The Toy (1982) * * *

Directed by:  Richard Donner

Starring:  Richard Pryor, Jackie Gleason, Scott Schwartz, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Teresa Ganzel, Ned Beatty

Reviewing The Toy is as challenging as the material itself.     The Toy combines idealism with racial politics in the deep South not even twenty years after passage of major civil rights bills.      The idea of a nine-year-old white boy "buying" an adult black male friend is tricky to pull off at best.     The Toy manages to walk the fence between slapstick comedy and the completely offensive sometimes in the same scene.     The movie also shoehorns in some sentimental family stuff also.    The casting of Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason softens the blow somewhat.     Of course, the child isn't actually "buying" Pryor's Jack Brown, an unemployed journalist, but the implication of something possibly more troubling lurks around the corner.

The boy is Eric Bates (Schwartz), a spoiled brat home from military school for one week a year.     His father is multi-millionaire mogul U.S. Bates (Gleason), who has little time for his son because he is busy buying up businesses and sometimes entire towns.      Eric discovers Jack working at a toy store after hours and decides he wants to buy him, as he puts it.     U.S. agrees to pay Jack $3,000 for the week to be Eric's friend, just as long as they stay out of his way.     Jack agrees because he needs the money to save his house from foreclosure. 

U.S. believes in the philosophy "money means never having to say you're sorry."    He's a gruff power broker feared by his underlings.     His right-hand man Mr. Morehouse (Beatty) is so afraid of him that he drops his drawers at Bates' demand so he can show everyone who's boss.     However, he is not completely without redemption because he wants to make his son happy in the only way he knows how.    There is some room for growth. 

Eric's friendship with Jack doesn't start off swimmingly.    Eric plays mean pranks on Jack and bosses him around.     Jack threatens to walk out, but soon they become friends and Jack assists in Eric's quest for his father's love and attention.     The Toy from here on out maneuvers uneasily into schmaltzy territory, but it maintains an edge.      U.S. and Eric soon declare their love for each other, but I get the feeling Eric still needs to have an appointment to see the old man.

Pryor is at his best with an edge.    The Toy is more of a family comedy, or at least what passed for one in 1982.    Pryor is still funny here with material that is borderline offensive.    Gleason takes a character who could be a boring blowhard and instills some sympathy.     Oh, he's nowhere near ready to become a family man, but he is taking baby steps.    His prized possession seems to be his perfectly erected domino set more than his busty trophy wife (Ganzel).

The Toy contained enough laughs to be satisfying and is a product of its time.     Pryor and Gleason mine it for all it's worth.      Could The Toy be remade?     Yes, but to avoid a slippery slope, the toy likely won't be a black man.     The Toy remake will just as likely be an innocuous family film that won't burden itself with issues of racial politics and poverty.     I can't say whether that is a good thing.