Ah, Gene Wilder. There’s so many reasons to love you. The Producers. Young Frankenstein. Willy Wonka. The list goes on. Dammit, we miss you. And we’ve actually seen the bits you did on Will & Grace (we waited outside the room and someone would yell when you were on screen and so it was safe to watch that piece of crap show)–so we know you still have it. Please make more movies. Sigh.
Everyone’s seen the obvious Wilder classics. But Fox has brought us two of his lesser known flicks that honestly deserve a wider audience.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother is notable not only for the fact that you’ve got Wilder, along with Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman>, Dom DeLuise and Leo McKern, doing a great send-up of the titular sleuth. Wilder plays Sigerson Holmes, and resents his older brother’s talent and reputation. He gets his chance to shine, however, when Sherlock is away and sends Sigerson on a case of his own–and thus, the game is afoot. It’s notable because Wilder wrote and directed the film as well. No wonder they were able to get him in to do an audio commentary on the film.
That’s the case with World’s Greatest Lover as well, which has DeLuise again as well as Carol Kane. Wilder writes and directs and provides a commentary. This time around, he’s a regular old guy who thinks he’s got what it takes and answers Hollywood’s call for the next Valentino, only to almost lose his wife in the process.
Kudos to Fox for releasing these so that they can get the views that they are due, and Wilder is to be commended for giving us some commentaries. Now if we could just talk him into providing them for his other films (or, mayhap, convincing the studios to cough up the coin to make that happen).
Buy The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother from Amazon.
Buy The World’s Greatest Lover from Amazon.
