QUERY: the incompetent hero--multiple responses

MODERATOR'S NOTE:  FOR BREVITY'S SAKE, I HAVE EDITED MIKE'S
QUERY DOWN HERE TO THE NUB OF THE QUESTION, BUT I NEED
TO ADD THAT EARLIER IN HIS NOTE, HE STIPULATED THAT HE WAS
LOOKING FOR AMERICAN FILMS.  --k

> From: Frank, Michael <[email protected]>
> . . . can anyone suggest either a movie [or set of movies] featuring
> an incompetent hero, or an actor who regularly played the part of the
> incompetent hero?
* * * *
From: Michael Fitzgerald <[email protected]>

Jerry Lewis?
* * * *
From: Adam Stapleton <[email protected]>

Perhaps I don't understand the exact qualities of the 'incompetent hero'
but what about films like:

Who's Harry Crumb?
The Naked Gun
Police Academy

I'm not sure because I must confess that I've never seen it but what about
The Pink Panther or Inspector Gadget?

As you may have noticed, all of these suggestions fit into the 'bumbling
detective' sort of mode. So, maybe I've misinterpreted the question or
looking at any comedies to do with investigation/law enforcement may be
worthwhile. Also, films like Stripes and Spies Like Us come to mind...

Thanks,

Adam Stapleton
University of Wollongong
* * * *
From: Dicandeloro, Zachariah Joseph <[email protected]>

Captain James T. Kirk has been widely mistaken for a competent hero.

Indiana Jones, Dirty Harry, Cheech and Chong: all incompetent heroes in
fundamental ways.
* * * *
From: A. Bowdoin Van Riper <[email protected]>

My first thought was Charlie Chaplin in "Modern Times" or Buster Keaton in
"The General" (or virtually anything else), but some other possibilities
exhibiting similarly epic levels of incompetence are:

Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in Blake Edwards' "Pink Panther" films
Leslie Nielsen as Lt. Frank Drebbin in the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker "Naked
Gun" films
Virtually every character in "Airplane!" (1980) and "Mystery Men" (1999)

There are also -- depending on the direction the student wanted to take --
films in which the hero is befuddled and perpetually behind the curve
("Bringing Up Baby" or "The Absent-Minded Professor"), films in which a
band of seemingly incompetent misfits become competent ("Stripes" or "Up
Periscope"), and films in which the incompetence is explicitly situational
(which includes everything from "Bachelor Mother" and "Woman of the Year"
to "Man's Favorite Sport" and "Three Men and a Baby.")

Hope this helps . . .

Bow

Dr. A. Bowdoin Van Riper
Independent Scholar
Series Editor, "Science Fiction Television" (Scarecrow Press)
[email protected]
http://independent.academia.edu/ABowdoinVanRiper
* * * *
From: Jennifer M. Barker <[email protected]>

Hi Mike,

Buster Keaton could fit that bill: perhaps incompetent and socially inept
but preternaturally graceful and blessed by coincidence.

Jennifer
* * * *
From: Darryl Wiggers <[email protected]>

Peter Seller's Inspector Clouseau is definitely the crown jewel. Then there
are comedies like Dumb and Dumber, where are heroes similarly bumble there
way through the story, unwittingly foiling the villains every step of the
way. Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke is another. Many write the film off as
a series as comic sketches but it has a very specific story -- they're
looking to score some weed, and win a music contest. Along the way they too
foil the villains (in this case the police) every step of the way, and
achieve both their goals, though they are largely oblivious to their
accomplishments.