“Yes I’m a short son of a bitch, my daddy was a short son of a bitch, my mother was shorter than him, and my brother, my brother was so short we couldn’t even see him. ” – Harry
Number of Times Seen – 1 (4 Jun 2017)
Brief Synopsis – Two friends on their way from New York to Hollywood are wrongfully accused of committed a bank robbery and are sent to prison.
My Take on it – This is a film that I have seen bits and pieces of over the years but only now had the opportunity to wtach it the whole way through.
I have now seen all four of Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder’s collaborations and this would be ranked #2 on my list (See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) is still by far the best IMHO)
This film is great proof that despite Pryor and Wilder no necessarily getting along in real life, they have such great chemistry together on screen for us to constantly laugh at all of their antics the whole way through.
The premise is a simple mistaken identity one yet they constantly bombard us with so many hilarious scenes that it actually is beneficial to the audience that we don’t have the need to actually think much about the plot and story and just let the laughter flow.
They do a wonderful job of getting the full spectrum of stereotypes for a prison flick and despite this not being the best prison film ever made, it’s still keeps things extremely funny the entire time.
Bottom Line – Wilder and Pryor are great together and they work so well off one another in this film. The premise is quite simple yet it’s done in such a way that we are constantly bombarded with really funny scenes that it works to its benefit that not much thinking is needed to follow everything going on. Not necessary the best film about the hard lives of prisoners but they get all the stereotype so right that things are funny the whole way through. Recommended
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Arizona State Prison officials used the money given to rent out their facilities to construct a rodeo arena of their own. With the movie’s plot twist of a prison rodeo, life imitated art. For two years, Warden Robert Raines of the Arizona State Prison had tried to organize such a rodeo. The major obstacle was the cost of constructing an arena, complete with grandstand, stables and livestock chutes. When Columbia Pictures inquired about renting the facility, the warden saw it as a way to realize his dream. Provided that security could be maintained, the prison was available for a fee which, hardly by coincidence, matched the budget for the new rodeo grounds. Raines said: “There was a fringe benefit we didn’t anticipate. Morale in the prison was never higher. Some 350 inmates signed on as extras, playing themselves, and the rest, even the most notorious troublemakers, stayed on their best behavior. There were simply no incidents”. (From IMDB)
Rating – Globe Worthy
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