Plot
Lyle (Beatty) and Chuck (Hoffman) are inept songwriters who dream of becoming a popular singing duo like Simon and Garfunkel. Their songs, with titles like "That a Lawnmower Can Do All That" and "The Echo Song," are performed badly and poorly-received. Their agent, Marty (Weston), books them as lounge singers in a hotel in Morocco to entertain troops stationed there. They unwittingly become involved in a plot to overthrow the Emir of the fictional neighboring country of Ishtar. A mysterious woman named Shirra (Isabelle Adjani) has a map she needs to get to the leftist guerrillas opposing the government of Ishtar. A CIA agent (Charles Grodin) gets involved when Shirra contacts Lyle and Chuck. He attempts to prevent the overthrow.
Read more about this topic: Ishtar (film)
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“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
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why are they no help to me now
I want to make
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Plots, true or false, are necessary things,
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—John Dryden (1631–1700)