The Frisco Kid (1979)

Robert Aldrich was a director who made entertaining films throughout his career. He can count his blessings in having had the opportunity to work with one of the best comedians of all times: Gene Wilder.

This film is a delight, from beginning to end. Mr. Wilder, as Avram is a man we can't keep our eyes from, as he dominates the screen and makes this film his own. The adventures Avram goes through, coming to a country where everything is so different from the world he leaves behind, is what glues this tale together.

A young Harrison Ford is Mr. Wilder's sidekick. This bank robber shows the naive Avram the tricks about how to survive in a hostile environment. Mr. Ford underplays the role, and it works well because the funny lines are meant for Avram, and how he reacts to what he discovers, as he travels west.

This film will always be a favorite because it is universal and it reaches the audience with its positive message while laughing and enjoying the great Gene Wilder on the screen.

Fmovies: This is really one sweet-natured fish-out-of-water tale, with a wonderful, winning performance by Gene Wilder as a Polish rabbi who's forced to go it alone from Pennsylvania to San Francisco in 1850. It was a real pleasure to experience the old west through the eyes of this very unlikely hero!

Harrison Ford too is fantastic as a young bank-robber who becomes his protector and who's tough exterior masks a heart of gold, which becomes more apparent as he learns the real meaning of friendship through his adventures with the rabbi.

The movie's treatment of religion was very refreshing too. Wilder's various interactions with people of different faiths is at times hilarious, insightful, and very touching, never scornful. The warmth and respect they each show one another isn't often shown in films.

One thing that had me scratching my head was the rabbi's repeated use of the word "God". As an orthodox Jew, isn't the character prohibited from speaking or writing the deity's name?

One of the best "feel-good" movies I have ever seen. I once heard Gene Wilder say that he got the Rabbi's accent from his grandfather, and I can believe it!

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were channel surfing in the middle of the night, and came across the movie, dubbed in Spanish. We ended up staying awake until the wee hours of the morning, just to watch this gem.

A gentle film, not afraid to show a love of religion and of friendship, I wish that more movies were like this.

The Frisco Kid fmovies. I agree with a few of the other commenters who say this is an overlooked film. I think many people gave up on it because the first 45 minutes or so are VERY slow. After that, the pace picks up nicely and the film becomes quite humorous. Gene Wilder stars as a Rabbi sent from Europe to San Francisco. He must traverse the entire US and has several adventures and misadventures along the way. He also meets up with Harrison Ford, who portrays a bank robber. There are a few scenes where there is some violence. The film is a combination of western drama and comedy, with elements of both in about equal amounts. As I said earlier, give this film a chance...suffer through the first 45 minutes or so. The remainder of the film is well worth it.

This movie is hysterical, from its depiction of what the American west must have looked like to an outsider to its terrific Jewish guilt and humor, although it does have a lot of "insider" Jewish humor. That's not to say it can't be enjoyed by non-Jews, as well, but a familiarity with Jewish culture definitely makes the movie more enjoyable. Wilder is at his funniest and Harrison Ford is charming as a side-kick, a role I wasn't accustomed to seeing him in. Watching Ford succumb to Jewish guilt--even when it means freezing his butt--is fantastic. My apologies to Blazing Saddles fans but I think this is way funnier. And it didn't even have to rely on fart-humor.

This is one of my all-time favorite comedies. A lot of it is gritty, but the movie never loses sight of the humor it's trying to get across.

Gene Wilder is the center of it. Anyone could have played Ford's role, but he does a competent job. He's not really believable, but the ROLE isn't believable. It's hard to be a good guy when you're threatening peoples' lives in order to rob them.

Wilder is the whole movie, except for Val Bisoglio as Chief Gray Cloud. Wilder portrays a lost man in the wilds of frontier America, and he does it well. The movie itself deftly avoids moralizing about the 'right' religion. The Amish people helping the Rabbi on his journey is very realistic. They would not have turned down another religious man; they would have helped him, just as they do, in the film. I appreciate little touches, like this. It would have been far too easy to portray the Amish (or Mennonites; it's hard to tell, with a movie set in that time period) as ultraconservative bigots, but instead, the production crew chose to show them realistically.

This is a sweet, funny movie, with some real drama, unless you're just too cynical to care. And if you ARE too cynical to care, I truly pity you. This is a fun, exciting movie that anyone should like.

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