Stir Crazy (DVD)

Stir Crazy is a riotous comic farce starring Gene Wilder (The Producers, Blazing Saddles) and Richard Pryor (Brewster's Millions, Critical Condition) as out-of-work New Yorkers who find themselves incarcerated in a Sun Belt prison for a robbery they didn't commit. Would-be playwright Skip Donohue (Wilder) and would-be actor Harry Monroe (Pryor) should be on the road to success. But along the way to seeking their fortunes in California, they get stranded in Arizona. Hired to dress as woodpeckers for a bank promotion, Skip and Harry are mistaken for bank robbers and find themselves thrown behind bars. Outwitting wardens, sadistic guards, and fellow prisoners, the two even wind up in a prison rodeo. The result is over-the-top comic fun from Pryor and Wilder, together again after their box-office smash Silver Streak (1976). Directed by Sidney Poitier and featuring Jo Beth Williams, Georg Stanford Brown and Craig T.Nelson in supporting roles, Stir Crazy is inspired lunacy from start to finish.