It's been suggested that the tediousness of the last few movies I've watched caused me to enjoy this bit of low budget farce more than it deserved. There may be truth in this suggestion. Nonetheless, enjoy it I did.
The film was originally conceived as a vehicle for Peter Sellers, but - somewhat ironically given the movie's plot - his health made it impossible for them to get insurance for him, so he had to be replaced.
After some very Pink Panther-esque credits, we meet Jordan Oliver, a complacent and rather foolish man who had the good fortune to marry a wealthy woman and has been coasting by ever since. His incompetence and dishonesty loses him his job, however, and he has just a month to find a quarter of a million dollars to repay what he stole. He expects his wife to cover for him, but she's tired of his childishness and wants a divorce.
And thus is hatched his nefarious plan to insure her for a million dollars and then have her killed, so he can claim the money. The movie makes no attempt to have his efforts to put the plan in place be even remotely plausible, and that's probably for the best.
Anyway, Jordan hires a hitman, but the hitman sub-contracts the job to a guy who sub-contracts the job to a guy who sub-contracts the job to a guy who ... you get the picture. This proves a problem for Jordan when he learns that the policy is invalid. He immediately rushes off to prevent his wifer's murder, tracking down one prospective killer after another and dragging them around in an increasingly demented ensemble. Meanwhile, multiple efforts are made to kill his wife (my favorite is the shark in the swimming pool).
Who is the final killer? Will they succeed before Jordan can find his wife? Probably not questions that matter overmuch, in the end, in this souffle-light bit of film making, but I had fun.
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