Question: Is George's Oscar Wilde quotation, "We won't have to look for work, and it won't have to look for us," genuine? (Never trust a criminal, I know).
Question: If Otto can't get his feet out of the wet cement, how on earth does he manage to extract his entire body?
Answer: It was comic license...how did he survive being run over with a five ton piece of heavy machinery or falling off an airplane? Don't read too much into it.
Answer: And how was Archie, covered in whatever was in that waste barrel, allowed on the plane? I forgive it anything. Comic performances never get Oscars™. Kevin Kline pulled one out of the Academy by force.
Question: So what was John Cleese saying in Russian?
Answer: John Cleese was reciting the poem "Molitva" by Mikhail Lermontov. He learned and memorized it phonetically and has admitted that he had no idea what the words actually meant.
Answer: Archie indeed recites the second and third strophes from Lermontov's poem, "The Prayer." "There is a might inspiring Each consecrated word, That speaks the inconceivable And holy will of God. The heavy load slips from my heart, Oppressing doubt takes flight, The soul believes, the tears break forth, And all is light, so light!"
Question: I never got the scene in the flat with Wanda and Archie when he strips naked and a family walks into the flat. He tells them to leave because they are obviously in the wrong flat and some friend gave him the key and then the man says they leased the flat from the agents last weekend and that immediately changes Archie's tone. Why? What was the confusion about? Were he and Wanda in the wrong flat?
Answer: My impression is that (possibly through Wendy) Archie has friends who are rich enough to happily let each other use their London flats while they are overseas or in their country homes. But in his haste he hasn't checked what the owner is actually doing with the place. He realises he has been too impulsive and won't be able to bluster his way out. Since these are strangers he goes to politeness instead. (This doesn't explain why a flat for rent still has family pictures on display but that's the setup for the comedy).
Question: I have this on DVD, but I'm sure a scene was cut out, on the video was there a scene where Archie was standing there naked and the family walk in, and Wanda comes down, kisses him, and leaves?
Answer: Haven't ever seen a deleted scene of this. It's more likely that Wanda slipped out an upstairs door or window.
Answer: I did an Internet search for this quote, including checking best-quotations.com, and the only reference of it I can find is tied to the movie. I do not think this is an Oscar Wilde quote. If I find something, I'll update this, as it's possibly a line from one of his plays or novels that just doesn't happen to be online. Someone else might know.
raywest ★