June 11 Gene Wilder

Happy Birthday Chad Everett and Gene Wilder.

To celebrate Gene Wilder’s birthday I watched The Little Prince. I wanted to watch a film I had not seen and as I was looking up information, I have seen 80-85% of Gene Wilder’s work and read several novels he has written. In The Little Prince I he played a fox. He was very believable as a fox.

I always loved his portrayal of Willie Wonka. The mysterious, secretive, witty, charming and strange chocolate maker. My favorite scene is where firsts takes them into the factory. It is like a wonderland. Like many films it played once a year on network or cable from the late 1970‘s til today. The opening with the candy making over the credits, the wonderful music, the Ompalumba’s (which is probably not spelled correctly) and the moral tale that each character portrays. I had the book and let a friend borrow it, she never returned it. I did not care for the non musical remake. The heart and soul were there but the body was missing.

I remember the first time I saw the original The Producers with Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel. I was too young to appreciate the song Springtime for Hitler, the Nazi and various jokes but I thought it was funny. I really liked the editing of the Broadway show opening. Gene Wilder was great as a grown man with blue blanket and becoming hysterical. The film has my favorite scene of all time. Zero is trying to convince Gene to go into producing and they are at Kennedy Center at night. Gene stands on the fountain saying “I want everything I’ve ever seen in the movies” the music swells and the fountain waters go to the sky and then he skips along the edge of the fountain. I was fortunate enough to see a traveling tour of the show and the fountain is in the stage version.

In 1989 my dad and I went to see See No Evil/Hear No Evil. If I remember right it was the first month of release and my dad and I were the only one in the theater. He didn’t really want to see the film but there wasn’t anything else up he did want to see. We were the only two people in the theater. Everything he sees or hears about Gene Wilder or Richard Pryor he brings up the fact we saw that and were the only two people in the theater. The movie was ok. It is a nice memory that he will remember the two of us together, so I in turn think of the two of us together.