Remembering Gene Wilder

There are few films that can successfully juggle several genres and still manage to come off as a single, cohesive piece. Silver Streak is a train suspense film that feels like a comedic homage to Hitchcock thrillers with accents of the spy genre. The comedy is mostly subtle, expertly restrained by Gene Wilder. His comedic approach in this film is mostly reactionary. He is continuously put in extraordinary situations and he reacts like any other person would naturally react.

The key to his humor, which is very obvious since this film isn’t a period piece or set in some fictional world, is his everyman technique. Wilder is effortlessly funny, whether it’s his facial expressions or his wit cleverly expressed through quips and snark. He doesn’t need to over-exaggerate, even when his character explodes from (understandable) built up frustration. Wilder’s approach makes him versatile in the many different environments he’s put in and the different people he is paired with. The most notable partnership in this film comes when Richard Pryor’s character is introduced and the film becomes a buddy cop. Their comedic styles are opposite, but that is exactly what makes them complementary. The one scene with black face notwithstanding, the rest of the humor was completely on point even if some of it was a bit dated. – Jon Espino