The Woman in Red

The Woman in Red.
1984 Orion Pictures, distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Gene Wilder, Arthur Bailey, Charles Grodin, Joseph Bologna, Judith Ivey, Michael Huddleston, Kelly LeBrock, Gilda Radner
Director: Gene Wilder
Buy The Woman in Red at Amazon.

Gene Wilder co-wrote, directed, and starred in this 1984 remake of the 1976 French movie An Elephant Can Be Extremely Deceptive. In it, he stars as Teddy Pierce, your ordinary ad agency executive with a hairstyle that makes him stick out like a sore thumb, who finds himself captivated by the title character, a woman in red (LeBrock), who stops long enough while standing on a grate to have her skirt blown above her waist. Just one glimpse of this woman is enough to change Teddy's life, enough so that he's willing to risk his marriage and family just to sleep with the stranger

Teddy can never seem to get things going whenever he works up the nerve to try to instigate a tryst, and even his office buddies can't seem to help him. Teddy unwittingly gets a date with his secretary, Ms. Milner (Radner), who is not happy at all to know that she isn't the object of Teddy's desires.

This obviously isn't one of Gene Wilder's better films, but he does the best he can with what he's got. Slightly recommended. This movie also features Stevie Wonder's Academy Award winning "I Just Called to Say I Love You", which is probably the only thing people today remember about this movie. That'll happen.

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother. 1975 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Dom DeLuise, Leo McKern, Douglas Wilmer, Thorley Walters
Director: Gene Wilder
Available at Amazon.

Gene Wilder's directorial debut. And yes, it's just the "adventure". Not "adventures". I digress.

Sherlock Holmes (Wilmer) and Dr. Watson (Walters) are summoned out of England on an assignment, and before they leave, Sherlock asks his youngerr brother Sigerson (Wilder) if he would look into a case at home for him. A cache of government documents have been stolen, and it could very well be the work of Professor Moriarty (McKern). Assisting Sigerson is the bumbling Scotland Yard detective Olville Sacker (Feldman), who claims to have photographic hearing, as well as the mysterious Jenny Hill (Kahn).

We also learn that Sigerson is jealous of Sherlock's success, and feels the need to constantly prove his superiority to big brother in all things at all times, referring to him as "Sheer Luck Holmes". This also means that Sigerson throws himself into this case with his usual misguided enthusiasm.

Gene Wilder wrote and directed this one just after helping write, and starring in Young Frankenstein with Mel Brooks (who made a cameo here), so he definitely struck while the iron was hot. Highly recommended. Kangaroo Hop time!