the frisco kid

this one is pretty strange. it stars gene wilder as a polish rabbi who has been called to be the leader of the synagogue in frontier town california. it follows him as he tries to make it from poland across america during the 1840's. along the way he meets up with a no-good cowboy played by harrison ford (huh?!?). ford starts off trying to take advantage of this shmuck who has no clue about the old west, but slowly takes a liking to him. wilder does a fantastic job of playing the clueless rabbi, he has an innocent gentleness to him that he brings to every roll. the rabbi doesnt understand that the train robbers are bad guys or that the angry men want to kill him, he just continues to show kindness to them, even when they are in the middle of beating him up! one of the funniest parts comes when he's saved by a group of christians and neither one of them know what to make of the other! harrison ford does his grumpy/annoyed thing here, which fits quite well, and the two of them make a surprisingly fun duo! the movie is a bit too long and awfully slow in parts, but its still a fun relic of wilder's comedic heyday.