User Reviews

Seeing John Candy on the video cover might give you a sense this movie would be a hilarious comedy, but it isn't the case for this one. This is an early acting appearance for Candy, who plays a bumbling detective named Kopek who, along with partner Broom (Lawrence Dane) tries to solve a complicated kidnapping case involving a businessman's daughter. These two characters reprise their roles from It Seemed Like A Good Idea at the Time, released the previous year, though their screen time was somewhat limited.

The casting is appropriate, though, confusing: Peter Cook, Mickey Rooney, and Dick Emery as the bad guys and plenty of product placement for the Canadian pizza chain Pizza Pizza. There's not too many laugh-out-loud moments in this film, aside from a few instances of physical slapstick, especially the first ten minutes of the film, but it's, at least, watchable.

I'll preface my comments by saying that my wife and I are big fans of John Candy. And although Find the Lady is no Uncle Buck or Planes Trains and Automobiles, it is a treat to recognize many of his classic mannerisms. John plays a young bumbling "Gumshoe" investigating a kidnapping case with a more seasoned partner.

Mickey Rooney is another treat in this movie. I guess perhaps he needed the work to keep up with his alimony obligations? He didn't phone it in here, he puts a lot into his character. And his running comments about working with mobster Bugsy Siegel put a smile of my face.

While it's not the most memorable movie for Mr. Candy it is fun to see him in an earlier role before he became a star.

It's generally the case that putting together a great international cast does not a great movie make. This is borne out by this dire 'comedy' that, on paper, looks like a winner but on screen is tired, dull and yields zero laughs. The comedy element relies on lots of people falling over, especially John Candy, and a script that contains no jokes whatsoever. It's embarrassing to see the likes of Peter Cook walking through the film almost comatose. One would think the producers were trying to cash in on the 'Pink Panther' movies, with many similarities in the style and story, heavy reliance on slapstick humour, and the two bungling detectives. They don't even come close. Perhaps the only interest is to see the bizarre pairing of Mickey Rooney and Dick Emery as the films' gangster villains.

This isn't the worst comedy of all-time, but that is about the best thing that I can say about this pathetic film. I didn't laugh once, or even smile once during this bomb. There was usually something going on on-screen, so I didn't get TOO bored, but most of the jokes here were simply awful. The final sequence is nothing more than a long series of people falling through doors and stumbling all over the place. Needless to say, it was a fitting way to end a movie that was impossible for me to like.

This is sort-of a sequel to IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME. This one has cops Broom (Lawrence Dane) and about a 25 year old John Candy playing Kopek. They played smaller parts in the previous movie, but here they get their own movie now.

Through the years of film there have been some great bumbling cops like Peter Sellers as Detective Closeau in the PINK PANTHER movies or Lt. Frank Drebin by Leslie Nielsen in the NAKED GUN films. But, this ain't a film of that calibre. This is a real mixed bag, jokes that don't work, a little over-use of physical comedy and sadly only a few laugh-out-loud moments are had.

Broom and Kopek are on the trail of two members of the crime syndicate in Leo (Dick Emery) and Trigger (Mickey Rooney) who are looking to kidnap Victoria (Alexandra Bastedo) the niece of J.K.Lewenhak (Peter Cook) a local businessman. Both Emery and Rooney are actually quite good in their roles, but I did find that Cook had very little to work with really. I wanted to like it, but really may be of interest to only die-hard Candy fans. Filmed in Toronto.

Like the one it spun-off from, it's not good... but it is slightly better.

'It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time' is rubbish, though 'Find the Lady' is a tiny bit of an improvement - emphasis on the world tiny. I like the cast in this one a tad more, obviously John Candy but also Lawrence Dane, Dick Emery and Mickey Rooney are also alright.

It's mainly the poor attempt at comedy and the story itself that is damaging to this 1976 film. I personally didn't find any part definitively funny, though I will say I did chuckle once or twice - one being when the bad guys are in the back of a truck trailer and Dane's character knocks on it... it's stupid, but it got a reaction out of me I can't lie.

"Find the Lady" is a John Candy film that was made before he gained worldwide fame. Up until this time, he'd appeared in a few movies and TV shows but was certainly unknown outside Canada...and even within Canada he was a struggling young comic. "Find the Lady" debuted the same year Candy's breakout role on "SCTV" occurred...and because he was young and eager, I guess you cannot blame him entirely for appearing in this very bad film....a film, which, is actually a sequel of sorts to an earlier bad movie he made "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time" (incidentally...it wasn't!). In both films, he plays Kopek...the world's most inept and untalented cop. But in the first film, he was a minor character in a bad film and here he's the star of a bad film.

Sergeant Broom and Detective Kopek (Candy) are on an undercover mission to keep tabs on a couple mobsters (one of which is played by Mickey Rooney). The mobsters are idiots...Kopek is almost infinitely stupider. They also investigate a kidnapping. Along the way, Kopek keeps destroying police cars and the department keeps giving him more. Somehow through all this, he avoids being fired...though a tomato would have made a better policeman.

Kopek is more than a klutz. I don't mean he's just clumsy but instead he is a walking disaster area. To top it off, he's also apparently quite stupid and you have no idea HOW he got to be a policeman in the first place...or how he stays on the force being this inept. Now the idea of a dopey or clumsy cop could work...but here, he's so dopey and clumsy that it's not funny and is just annoying. The problem is that the story is filled with slapstick...CONSTANT slapstick. Rarely is there a moment when he isn't stupid and annoying. Now, this MIGHT have worked around 1920 with the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Fatty Arbuckle or Buster Keaton playing a dopey cop...but here it's just a chore to watch...mostly due to bad writing and the fact that it wasn't 1920 but 1976 when it was made!

By the way, "Find the Lady" is a film of its times and some of the language and plot are far from politically correct. If you care about this, it's yet another reason not to watch the movie.

Before John Candy was really famous, he starred in this rather silly Canadian movie about a series of kidnappings. He plays police officer Kopek, investigating the kidnappings and getting into a bunch of loopy situations along the way. The only other cast member whom I recognized was Mickey Rooney, playing a trigger-happy hit-man named Trigger (although apparently, Peter Cook also starred).

Overall, "Find the Lady" is nothing special, mostly a series of gags, but it's pretty fun, especially the end scene. I guess that you could say that it backs up what Michael Moore always says: Canada is the greatest place on earth.

with john candy, mickey rooney and peter cook you wouldn't blame me for hoping something interesting would happen. it didn't. what a mutt!

insipid jokes, terrible music, lousy lighting as well as the cheap and nasty location shoots, all give early indications of where canadian film making was headed. this is the film culture that flowered with "porky's".

don't watch this film. i beg you.

the gong sound everytime the chinese guy enters the room may be the most tasteless bit of the picture, but i don't know. anyone see anything less tasteful in there?

This amiably scattershot British-Canadian Co-production sadly remains one of future comedy icon, John Candy's lesser known features. The chaotically pratfall-laden, proto-Police Academy, bungled kidnapping farce 'Find The Lady' is brought to witheringly noisome life by a remarkably ecclectic cast of entertainingly larger-than-life Thespians: Peter Cook, Mickey Rooney, Lawrence Dane, Alexandra Bastedo, Dick Emery, and a very young, effortlessly likeable, John Candy is a dunderheaded delight as the catastrophically inept, perpetually blundering cop, Kopek!

John Trent's overblown screwball comedy is an energetic, frequently misfiring, palpably unsophisticated 70s celluloid curiosity, and some may well find themselves immune to this gaudy lady's crudely comedic charms, but, to be fair, I sporadically enjoyed all the unrelentingly stupid slapstick shenanigans displayed so giddily herein! Peter Cook is miscast, the splendid, Dick Emery is sadly underused, Alexandra Bastedo is a distractingly beautiful kidnapee, and, frankly, it's all very, VERY silly indeed, but the hyperbolic, slapstick-on-acid finale in the fun house is arguably worth the price of admittance alone! As much as I hate to admit it, Mickey Rooney was a hoot as the anachronistic hood 'Trigger', and charismatic Canadian actor, Richard Monette, glistered no less gaudily than his sequinned bustier as serially quipping drag artiste, Bruce la Rousse.

I found this online recently. I'm a John Candy fan and had never heard of this one before. He looks to be in his early to mid 20's. If you're a fan of the zany Naked Gun/Airplane movies, you'll probably like this one. If you're not, you probably won't. It's a slapstick humor kind of movie. I enjoyed it for what it was.