See No Evil, Hear No Evil

Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor made four films together. They weren’t exactly Hope and Crosby on the road, but they were a good comedy team … for two movies: Silver Streak and Stir Crazy. (Blazing Saddles doesn’t count; they had no scenes together.) This one was the third. It’s pretty bad. I haven’t seen the last one they made, Another You, which was virtually a career-ender for both of them. The reviews were just terrible.

Here, Gene is deaf and Richard is blind. Richard insists on pretending he can see, which leads to a lot of mostly un-funny scenes. Even in comedy you have to have a premise that makes just a little sense, and I never believed anyone could be that dumb. There was one funny line, when his sister berated him, comparing his refusal to acknowledge his blindness as being like trying to pass for white. “You mean I’m not white?” he shouts in a crowded subway car. Funny. I laughed. About an hour into the movie, shortly after the not terribly funny car chase with Richard driving and Gene telling him where to turn, I realized that was the only time I had laughed. I turned it off. I will not watch Another You. It would be too sad to see two very funny men being even less funny than they are here.