The Frisco Kid

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Name: The Frisco Kid
Abbreviation(s):
Creator: Robert Aldrich (director)
Date(s): July 13, 1979
Medium: Film
Country of Origin: United States
External Links: at Wikipedia
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The Frisco Kid is a 1979 Western comedy film starring Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford.

Fanworks for the film are sometimes created as part of the broader Harrison Ford film fandom and sometimes crossed with other shows.

Short Film Description

Gene Wilder portrays a newly graduated yeshiva student who travels from Philadelphia to San Francisco to his job as a rabbi. He meets a good-natured, bumbling bank robber named Tommy Lillard, who is portrayed by Harrison Ford.

Film Reviews

Rogue's Gallery #11 (1983), a Harrison Ford zine printed two reviews by professional critics of "The Frisco Kid," then three fan reviews and a comment by the editor.

It is an example of different eyes, filters, agendas, and expectations, as well as fans' loyalty to celebrity.

Excerpts from the Professional Reviews

Trying to work my way out of the state of confusion I had stumbled into at Cinema I, I conjured up a vision in which someone....someone just happens to bump into Gene Wilder, the star, and Robert Aldrick, the director, as they are walking across some Hollywood back lot where Hopalong Cassldy once roamed, and says, "Polish rabbi in the Wild West, 185O. On your mark, get set, go!" And, in this vision of mine. Wilder and Aldrich are overwhelmed by the beauty of the idea. Having nothing better to do at the moment, they improvise, each in his fashion, the hundred-and-twenty-two-minute picture that has recently been released by Warner Brothers, to the likely perplexity of the viewing public.

Wilder, with his angelic blond hair and blue eyes, impersonates a character of such strength of virtue and unfailing good humor that it seemed rude to complain about The Frisco Kid" for about ten minutes after it ended. Nevertheless, it's a clumsy and irresolute creation, marked by abrupt shifts of tone, generally away from comedy toward unfounded pathos, and by uncalculated surprises, all in the category of anti-climax.

[snipped]

Some of the dead weight of the picture is assumed by Harrison Ford, a young actor with a frowning charm of his own, in the part of a bank robber who becomes the rabbi's sidekick. I [1]

With Gene Wilder as the woodenheaded rabbi and Harrison Ford as the lovable bank robber what could go wrong? Let's pass that question for the moment and ask what went right. There is a lovely moment when the bearded, black-suited Wilder, who has just been beaten and robbed, sees some Amish farmers, mistakes them for Jews and rushes toward them, rejoicing at the top of his voice in Yiddish. Another piece of superior nuttiness has Wilder trying, and utterly failing, to suppress his gabby, questioning nature at supper among the silent monks of a Trappist monastery.

The Frisco Kid just misses being very good, perhaps because although Wilder is funny and endearing, we never quite believe in the character he plays. He is not really a pure Polish rabbi, he is Gene Wilder doing bits. We are asked to laugh at all too human failings, as we laugh at Tevye's in Fiddler on the Roof, but through some lapse of direction or acting, we are never really shown a man.[2]

Four Fans Comment Upon These Two Reviews

Could anything go wrong with a Gene Wilder/Harrison Ford comedy? I think not, which is why this movie is one of my favorites!

The plot is food for hysterics: Wilder as a lowly Polish rabbi sent to open a San Francisco synagogue who gets robbed of all his money BEFORE the opening credits. He mistakes Amish for Jews, totally misses a train robbery, and is again robbed— this time by raccoons. Avram is saved from starvation by the train robber he never saw: Tommy Lillard (Ford). For some masochistic reason Tommy becomes the rabbi's guide to the coast. Together, they jump off a cliff, cross mountains in a blizzard, rob a bank, get captured by Indians, and a few other things before they wind up at the Pacific Ocean, "who would've thought it could be so simple?" An ambush and a final conflict—physical and spiritual—come before the closing credits. Frisco Kid is not perfect; seen enough times, there are large continuity problems and slow parts. The Jewish cliches are loud groaners, laced with a perfect touch of guilt! All of which we've all been subjected to, regardless of our nationality.

Frisco Kid is a movie to enjoy, just for the fun of it! [3]

I thought the character development in "Frisco Kid" was excellent. The writing, history, texture and acting was all first rate. In our first meeting with the character of Tommy Lillard he appears ta be the stock Western outlaw but that changes once he meets the rabbi, Avram, played effectively by Gene Wilder. Avram is a "good man," we know that right from the start, if also a bit naive. Gene Wilder makes an excellent, well-meaning rabbi.

Avram has been thrown into the early American West, probably the most violent time and place in the world at that time. We never expect him to come out in one piece. Tommy Lillard, on the other hand, is a product of that violent environment and to tally at home in it.

As the movie continues. Tommy reveals himself to be complex and multifaceted. What's more. Tommy himself is surprised at some of his actions at times. They, go against the "loner" code that he has imposed on himself. The differences between the two men make the fast friendship between the two that much more remarkable. At first Lillard is disgusted with Avram's innocence and ineptitude but quite surprisingly takes pity on him. Both men go through some hard times. They almost freeze in a snow storm because of Avram. They almost get hung by a posse because of Tom my, and then because of Avram, who won't get on^his horse and ride on the Sabbath. ... Amazingly enough, all these misadventures just seemed to bring the two closer together. This despite alot of fighting, yelling and cussing. Tommy Lillard held almost exclusive rights to the cussing in the movie, much to our delight because it fit the character so well, as well as giving an undeniable flavor of realism to the movie.

Tommy Lillard was a fascinating character. ... I think Avram threw Tommy for a loop. I don't think he ever met a man like Avram before. He was everything Tommy wasn't. Yet Tommy didn't begrudge Avram his faith. I think the friendship forged itself under the old adage; opposites attract.

[snipped]

There were a lot of touching scenes......The classic scene in the movie and a favorite is the argument in the fancy restaurant. It had the feeling of spontaneity and originality to say the least. Harrison Ford achieved a perfect blend of anger and humor without taking away from the intent of the scene, to show Avram's dilemma (of faith). Tommy must have gotten so mad at Avram for saying he wasn't a rabbi because not only had he spent so much time and effort with him but because he learned to respect Avram's values and conviction. Tommy never had a friend like Avram, he'd never had a 'best friend' which is what Avram claimed to be (never mind that he was Avram's ONLY friend) and Tommy wasn't going to let his best friend lose faith in himself. In Avram's dilemma with faith. Tommy Lillard turned out to be the best friend he could have had.

.....The whole movie was fun and uplifting. I can't praise it enough for just plain fun. It had a good story, fast action, excellent dialogue, creative directing and superlative acting. Gene Wilder's movies always seem to stray from the norm. But best of all was watching Harrison Ford in this gem. He was a delight and truly

up to the task of playing a likable, slightly dangerous, trigger-happy bank robber with a soft spot, who you'd love to have on your side in a fight! [4]

You know what I liked about THE FRISCO KID? Wilder and Ford seemed to be having such a good time doing what they were doing. That we all did, along with them. It was a comedy with enough touches of drama, to make you pay attention all the way through the movie. There were some scenes that were a bit long, maybe overdrawn — the girl on the train with Wilder springs to mind — but all in all, the director Bob Aldrich did exactly what he promised to do, and when I am interested enough to catch the director's name, that's something. I believe that Aldrich is a TV director, or got his start there, so did Spielberg, and I have had friends tell me that this movie could have been made for TV. In a way I wish it had been. Tommy s language, colorful as it can be, would have been lost but, at least more folks would have seen this movie.

It's a good movie, a story of friendship, really a lesson in how one becomes a friend and why. Both men were well cast. As a Ford fan I would say that Wilder's character IS almost over developed and Ford's not. But Harrison Ford is playing a very recognizable American western character, even to the Wayne color shirt and neckerchief he wears.

[snipped]

It's very hard to sit through this film and not come out thinking that you like these men. You even like the villains. Bill Smith, as ever, evil, but always not unlikable, and such a good foil for Tommy.

I defy anyone to sit through the Indian Village scene and not be entertained. Val Bisoglio as the Indian chief — he's the bartender on Quincy — is excellent here, a little campy maybe, but it s a comedy, folks. The scene in the monastery is an old Mel Brooks comedy and it goes on and on.

This is a fun movie with a message about people, people learning about other people, respecting them and gaining from knowing them.

I feel a bit sad that Harrison was not given more time.[5]

If I may, I'd like to inject my own comment at this point. If this movie was as bad as those [professional] critics seemed to think it was, just how was it that Beth was able to glean all those points about Tommy's character... and Avram's? Does that sound to you like a film that never showed the audience a "man?" My own feeling is that critics are a mob of 'pig-faced brothers" who are highly over-rated (and probably over-paid as well) who have too much power over the public's though processes' I don't know how many times I've seen THE FRISCO KID now, but it is now, and will continue to be one of my all-time favorites! [6]

Zines with Frisco Kid Content

Example Fanworks

Fiction

Fanart

Links & Resources

References

  1. ^ Susan Lardner, The New Yorker, unknown issue, page 46
  2. ^ by John Shaw, Time Magazine, 1979
  3. ^ review by B.F. Gallagher
  4. ^ review by Beth Lentz
  5. ^ comments by Kathy Vergano
  6. ^ comments by Joann Emerson, editor of "Rogue's Gallery"
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