What do Gilda Radner (Saturday Night Live), Gene Wilder (Young Frankenstein), and Sidney Poitier (Sneakers) have in common? Well, outside of arguably being three of the best to ever do it, Poitier directed the two aforementioned comedy legends (after directing Wilder previously with Richard Pryor in Stir Crazy (1980)) in Hanky Panky (1982). The film is a combination of North by Northwest (1959) and See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) as a romantic comedy that is, unfortunately, not nearly as good as either movie in the slightest. Writers Henry Rosenbaum (Lock Up) and David Taylor (Get Crazy) tell a story of love, mistaken identity, and madness that shines brightest when Wilder and Radner get to be themselves, but with a lack of special features across the board in releases, the question begged to be asked as to how much was scripted and how much was improvised.
L-R: Gilda Radner as Kate Hellman and Gene Wilder as Michael Jordon in HANKY PANKY. Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures/Alliance Entertainment/Mill Creek Entertainment.
Hanky Panky (1982) focuses on Michael Jordon (Gene Wilder) who gets in a cab at the same time as Janet Dunn (Kathleen Quinlan). They argue about whose cab it is and eventually agree to split the cab to get on their way. Michael relentlessly hits on Janet and offers to mail out something from her briefcase that she is anxious to get out without having any idea of what it is. This starts off the hijinks that plague him the entire movie. He is accused of murdering Janet by the police, chased by Ransom (Richard Widmark), and partners up unexpectedly with Kate Hellman (Gilda Radner), who gets dragged along on this chaotic mess. Hanky Panky should prove to be a comedic tour de force, however, true to its title, it’s an underperforming, underwhelming disappointment that feels more like a chore more than a good time.
Richard Prosky as Kiram Calder in HANKY PANKY. Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures/Alliance Entertainment/Mill Creek Entertainment.
Without having ever seen Hanky Panky prior to receiving the Blu-ray release for review, I cannot speak to how great the transfer is compared to other editions. However, it looks like this is the first ever Blu-ray release for North America as there was an 2002 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment-released DVD and a Blu-ray combo pack of Stir Crazy and Hanky Panky from 2021 from Umbrella Entertainment. While there are moments sprinkled throughout the presentation that have fuzziness, excessive grain, and deuteriation, making it seem as though the original sourcing material was damaged, overall, it is a clean nice picture that isn’t overly cleaned up and doesn’t look compressed or upscaled to death. While there is a camp for “4K restoration or bust,” there is literally no reason for this film to be on 4K; this Blu-ray is more than suitable and looks better than good for the age of the film. With this being the first-ever North American Blu-ray release for the movie, there is definitely reason to be intrigued, but, truth be told, the moments where Radner and Wilder get to riff and go presumably off script and have fun are the best moments, but they’re few and far between.
L-R: Gilda Radner as Kate Hellman and Gene Wilder as Michael Jordon in HANKY PANKY. Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures/Alliance Entertainment/Mill Creek Entertainment.
When it comes to home releases and owning movies on physical vs. “owning” them on digital (more of a prolonged rental, but that’s a discussion and argument for another day), special features and compression are two of the biggest selling points for people to purchase the disk. With no digital code, we cannot look at compression of this on streaming versus disk. The lack of any special features, even as far as different language audio, may be a turn off to some. While the movie is subpar in quality, the transfer looks fresh and clean, but the lack of special features certainly leaves a lot to be desired. There are plenty of Radner and Wilder comedies out there and your mileage will certainly vary with their venture into Hanky Panky.
Available on Blu-ray February 10th, 2026.
For more information, head to the official Sony Pictures Hanky Panky webpage.
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Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews
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