Stir Crazy (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stir Crazy
Directed by	Sidney Poitier
Produced by	Hannah Weinstein
Written by	Bruce Jay Friedman
Starring	Gene Wilder Richard Pryor Miguel Angel Suarez
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	December 12, 1980
Language	English

Stir Crazy is a 1980 American comedy film starring Gene Wilder & Richard Pryor as two men framed for a bank robbery and each ending up with a 125 year prison sentence, alongside Puerto Rican actor, Miguel Angel Suarez. In 2000, Total Film magazine voted it the 22nd greatest comedy film of all time.

[edit] Plot

Skip Donahue and Harry Monroe are two down-on-their-luck men trying to break into show business. They leave New York for Hollywood after they both get fired from their jobs (Skip for accusing an actress of robbery from the store he worked at, and Harry after a fellow caterer put his marijuana in several meals, believing it to be oregano). To get the bills paid, they dress up as two woodpeckers for a local bank, where they perform a song-and-dance routine as part of a promotion for the bank. Little do they realize that two men are watching them...and also planning the perfect crime (Skip and Harry met them earlier in a bar). The men wait until Harry and Skip remove their costumes to take a break. They steal the costumes and perform the routine under the pretense of being Harry and Skip. They then use the ruse to rob the bank. Harry and Skip are immediately arrested upon their return and whisked through a speedy trial that lands them a 125-year jail sentence, which would make them eligible for parole in 30 years.

As the film progresses, Skip is selected to compete in the prison's annual rodeo competition, after the warden sees his prowess on a mechanical bull in his office. After Skip politely refuses the warden's request to participate, the warden locks him and Harry in with Grossberger, a convicted mass murderer of incredible size and strength who refuses to speak and is feared by the inmates and guards alike. Thinking that Grossberger has beaten the pair to a pulp or worse the following morning, the guards are taken aback when they see the trio playing cards in their cell. Grossberger breaks his silence one time soon after this scene, when he sings " Birmingham Jail" during an awkward moment.

Skip and Harry decide to use the rodeo as an opportunity to plan their escape, with Grossberger's help. The ruse works, but after their escape, they learn that the police have captured the real crooks, who have confessed to the bank robbery that wrongly convicted them.

The 1985 CBS sitcom of the same title was loosely based on the film but did not have any of the film's stars involved with it.