| “ | Yes, but there is even a more ideal assassin - one who doesn't KNOW he's an assassin. | „ |
| ~ Vincent Ludwig and Papshmir discussing the power of his hypnotising watch. |
Vincent Ludwig is the main antagonist of the 1988 hit comedy film, The Naked Gun: From The Files Of Police Squad!, the first installment in the Naked Gun trilogy. He is a rich businessman who is planning on assassinating the Queen of England. He has an advanced gizmo that can control anyone's mind nearby who is wearing a watch.
He was portrayed by the late Ricardo Montalbán, who also played Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Señor Senior, Senior in Kim Possible and Luis Montoya in Columbo.
Biography[]
When Detective Nordberg was trying to arrest some drug dealers on a boat, Vincent Ludwig stepped in and ordered them to kill him. They shot at him, yet they missed every single internal organ in his body. Later on Frank Drebin goes to visit Ludwig in his office to discuss the shooting of Nordberg. Vincent Ludwig says that "there is no room in his organisation for criminal activity". He sends in his assistant, Jane Spencer, (who Frank finds very hot), to talk with him. After Frank had left the building, Vincent comes in and asks Jane if she gave him what he wanted. Jane says that she gave him copies of the files for Pier. He tells Jane to get to know him a little better and find out what he knows. Jane reluctantly agrees. Before long a mysterious man named Papshmir appears in Ludwigs office. Ludwig shows him a new invention that, with just one press of a button, can hypnotize anyone nearby who is wearing a watch. He demonstrates it on his secretary, who gets out a gun and attempts to shoot Papshmir. However, the gun had no bullets in it. Ludwig presses another button, which ends the hypnotism on the victim. He sends an agent to hypnotize a doctor who was treating Nordberg (who was in hospital). Frank attempts to stop the victim and gets into a wild car chase. However, the doctor crashes into a truck, an oil tank and finally into a firework store, blowing him up. Meanwhile Jane successfully seduces and gets vital information from Frank. However, she later falls in love with him and is unsure if she should give Ludwig the information he wants.
Later on Frank sneaks into Ludwig's apartment and discovers his plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II when she arrives for a visit. However, as Ludwig is returning home Frank accidentally sets fire to and ultimately destroys Ludwig's apartment but safely manages to escape. At the reception for the queen, Frank finds Ludwig and Jane sitting at one of the tables and prepares to expose Ludwig and take him to court. Ludwig warns him to "get off his back or it'll cost him dearly". At last the royal family, along with the queen, arrives, to the consternation of Frank, who was standing in front of trumpters. The mayor says that the Queen is to receive a colonial musket from the American Revolution courtesy of Mr. Ludwig, who uncases it to display it to the partygoers. Frank, still disoriented, sees Ludwig holding the musket up to his head, which gives the appearance of attempting to shoot the Queen point blank, and shoves the Queen out of the way, to his comical effect. However, the citizens who were attending see it as an assault, and it gets snapped by a photographer as Frank attempted to blatantly have his way sexually with her. Due to the resultant bad publicity for Police Squad, Frank is expelled from the force. As Frank is cleaning out his desk and his stuff, Jane runs in and informs him that she overheard Ludwig planning to assassinate the queen. She learns the Queen's itinerary was to watch a Major League baseball game, where Ludwig will activate his device on one of the players immediately when the seventh inning stretch starts. Now that Frank is no longer a cop, however, he cannot stop Ludwig. The Commissioner of Police Squad has ordered that if Frank shows up, he is to be arrested on sight. However, Frank fails to recognize this and has his way to stop Ludwig. Frank first impersonates an usher to escort an opera singer, Enrico Palazzo to the field, then ties up the singer and steals his tuxedo, where he then butchers the national anthem as he does not know the song. Since that did not last long, Frank seeks another way to stay on the field, where he knocks out the umpire, then takes his mask and protective gear, which also cleverly disguises himself from any watching policemen. Frank then frisks every player who comes to bat. This is noticed by Ed, who decides to countermand the order to arrest Frank, figuring Frank is their best bet to thwart Ludwig. Meanwhile, Ludwig is sitting in one of the front seats and blends in by watching the game. A vendor is selling Ludwig's Dugout Dogs, which is a factory owned by Ludwig. Ludwig buys one from the vendor, only to look in disgust as the bun contains a finger with a large ring on it. (Earlier in the film Frank had been at the factory, where he had been assaulted by one of the goons who shot Norberg, however Frank killed him in self-defense and his body fell into a hot dog making vat).
However, Ludwig hypnotizes Baseball player, Reggie Jackson. Reggie attempts to kill the queen, but fails after Frank stuns a fat woman with some booby trapped handcuffs he received earlier in the film, causing the fat woman to fall on top of Reggie. Ludwig is enranged and takes Jane to the top of the baseball stadium, shoots at the other cops who are there to arrest him, but they cowardly run off (only in a deleted scene), and holds Jane at gunpoint. Frank arrives to stop Ludwig, but Ludwig threatens to shoot Jane if he got near him. Ludwig then prepares to shoot Frank, but Jane bites his wrist, causing him to scream in agony and allowing Frank to deal him a blow. He stuns Ludwig with the cuffs, and prepares to arrest him. However, Ludwig trips over the railing of the stadium, causing him to fall flat onto the road below. Once on the ground, a number of bad, yet comical, things happen to him. First he is run over by a bus, next he is literally flattened by a steamroller, and finally, is trampled all over on by a marching band playing "Louie, Louie". He is officially dead from the fall. This reduces Ed to tears, claiming "his father went the same way".
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The gizmo that Ludwig uses to make people kill others under command is similar to what the parasitic life forms do in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan. The late Ricardo Montalbán also played the villain Khan in this film.
- The hypnotic device may have also been inspired by the film Telefon, which starred the late Charles Bronson, about hypnotizing people into unknowingly committing murders. Unlike that film, the Naked Gun has a couple of lines explaining how the hypnotic device works, and makes no effort to clarify how it tells the controlled person whom to assassinate.
- Ludwig's name may be a reference to the real life con man Victor Lustig, who was infamous for selling the Eiffel Tower twice.