''Stir Crazy'' is a 1980 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by Sidney Poitier, produced by

Hannah Weinstein Hannah Weinstein ( Dorner; June 23, 1911 – March 9, 1984) was an American journalist, publicist and left-wing political activist who moved to Britain and became a television producer. She is best remembered for having produced ''The Adventure ...

and written by

Bruce Jay Friedman The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...

. The film stars

Gene Wilder Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016), known professionally as Gene Wilder, was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He is known mainly for his comedic roles, but also for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in ''Willy Won ...

and

Richard Pryor Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as on ...

as two unemployed friends who are given 125-year prison sentences after getting framed for a bank robbery. While in prison they befriend other prison inmates. The film reunited Wilder and Pryor, who had appeared previously in the 1976 comedy thriller film '' Silver Streak''. The film was released in the United States on December 12, 1980 to mixed critical reviews, but was a major financial success.

Plot

Aspiring

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

Harry Monroe (Pryor) is working as a waiter in a rich woman's penthouse, but is fired when the cooks accidentally use his stash of marijuana as oregano at a dinner party. His friend, playwright Skip Donahue (Wilder), is working as a shop detective when he thinks he sees a well-known actress shoplifting, and his accusation gets him fired. Skip, the optimist of the two, spins their shared unemployment positively and convinces Harry that they should travel to California. They leave

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in a battered Dodge camper-van, taking odd jobs along the way. In

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, Skip and Harry perform a song and dance routine dressed as woodpeckers as part of a promotion for a bank. While the duo are on a break, two men steal the costumes and rob the bank. However, Harry and Skip are arrested and convicted of the crime, and given 125-year jail sentences. Their court-appointed lawyer, Len Garber, advises them to wait until he can appeal their case. The two are transferred to a maximum-security prison. After a failed attempt at faking

insanity Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or t ...

, they make friends with Jesus Ramirez, a bank robber, and Rory Schultebrand, an overtly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

man who killed his stepfather. After three months, Skip and Harry visit Warden Walter Beatty and Deputy Warden Ward Wilson, the head guard, to perform a "test" on a

mechanical bull A mechanical bull, also known as a bucking machine, is a device that replicates the sensation of riding a bucking animal, such as a rodeo bull or horse popularized by Sherwood Cryer. It is usually powered by a variable-speed electric motor. P ...

. To everyone's surprise, Skip is able to ride the bull at full power, so Beatty selects him to compete in the prison's annual rodeo competition. Jesus and Rory inform Harry and Skip that the rodeo is a crooked operation run by Beatty and Warden Henry Sampson, who heads the neighboring prison. The money from the rodeo, which is supposed to go to the prisoners, ends up in the wardens' pockets. Realizing Skip will be selected as the prison's new champion, Jesus and Rory hatch a plan for escape involving Skip refusing to participate until the warden provides concessions. They warn Skip that he will be tortured by the warden first. Skip, however, has a blasé attitude towards everything the guards throw at him, including a week in the "hot box" and forcing him and Harry to share a cell with hulking, seemingly-mute serial killer Grossberger. Harry and Skip are visited by Garber, who introduces them to his law partner, his cousin Meredith, to whom Skip is immediately attracted. Later, Skip meets with Beatty to make a deal: In exchange for his participation in the rodeo, Skip requests his own crew (Harry, Jesus, Rory and Grossberger), along with a shared cell for the five of them. Beatty agrees, later ordering Wilson to have a guard watch them at all times. Wilson reveals to his esteemed colleague, former rodeo champion Jack Graham, that Skip will not leave the rodeo alive. While practicing for the rodeo, Skip, Harry, Jesus, Rory, and Grossberger acquire tools they need for their escape, while Meredith gets a job as a waitress in a country western strip club searching for possible suspects and encounters the real bank robbers. At the stadium where the rodeo is being held, each member of Skip's team but Grossberger escape through a secret path, taking them through air vents to be met by either Jesus' wife or brother. Once through, they put on their disguises and re-enter the grounds as audience members. Skip competes against rival champion Caesar Geronimo to swipe the prize: a bag of money from the horns of a large,

Brahman In Hinduism, ''Brahman'' ( sa, ब्रह्मन्) connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), ''Idealistic Thought of India'', Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part X ...

bull. Skip suggests that they give the money to the prisoners, and offers to help Caesar win if he agrees to do so. Caesar wins, and throws the bag to the inmates, while Skip escapes and joins his friends. At a secret meeting spot, Jesus and Rory bid Harry and Skip farewell as they leave for

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Harry and Skip get in their car, but are intercepted by Garber and Meredith. She tells Harry and Skip that the police have collared the real crooks, and Harry and Skip intend to resume their original idea of going to Hollywood. Skip asks Meredith to go with him, and she agrees to it.

Cast

as Skip Donahue *

as Harry Monroe *

Georg Stanford Brown Georg Stanford Brown (born June 24, 1943) is an American actor and director, perhaps best known as one of the stars of the ABC police television series '' The Rookies'' from 1972 to 1976. On the show, Brown played the character of Officer Terry ...

as Rory Schultebrand *

JoBeth Williams Margaret JoBeth Williams (born December 6, 1948) is an American actress and television director. Her directorial debut with the 1994 short film ''On Hope'' earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film. In 2009 she began ...

as Meredith *

Miguel Ángel Suárez Miguel Ángel Suárez (July 5, 1939 – April 1, 2009) was a Puerto Rican soap opera and movie actor. Early years Suárez and his sister were born into a middle-class family and raised in the Santurce section of San Juan, Puerto Rico. His fathe ...

as Jesus Ramirez *

Craig T. Nelson Craig Theodore Nelson (born April 4, 1944) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Hayden Fox in the sitcom ''Coach'' (for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series), Deputy Ward Wilson in the 19 ...

as Deputy Warden Ward Wilson *

Barry Corbin Leonard Barrie Corbin (born October 16, 1940) is an American actor. He is best known for his starring role as Maurice Minnifield on the television series '' Northern Exposure'' (1990–1995), which earned him two consecutive Primetime Emmy Awar ...

as Warden Walter Beatty * Charles Weldon as Blade * Nicolas Coster as Warden Henry Sampson *

Joel Brooks Joel Brooks (born December 17, 1949) is an American actor, known for his roles in '' Stir Crazy'', ''My Sister Sam'', '' Six Feet Under'', '' The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green'' and '' Phil of the Future''. Brooks also had a recurr ...

as Len Garber *

Jonathan Banks Jonathan Ray Banks (born January 31, 1947) is an American actor. Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Chillum Heights, Maryland, while attending Indiana University Bloomington Banks did theatre. In 1974, he moved to Los Angeles where he be ...

as Jack Graham * Erland Van Lidth as Grossberger *

Lewis Van Bergen Lewis Van Bergen (November 9, 1938 – April 6, 2018) was an American actor, best known for his role as Jon Sable on the short-lived 1987 television series '' Sable''. He was in the film '' Bugsy'' in the role of Joey Adonis, with whom Bugsy ...

as Guard #1 *

Franklyn Ajaye Franklyn Ajaye (born May 13, 1949) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. His nickname is "The Jazz Comedian" for his distinctive jazz-inflected style of delivery, timing, and astute use of silence. He released a series of comedy a ...

as Young Man in Hospital *

Cedrick Hardman Cedrick Ward Hardman (October 4, 1948 – March 8, 2019) was an American Football defensive end who played for the National Football League's San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders and the United States Football League's Oakland Invaders. Hardm ...

as Big Mean * Luis Ávalos as Chico *

Esther Sutherland Esther Sutherland (August 29, 1932 – December 31, 1986) was an American film actress who made a name for herself in several features of the 1970s and 1980s often portraying nurses, maids, spinster aunts, Jamaican women, cleaning ladies, an ...

as Sissie * Pamela Poitier as Mavis *

Claudia Cron Claudia Cron is an American actress and model who, while attending Parson's School of Design was discovered by Eileen Ford and signed to Ford Models. She appeared in ''Vogue'', and from 1979–1986 was under contract with Estee Lauder as the f ...

as Joy *

Grand L. Bush Grand Lee Bush (born December 24, 1955) is an American actor of stage, television and major motion pictures. Early life and education Bush was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actor Robert Bush and his wife Essie Bush. Shakespearean- ...

as Slowpoke *

Alvin Ing Alvin Y. F. Ing (May 26, 1932 – July 31, 2021) was an American singer and actor. His career included movies, television, musical theatre, and cabaret acts. Early life, family and education Ing was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He studied music at ...

as Doctor *

Herbert Hirschman Herbert Hirschman (April 13, 1914 – July 3, 1985) was an American television producer and director. He produced shows as '' Perry Mason'' and the fourth season of ''The Twilight Zone''. Hirschman died in July 1985 of an illness A d ...

as Man at Dinner Party *

Mickey Jones Mickey Jones (June 10, 1941 – February 7, 2018) was an American musician and actor. He played drums with acts such as Trini Lopez and Bob Dylan, with whom he played on his 1966 world tour. He became a founding member of The First Edition ...

as Guard #8 *

Billy Beck Billy Beck (born Frank Billerbeck; May 26, 1920 – June 29, 2011) was an American clown and character actor. Career Beck began his career as a clown at the legendary Cirque Medrano in Paris, France, in the late 1950s, and appeared in sm ...

as Flycatching Prisoner * Lee Purcell as Susan

Production

The film was shot in

Manhattan, New York Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

; Burbank, California;

St. George, Utah St. George is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Utah, United States. Located in southwestern Utah on the Arizona border, it is the principal city of the St. George Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The city lies in the northe ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

and

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

in 56 days from March 13 to May 8, 1980. With ''Stir Crazy'', Pryor became the first black actor to earn a million dollars for a single film.

Reception

Box office

The film was a box office success, setting a record opening week for Columbia Pictures of $12,972,131 and then setting a studio record $15,336,245 the following week, including a studio record single day gross of $3,237,279. It went on to gross $101,300,000, being the third-highest-grossing film of 1980, behind ''

The Empire Strikes Back ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based on a stor ...

'' and '' 9 to 5''. It was Columbia's third film to gross $100 million and third highest-grossing film of all time, after ''

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. It tells the story ...

'' and ''

Kramer vs. Kramer ''Kramer vs. Kramer'' is a 1979 American legal drama film written and directed by Robert Benton, based on Avery Corman's 1977 novel of the same name. The film stars Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander, and Justin Henry. It tells the sto ...

''. The box office total marked the first time a film directed by an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

earned more than $100 million.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''Stir Crazy'' has an approval rating of 69% based on 16 reviews. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

it has a score of 56% based on reviews from 6 critics. Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four and wrote that it "starts strong", but "once Wilder and Pryor are thrown into prison, it seems to lose its way" as "the movie gets bogged down in developing its own plot. That is not always the best thing for a comedy to do, because if we're not laughing, it hardly matters what happens to the plot."

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' panned the film as "a prison comedy of quite stunning humorlessness" which "appears to have been improvised, badly, more often than written." Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' wrote, "Sidney Poitier has directed ''Stir Crazy'' as if it were as much fun as his previous comedies—e.g., ''

Uptown Saturday Night Uptown may refer to: Neighborhoods or regions in several cities United States * Uptown, entertainment district east of Downtown and Midtown Albuquerque, New Mexico * Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina * Uptown, area surrounding the University of Ci ...

''. But no amount of bouncy good-naturedness can disguise the stretched-thin quality of the material." Gene Siskel of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' was positive, giving the film three stars out of four and writing, "There are explosively funny moments in this prison comedy that wouldn't be there without Pryor, who radiates a comic energy in a scene even when he's merely standing still." ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote, "The extensive comic talents of Richard Pryor take a below average film like ''Stir Crazy'' and make it into an often funny and saleable picture." Gary Arnold of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' also liked the film, stating that it "blends several inventive, high-spirited performing talents into a tangy, cheerful entertainment."

David Ansen David Ansen is an American film critic. He was a senior editor for ''Newsweek'', where he served as film critic from 1977 to 2008 and subsequently contribute to the magazined in a freelance capacity. Prior to writing for ''Newsweek'', he served a ...

of ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'' found the film "only intermittently funny", remarking that writer Bruce Jay Friedman is "trying for a formula film and can't land on the right formula. Is it a buddy movie, a caper comedy, a parody of prison films, an urban-cowboy neo-Western, a New York vs. Sun Belt comedy? Unfortunately it's more of a shambles than any of the above, albeit a fairly genial one." The film was nominated for a

Razzie Award The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...

for Worst Supporting Actress for Georg Stanford Brown in drag.

Television series

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

adapted ''Stir Crazy'' as a

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

as part of its 1985 fall lineup. This version starred Larry Riley as Harry Fletcher and Joseph Guzaldo as Skip Harrington, who were

wrongfully convicted A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Inno ...

and sentenced to 132 years in prison. While working on a chain gang, they escape and set out after Crawford (Marc Silver), the man who had actually committed the crime for which they had been sentenced. None of the people involved in the film had a major role in this series. It was pulled from the CBS fall lineup in October 1985, the month after its premiere, and put on hiatus. It returned in a new time slot in December 1985 and a few more episodes were aired, also to low ratings. The program was permanently cancelled after the January 7, 1986 broadcast.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stir Crazy 1980 films 1980 comedy films 1980s buddy comedy films 1980s crime comedy films 1980s prison films African-American comedy films American buddy comedy films Films about miscarriage of justice American crime comedy films American prison comedy films Columbia Pictures films 1980s English-language films Films adapted into television shows Films directed by Sidney Poitier Films scored by Tom Scott Films set in Arizona Films set in California Films set in Manhattan Films set in New York City Films set in prison Films shot in Arizona Films shot in California Films shot in New York City Films shot in Utah Films about prison escapes Films with screenplays by Bruce Jay Friedman 1980s American films