Stir Crazy *** (1980, Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Georg Stanford Brown, JoBeth Williams, Craig T Nelson) – Classic Movie Review 4822

Director Sidney Poitier’s amiable enough 1980 comedy again pairs Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, this time as would-be actors Skip and Harry, who end up in America’s hinterlands, going Stir Crazy after being framed for a bank robbery and wrongly imprisoned for 125 years.

After some hesitations, screen-writer Bruce Jay Friedman’s farce settles down to broad and raucous high jinks, when there follows the set-up some added nonsense about Skip’s talent for riding broncos and an inter-prison rodeo.

This genial if fairly slack and foul-mouthed comedy was a huge success at the American box office, grossing more than $100 million there and spawning a short-lived TV series of nine episodes (1985-1986) with Joe Guzaldo and Larry Riley.

Also in the cast are Georg Stanford Brown, JoBeth Williams, Craig T Nelson, Barry Corbin as the warden, Lee Purcell, Charles Waldon, Nicholas Coster, Joel Brooks and Jonathan Banks.

RIP Gene Wilder, who died on 29 August 2016, aged 83.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4822

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