The Frisco Kid was another movie in which Gene Wilder spoke in an accent, more than one, throughout the entire film. The 1979 film directed by Robert Aldrich saw Gene Wilder as a Polish Rabbi and Harrison Ford as a gun slinging bank robber. Wilder's Rabbi was traveling to San Francisco from Poland to become the town's Rabbi. Ford's bank robber was traveling aimlessly from one heist to the next. An unlikely friendship began to form and the two made the trek west in the middle of the 1850 Gold Rush.
Avram (Gene Wilder) is a Rabbi who has just completed the schooling necessary to be ordained. Finishing at the bottom of his class, he is condemned to making the trek to America and leave Poland behind. Given little direction and supplies, Avram is beaten and stolen from, but he recovered the Torah he is taking to San Francisco and continues his journey. While trying to catch some fish, an uncouth bank robber Tommy happens upon him and helps him catch some dinner. The two discuss their plans and Tommy, seeing how helpless and naive Avram is, decides to accompany him to California. Of course, Avram has no idea that Tommy breaks the law for a living and is taken aback when he realizes he is now an accessory to a bank heist after "holding the horses" when Tommy runs into the bank. Moving forward Avram rubs off on Tommy, and Tommy cusses less and laughs more. An unlikely friendship forms between the two men as they encounter killers, Native Americans and cocky lawmen in the old west. Getting to Frisco was certainly an adventure in this '79 comedy!
Like Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx, Gene Wilder uses an accent through the whole picture, and again, does so very well. Playing a native of Poland, and at times impersonating a western accent while maintaining the Polish accent, Wilder does a great job with his voice in the film. I wanted to love the adventure comedy matching Harrison Ford and Gene Wilder, I just couldn't. The overt Jewish stereotypes were distracting, to say the least. It was fun to see the two play opposite each other, and such opposite characters, but the story was definitely lacking something. Although there were some funny scenes, like the one in which the Torah was delivered to the family Avram was traveling to meet, overall it wasn't a very good comedy and not much of it stays with the viewer upon its completion. I call 75-80 the lost years of Gene Wilder, and this film does little to change my mind about those years. Luckily for fans of Gene WIlder's, 1980 eventually came.
Avram (Gene Wilder) is a Rabbi who has just completed the schooling necessary to be ordained. Finishing at the bottom of his class, he is condemned to making the trek to America and leave Poland behind. Given little direction and supplies, Avram is beaten and stolen from, but he recovered the Torah he is taking to San Francisco and continues his journey. While trying to catch some fish, an uncouth bank robber Tommy happens upon him and helps him catch some dinner. The two discuss their plans and Tommy, seeing how helpless and naive Avram is, decides to accompany him to California. Of course, Avram has no idea that Tommy breaks the law for a living and is taken aback when he realizes he is now an accessory to a bank heist after "holding the horses" when Tommy runs into the bank. Moving forward Avram rubs off on Tommy, and Tommy cusses less and laughs more. An unlikely friendship forms between the two men as they encounter killers, Native Americans and cocky lawmen in the old west. Getting to Frisco was certainly an adventure in this '79 comedy!
Like Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx, Gene Wilder uses an accent through the whole picture, and again, does so very well. Playing a native of Poland, and at times impersonating a western accent while maintaining the Polish accent, Wilder does a great job with his voice in the film. I wanted to love the adventure comedy matching Harrison Ford and Gene Wilder, I just couldn't. The overt Jewish stereotypes were distracting, to say the least. It was fun to see the two play opposite each other, and such opposite characters, but the story was definitely lacking something. Although there were some funny scenes, like the one in which the Torah was delivered to the family Avram was traveling to meet, overall it wasn't a very good comedy and not much of it stays with the viewer upon its completion. I call 75-80 the lost years of Gene Wilder, and this film does little to change my mind about those years. Luckily for fans of Gene WIlder's, 1980 eventually came.