Just rewatched this Richard Donner movie starring Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason after 30 years on Netflix Streaming just now. In this one, Pryor plays Jack Brown, an unemployed reporter whose house may be put up for sale unless he gets a job so he finds employment, initially as a maid, for Gleason's U.S. Bates before being reassigned as his son, Eric's (Scott Schwartz), "toy". I'll stop there and just say that despite the silly premise and some potentially stereotypically offensive situations, I did laugh plenty again at many of Pryor's shenanigans with Schwartz and Gleason still was good for some reaction shots especially when he says "woof". Also funny are Ned Beatty-who previously was in Pryor's Silver Streak but has scenes with him here for the first time since co-star Gene Wilder had the lion's share of lines with him there-as toady Mr. Morehouse and Teresa Ganzel as Fancy, U.S.'s (or in her pronunciation-You Ass) wife. It does get really contrived near the end but still, The Toy was fun and somewhat inspirational to me still. With that out of the way, if you're familiar with my reviews, you know that I always like to cite when productions have something associated with my current hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Well, this movie was shot there and I always like recognizing many of the city's landmarks like a brick structure I noticed at the beginning as Pryor encounters a limousine with his first meeting with Fancy there or a scene inside Goudchaux's Department Store-a building that still exists though the store is no more-with his riding the Wonder Wheel or the Indian Mounds near LSU that Jack and Eric walk on and, most awesome of all, two scenes of the State Capital-one seen through the windows of U.S. Bates's office as he makes Morehouse take his pants off in front of Jack and Eric and the other as the latter two are walking near the building's grounds. Also, a couple of players are familiar to me: Linda McCann, who appears in a party scene and at the end, was a teacher of a classmate of mine during my days before high school. She plays Honey Russell. And Robert Earle, who played a poker player at the beginning, was known to me as Bob Earle, president of WIBR-AM 1300, who did promotions for and introed many old-time radio programs for the Top 40 station during the 1979-80 season before it switched to country as I-13 during the latter part of the year. That station went off the air after Hurricane Gustav went through the area on September 1, 2008. Oh, and one more thing, I also like to cite when someone from my birthtown of Chicago, Ill. is associated with the production who in this case was screenwriter Carol Sobieski who had also adapted Annie starring Albert Finney and Carol Burnett earlier in the year.
The Toy
(1982)
Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason made The Toy tolerable as entertainment
17 February 2012