The Great Muppet Caper (1981) is a British-American musical comedy mystery directed by Jim Henson, marking his feature-film directorial debut. The film is the second theatrical Muppet feature and follows Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear and Gonzo as newspaper reporters who are fired after failing to cover a major jewel robbery. Hoping to save their careers, they travel to London to interview Lady Holiday, a famous fashion designer whose diamonds have been stolen. Once there, Miss Piggy becomes involved with Lady Holiday’s fashion house, Kermit mistakes her for the wealthy designer, and the Muppets are drawn into a larger plot involving Lady Holiday’s brother Nicky and the theft of the Fabulous Baseball Diamond. The film mixes heist comedy, musical numbers, slapstick, romance and self-aware movie jokes, with Charles Grodin, Diana Rigg, John Cleese, Robert Morley, Peter Ustinov, Jack Warden and Peter Falk among the human cast and cameos.
The Great Muppet Caper was filmed mainly in and around London and Hertfordshire, with E.M.I. Elstree Studios serving as the main studio base. London is central to the film’s identity, and the production used several famous landmarks and streets to give the Muppets’ British adventure a real city setting. Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul’s Cathedral, Holland Park, the West End, Belgravia and the Thames-side image of London all contribute to the film’s playful travelogue atmosphere. Battersea Park is especially important as the setting for the romantic bicycle sequence between Kermit and Miss Piggy. The exterior of the Happiness Hotel was filmed at 134 Westbourne Terrace in Paddington, while Lady Holiday’s office exterior was filmed at 34 Chesham Place and Miss Piggy’s borrowed “No. 17 Highbrow Street” address was represented by 17 Holland Park. Outside London, Haddenham in Buckinghamshire was used for Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo’s arrival in England, with St Mary’s Church appearing in the village material. Knebworth House in Hertfordshire stood in for the Mallory Gallery, the heavily guarded museum where the Baseball Diamond is displayed and where the film’s final heist confrontation takes place. St Albans Register Office was used for the prison exterior, while many of the larger and more controlled interiors were built at Elstree, including the Dubonnet Club, the Happiness Hotel interiors, the Holiday fashion house, the opening New York street set and the elaborate water-ballet sequence. The opening hot-air balloon material was completed in New Mexico, around Albuquerque, West Mesa and Rio Rancho. The result is one of the most location-rich Muppet films, combining real London streets and landmarks, English village and country-house locations, studio-built musical sets and a small piece of American desert sky into a deliberately playful movie-world.
Knebworth House
Knebworth House appeared in The Great Muppet Caper, The Shooting Party, The Lair of the White Worm, Batman, The Wings of the Dove, and many more.
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