Directed by: John Cleese, Charles Crichton
Starring: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin
Easter egg: On Disc 2, highlight Special Features, press left and Enter to access a menu with three hidden features.
Easter egg: To access a DVD-ROM feature on the DVD player, highlight the treasure chest in the main menu. Press enter to see a fish tank screen saver. To exit press enter.
Continuity mistake: After Ken reverses the steamroller after running Otto over with it, you can see a red patch signifying his splattered body in front of the roller. However, a few scenes later, Otto is seen alive. (Otto was originally meant to die, until test audience feedback influenced a change of mind on the part of the filmmakers.)
Trivia: The actress who played Archie's daughter Portia is also John Cleese's real-life daughter.
Question: So what was John Cleese saying in Russian?
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!"
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.
Angela Brown