The news of the death of Gene Wilder sadden me and had me thinking about his catalogue of films and which were my favourites. Limiting myself to only three was hard when I could have suggested more and no place for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Young Frankenstein (1974) or The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) all great films but I love to laugh.
Stir Crazy (1980)
The best of the four movies Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor collaborated on was ‘Stir Crazy’ and is probably my favourite, delivering an abundance of humour and quick fire jokes, which manages to make even the most stupid of gags enjoyable even if you see the joke coming from miles away.
The storyline, after both losing their jobs, best friends Skip Donahue (Gene Wilder) and Harry Monroe (Richard Pryor) decide to leave the noise of New York and head out to California. Along the way, they are accused of a bank robbery they didn’t commit, sentenced to 125 years in prison much to the shock of the duo. The movie directed by Sidney Poitier, yes the famous actor, who allowed Wilder and Pryor to adlib their way through many scenes.
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Today it would be difficult to make owing to the numerous racial jokes including the famous "the sheriff is a n...”. To be frank, the story line is purely a vehicle for a continuous stream of gags, which never stop for the duration of the film.
Rock Ridge need a new sheriff, the Governor despatches one but in a mix-up the job is given to a black guy about to be hung. The townsfolk of Rock Ridge prepare to welcome their new sheriff but he has landed in possibly the most racist town in the west. His only friendly face is the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder) an alcoholic gunslinger who is a permanent resident in the towns’ jail. The door is open to numerous gags, it also attempts to spoof the western genre and does so in magnificent style.
One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is the farting scene as Cowboys sitting around eating hot beans and letting out more hot air, farting.
The Producers (1967)
Another great vehicle for Wilder this time playing an accountant who gets mixed up with Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel). Leo (Wilder) discovers a discrepancy in Max’s books but also notices that producing a failure can generate as much money as producing a success.
The idea of financing a Broadway flop as Max excited and try’s to convince Leo to join his scheme. After some gentle nudging and persuasion he managers to get Leo on board so Max sets about raising the money. That is achieved by Max romancing a collection of little old ladies and selling then 100% shares in the production. The play is needed to be a dead cert failure and once they read the script "Springtime for Hitler", they believe they found it. It is a wild and wacky movie with every minute full of jokes from a musical number about Hitler to the chalk n cheese buddying going on between the theatrically over the top Max and the nervy Leo. But as they always say humour is subjective and watching the larger than life Max over whelm Leo was fun in itself.
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