Directed by: Sidney Poitier
Starring: Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Barry Corbin, Erland von Lidth, Georg Stanford Brown, Craig T. Nelson, Barry Corbin, JoBeth Williams, Joel Brooks
It could happen to anyone. Two buddies: unemployed actor Harry (Pryor) and unemployed playwright Skip (Wilder) head west for fame and fortune. They nab a job as dancing chickens entertaining people at a local bank. While Skip and Harry grab lunch, two bank robbers dress up as the chickens and rob the bank. Innocent Harry and Skip are arrested for the crime and sentenced to 125 years in prison. "I'll be 161 when I get out," says a bewildered Harry.
The prison is a place with hot boxes, chain gangs, backbreaking work, and a warden looking to find an inmate who can handle a mechanical bull so his prison could win a rodeo with a rival prison. Skip turns out to be a natural bull rider, but holds out in hopes of buying time to plan an escape. The first half of Stir Crazy deals with two innocent men trying to adjust to prison life, the second half is about the rodeo and how Skip and Harry use it to escape. The two halves feel like two different movies, but there are enough laughs to keep us involved.
Skip and Harry encounter gay inmates, bullies, sadistic guards, and a giant named Grossberger (von Lidth), who is dubbed at "the biggest mass murderer in the history of the Southwest" and scares everyone he comes in contact with. When he's described as biggest, it takes on more than one meaning.
Wilder and Pryor teamed up successfully in Silver Streak (1976) and here they give us an oddball tandem that works. In Stir Crazy, Wilder is granted center stage while Pryor plays the tagalong, which takes a few moments to get used to but ultimately generates laughs. Poor Harry isn't even given a chance to try out the mechanical bull, so there you go.
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