The Frisco Kid
Dir: Robert Aldrich
1979
***
Gene Wilder always seems made for each and every role he's played. Of course he isn't, he's just wonderful at everything he does, even if the finished film isn't always that great. If you'd asked me who I would cast as a bumbling Rabbi lost in the Wild West on his way to lead a synagogue in San Francisco before watching The Frisco Kid, I could have given you several names. Now I've seen The Frisco Kid I can only think of Gene Wilder, no one else could have done it justice and kept it as tasteful, funny or as poignant as he did. I could also give you several suggestion of who could play his rugged bank robbing companion but I can't think of anyone cooler than Harrison Ford. While The Frisco kid isn't the Indiana Jones and Willy Wonka in the Wild West comedy I had secretly hoped it was, it certainly has its moments. The real success of Robert Aldrich's 1979 comedy is the balance of comedy and seriousness and the way he constantly slices through one with the other. A strange but wonderful seldom seen oddity.