« Previous Post | Main | Next Post »

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

It's not often that a movie features a complete plot synopsis on its poster, but other than a (stupid) rodeo contest, that's pretty much all there is to last week's quiz movie, Stir Crazy, the 1980 reteaming of Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. They'd proven an unexpected hit four years earlier in Silver Streak and this was their first big box office success. For months, the idiotic chant, "That's right, we bad!" was overused across the country-- even Bruce Springsteen and Clarence Clemons started strutting across the stage doing their best Wilder/Pryor imitation. It was pathetic.

As popular as Pryor and Wilder were as a team, the main criticism of them at the time still holds: too often they were playing the wrong roles. Wilder would try to out-manic Pryor (always a hopeless attempt), often to embarassing excess, while Richard would be relegated to straight man, which was a total waste. (The only truly funny Pryor moment in Stir Crazy is his first-- and only-- scene without Wilder, where he learns his stash has been used for oregano.) Even more ridiculous, Wilder's character was the one who got the girl at the end, while the best Pryor's character got was a kiss on the mouth by a transvestite.

(While Pryor did pose for the above poster, he refused to wear a birdsuit during the shoot, and they used a double in the actual scene. But he didn't seem to mind looking like a clown.)

The most memorable member of the supporting cast was the friendly-looking man in last week's picture clue, the mass-murderer and sweet-voiced singer, Grossberger. The actor behind the frightening glare was Erland Van Lidth De Jeude, an MIT graduate who dabbled in acting when he wasn't running his computer business. Alas, the poor devil died from heart failure at the age of 34 after making only four movies. What's really ironic is that, in 1980, a physical presence like his was so unusual he was cast in movies because of it; today, you see guys who look like him everywhere.

Youtube has the usual Stir Crazy highlights-- "We bad," Pryor's hospital scene, Grossberger singing "Down in the Valley"-- and if you're interested, they can all be found here. But since I'm not really a fan, instead of a movie clip, I wanted to show you Springsteen and Clemons acting like assholes doing their "We bad" routine. I couldn't find it, but I turned up a clip that's at least as good. Watch Clarence's fancy footwork halfway through.

This was an old-fashioned, tough movie quiz-- one picture clue of a supporting cast member-- and it was still a very respectable turnout of winners. So congratulations and a lunch date with Grossberger to the following: Thomas Miller, Wayne Palmer, Joe Rosenberg, Nancy Louise Rutherford, Gene Miller, John Middleton, Bill Hearne, Song-Un Lee, Michael Mattson, The Curmudgeon, Rick Morgan, Fred Lorence, Bob Redwing, Kevin Musolino, and E.Yarber.

Posted by Steve Monaco at July 7, 2008 12:35 AM

« Couch Pundit's Sunday Comix | Main | The Monday Movie Quiz #183 »