a running gag too often, your audience will become tired and irritated.

You can call him Ray, or you can call him Jay,

he's just a visual aide, folks, that's all he is today.

Among other story factors, here are a few things to think about when implementing your little "repeat touches".

YOU DON'T HAVE TO DRAW LOTS OF ATTENTION TO THEM

A common mistake in writing has to do with a lack of subtlety in learning to weave detail into a story. To combat this, you could conceivably make a running gag out of something very minor, or introduce a "Chekhov's Gun" with even more subtlety than others.

While Rick Dalton is established early on as being handy with a flamethrower,

one could easily miss said flamethrower also being present in Rick's shed on first viewing.

Chekhov's Flamethrower

Good, nuanced screenwriting makes use of more than one sensory level for its details. Don't confine your running gags or "brick jokes" (seemingly-irrelevant gags or details that do have an unexpected callback or payoff) to just dialogue or story events. Audiences may expect certain types of props, jokes, or subjects to be not-so-subtle, so if you need to, don't hesitate to try scaling back your gag in question.

The running (done at least twice) gag of Otis and Eve's "I said that / I said it" back-and-forths 

is stated merely in dialogue, and wasn't very funny in this writer's opinion. 

Tellingly, this repetitive gag was cut entirely for Superman's theatrical cut.

GO WITH YOUR GUT (AND THINK LIKE A VIEWER)

How often will you implement your running gag? Will you adhere to the "rule of three" limit? Or scale back a bit and stop at just two instances? This is where (as if you haven't already) you should think like a moviegoer. Only you will know how this will all fit tonally and with what else your script is going for, but the attention of an audience is admittedly quite fickle. Unless you put a spin on it, writing a fourth instance of a running gag past the rule of three is a massive risk (and even with said spin on it). In the hyper-realistic medium of film, the human attention span has its limits, on both ends of the speed spectrum. Keep in the mind the eye of the viewer.

As of 2007, Homer Simpson has jumped or fallen down Springfield Gorge only

three times, with only the second time immediately following the first.

USE THEM TO BUILD YOUR CHARACTERS

For example, different characters will react differently to the same gag. Character S might react very differently than Character I, or they will give the same answer to two different, yet similar ideas or gags. Ideally, your gags or jokes shouldn't always just be there for the sake of having a joke (and pushing the story forward, important as that is).

Bart's propensity for labelling everything with his new labelmaker

comes back to bite him in the ass in "Radio Bart".

Leaving aside character humor itself, since the "Chekhov's Gun" definitely needs a payoff and cannot be there for the sake of needing a prop, you could use it towards character as well. Who ends up using the now-important prop? Is it a surprise? Is it part of a twist even? Are they skilled at using it? Terrified of it but forced to use it now? Everything in your script should have a purpose, and ideally more than one purpose.

"I said, hop in."

The reemergence of Mr. Burns' Spruce Moose model plane

caps off his deteriorating mental state in "$pringfield".

DON'T FORGET THE "BAIT AND SWITCH" CARD

This is a good "cheat" to put a new spin on an old gag, or to switch up the third instance of a running gag. Is your running gag a condition or misfortune that is now affecting an unexpected character? Is a last instance of a gag now used in a more serious tone? Is the least likely character presumed to be qualified for a situation actually the most qualified for some absurd, but logical reason? Basically, you should always remember the power of subverting expectations.

The titular "Bart's Comet" breaks up into the size of a chihuahua's head, 

exactly as predicted by (of all characters) Homer.

Running gags and the like are an aspect that will vary considerably and will (or should) be unique to their respective scripts, so hopefully with the above, I've gotten you to really think about how not to overdo a gag or underdevelop a "Chekhov's Gun", in the hopes of keeping your audience invested.

"Oh, dear god, no!"

Copyright © Chynna Moore