Warner. Director Herbert Ross; Producer Anthea Sylbert; Screenplay Buck Henry; Camera William A. Fraker; Editor Paul Hirsch; Music Basil Poledouris; Art Director Bill Malley
Goldie Hawn
Chris Sarandon
Richard Romanus
Andre Gregory
Gail Strickland
Cliff De Young
Goldie Hawn's insistence on Saying Something Important takes a lot of the zip out of Protocol, but the light comedy still has its moments for the forgiving.
One big problem here is an oh-so-obvious effort to reinvent the formula that boosted Private Benjamin to the heights. Here she's a sweet, unsophisticated cocktail waitress hurdled into the unfamiliar world of Washington diplomacy and Mideast travail.
In Benjamin, Hawn's main adversary was a woman captain (Eileen Brennan) and ill-intentioned men; here, it's Gail Strickland as a devious, plotting protocol officer and more ill-intentioned men.
Formula doesn't work as well in Protocol, partly because Strickland and gang aren't as much fun to foil as Brennan's bunch was.
(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1984. Running time: 96 MIN.
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