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Aug 31, 2016mswrite rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
This was almost the film that paired Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor for the first time. (That would come a few years later, with 1980's "Stir Crazy.") Pryor co-wrote the wild and bawdy screenplay and was considered for the role of Sheriff Bart, but his burgeoning drug use and general unpredictability quashed the idea. So Warner Brothers went with veteran actor Gig Young, who'd won the 1969 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his work in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" Within days Young was fired because, um, of his drug (alcohol) use and general unpredictability... But it all worked out anyway, because the cool, elegant and dryly witty Mr. Cleavon Little was simply letter-perfect as Rock Ridge's first Black sheriff. Little is priceless in his suave seduction of the Wonderfully Wacky Madelyn Khan and inspired in those moments when he breaks the Fourth Wall to address the audience directly. (The manic Pryor could never have brought any of this off.) He has such terrific chemistry with Wilder it's a shame they didn't work together again. A special affectionate nod to the peerless Harvey Korman, then and now best known as Carol Burnett's brilliant second banana, in his hilarious turn as the weaselly Hedy--"That's HEDLEY!"--Lamarr, whose schemes set the lunacy in motion. NOTE: A word to those with delicate sensibilities. This film is unapologetically politically incorrect. It was conceived, written and produced in an era when Hollywood was finally loosening up about race and America's racial history--the groundbreaking TV series "All In The Family" debuted the year "Blazing Saddles" was released--and mainstream humor was becoming more pointedly satirical and confrontational. This was certainly true for Pryor, who initially got in the comedy door following Cosby's gentler, family-oriented style but by the early seventies was coming into his own as a take-no-prisoners stand-up comic.