Wilder was very very funny, yes!
but definitely not all of his movies were completely PC....
such as this unfortunate clip?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=493pL_Vbtnc
The Producers isn’t the most popular Gene Wilder movie, but in my opinion, the best. He played that neurotic bean counter perfectly.
Wonka actually bombed at the theatre, it was considered too dark for children.
Every time I have seen it on the small screen it has been hacked to a fair thee well.
This Saturday, September 3 and Sunday, September 4, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory & Blazing Saddles return to 55 AMCs nationwide. Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory will play at 5 p.m. at every participating location and Blazing Saddles will play at 7:30 p.m. All tickets are $5 for each title.
For Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory tickets head here & for Blazing Saddles tickets head here.
I bought Silver Streak and See no evil, Hear no evil a couple weeks ago. Both were Wilder and Pryor movies. In Silver Streak Richard buys some Kiwi brown shoe polish from a shoeshine man in a train station and makes Wilder look black to evade the police.
Anytime you get Brooks, Wilder, Pryor and Kahn together wear Depends. We still mimic lines from Blazing Saddles and High Anxiety (those two especially)......wonderful, funny, memorable movies. Brooks was an equal opportunity offender and that’s what I love about him and his movies.
I saw Blazing Saddles in the theater when it first came out.
The PC versions suck.
I crossed paths with him twice. Once when I was 17 he came into the store where I worked. I was wearing a t shirt that said “Je t’aime,” meaning “I love you” in French. He gave me a big smile and said “Je t’aime aussi.” (I love you, too.)
Then later when I was in college, one day I snuck away and walked to a matinee of some Woodly Allen movie (before he slept with his stepdaughter or raped his actual daughter). I was almost alone in the theater. There was one guy up front, also alone, laughing uproariously. When the lights came on, guess who it was? Gene Wilder.
I’m sorry he had to end his life with Alzheimer’s. My parents were his age and they did/are as well. RIP to a smart and funny man.