THE CURSE OF THE
JADE SCORPION

Year: 2001
USA: DreamWorks SKG
UK: UIP
Cast: Woody Allen, Dan Aykroyd, Charlize Theron, Elizabeth Berkley, Helen Hunt, Brian Markinson, John Schuck, Wallace Shawn, David Ogden Stiers, Greg Stebner, Kenneth Edelson, Judy Gold, Mercedes Herrero, Arthur J Nascarella, Mark Rydell
Director: Woody Allen
Countries: USA / Germany
USA & UK: 101 mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for some sexual content
UK Certificate: 12A contains mild sex and drug references
USA Release Date: 24 August 2001
UK Release Date: 6 December 2002


Synopsis

Woody Allen's latest crime caper, THE CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION, stars Allen as crackerjack insurance investigator CW Briggs. Briggs might be forced to relinquish bragging rights to being the best in the business when he falls under the spell of a crook—and a beautiful colleague—in his most baffling case to date, and finds that he is the one left clueless.

In THE CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION Woody Allen returns to the period of the 1940s to entrance audiences with an idea he had been musing about for a while, the hypnosis craze that seemed to mesmerize many of the Jazz Era, and is still captivating people today.

Elizabeth Berkeley plays Jill, the sexy secretary, a real staple of films of that era. Helen Hunt plays Betty Ann 'Fitz' Fitzgerald a powerful and strong woman in the workplace which you didn't see much in the 1940s. Able to stand up the men in the office the reverse is true in her personal life as she's having an affair with her boss Mr Chris Magruder (Dan Aykroyd). There comes a third woman in CW Briggs' life, Laura Kensington (Charlize Theron), the stunningly beautiful, spoiled little rich girl, who is used to getting any man she wants. She takes Briggs as an easy mark for her seductive wiles, but his mysterious rebuff proves the ultimate attraction for the blonde temptress.