Stir Crazy

Stir Crazy. 1980 Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Georg Stanford Brown, JoBeth Williams, Miguel Ángel Suárez, Craig T. Nelson
Director: Sidney Poitier
Buy Stir Crazy at Amazon.

Skip Donahue (Wilder) and Harry Monroe (Pryor) are both trying to break into show business (Skip's a writer, Harry's an actor), but aren't exactly going anywhere fast. They finally leave New York City for Hollywood after being fired from their jobs on the same day, intending to take odd jobs along the way. One such job sees Skip and Harry dressing up as two woodpeckers for a local bank, and performing a song and dance number as part of a promotion. Two men who had met Skip and Harry in a bar steal the costumes during a break, briefly perform...and then rob the bank. As the two thieves make their getaway, Skip and Harry are arrested, convicted rather quickly, and sentenced to 125 years in prison each. On the advice of their court-appointed lawyer, they start their sentences while he works on the appeal.

Prison isn't exactly the best environment for people like Skip and Harry, but they survive. Most of the movie concerns a prison "rodeo" between two rival prisons, and how Skip, who shows surprising skills at riding the bull, is preparing for it. They also befriend Jesus Ramirez (Suárez), who really robs banks, and the gay murderer Rory Schultebrand (Brown), and later, the feared giant inmate Grossberger (Erland Van Lidth), a voluntary mute who is also a convicted mass murderer. All the while, their attorney Len Garber (Joel Brooks) and his cousin Meredith (Williams) fight to prove the innocence of Skip and Harry.

Funny movie, I thought. Recommended, although prison movies or television shows aren't really my favorite things to watch.