Gene Wilder

Remembering Gene Wilder

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  • Title: Remembering Gene Wilder
  • IMDb: link

Remembering Gene Wilder

Built from interviews, clips, and the audio from Gene Wilder‘s 2005 autobiography, Remembering Gene Wilder takes a look back at the life and career of the actor best known for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory along with his collaborations with Mel Brooks in Young Frankenstein, The Producers, and Blazing Saddles, and his roles with Richard Pryor in Silver Streak, Stir Crazy, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil.

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Haunted Honeymoon

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  • Title: Haunted Honeymoon
  • IMDb: link

Haunted HoneymoonHaunted Honeymoon may not be one of Gene Wilder‘s best movies, but it does feature a cast and set-up worth seeing. Wilder and real-life wife Gilda Radner star as voice actors for the radio drama Manhattan Mystery Theater. Plagued by panic attacks which could cost him both his job and a chance at marriage, Larry (Wilder) agrees to an unusual solution proposed by his uncle (Paul L. Smith). Heading home to the castle where he grew up for his wedding, Larry agrees to a form of shock therapy where everyone involved in the wedding party will be involved in the attempt to shock him to death and force him to deal with his panic and fear.

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Take a Ride on the Silver Streak

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  • Title: Silver Streak
  • IMDB: link

Silver StreakTaking Alfred Hitchcock‘s concept of a man in far over his head in North by Northwest to absurd levels, director Arthur Hiller’s Silver Streak provided not only an enjoyable comedic thriller but also the first opportunity to pair Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor on-screen together. And, once again proving my Train Theory (that all things being equal, movies with trains are better than similiar movies without), this is still their best collaboration.

When George Caldwell (Wilder) boards the Silver Streak, a train from Los Angeles to Chicago, on his way to his sister’s wedding, looking for no more than two days of relaxation and boredom he has no idea the journey he is actually embarking on. On the train he meets the lovely Hilly Burns (Jill Clayburgh) and during a romantic night in his cabin a rather drunk and distracted George sees the body of Hilly’s boss Professor Gierasch (Stefan Gierasch) fall from the roof of the train.

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A World of Pure Imagination

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  • Title: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
  • IMDb: link

Willy Wonka

Years ago Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder), the world’s foremost creator of chocolate treats, closed his factory to the public to prevent people from stealing the secrets of his candy making. Out of nowhere the reclusive inventor ships five hidden golden tickets hidden in Wonka bars. Whoever finds a ticket will be allowed to enter the Wonka factory.

The five children include Augustus Gloop (Michael Bollner) who never saw a snack he didn’t eat, Violet Beauregarde (Denise Nickerson), spoiled rich girl Veruca Salt (Julie Dawn Cole), and television obsessed Mike Teevee (Paris Themmen). The fifth ticket is found by Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) who lives in the slums just blocks away from the fatory with his mother (Diana Sowle) and his bedridden grandparents: Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson), Grandma Georgina (Dora Altmann), Grandma Josephine (Franziska Liebing) and Grandpa George (Ernst Ziegler). Charlie and Grandpa Joe join the others for the tour of the factory led by Willy Wonka himself. Inside they find wonders that they could not even imagine.

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Kiss Me Like a Stranger

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  • Title: Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search For Love and Art

Kiss Me Like a Stranger

Gene Wilder is a complex man who has battled unhappiness and uncertainty while giving pleasure to millions with his brilliant comic performances.  Kiss Me Like a Stranger is a narrative look at pivotal moments in Wilder’s life that through fate or coincidence made him who he is today.

The biography is broken up into different sections of Wilder’s life.  The first examines his childhood, the second his early career, the third his working with Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor, and the last his life with Gilda Radner.

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