See No Evil, Hear No Evil

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See No Evil, Hear No Evil
The movie cover for See No Evil, Hear No Evil.
Directed by	Arthur Hiller
Produced by	Marvin Worth
Written by	Earl Barret Arne Sultan Marvin Worth Eliot Wald Andrew Kurtzman Gene Wilder
Starring	Richard Pryor Gene Wilder Joan Severance Kevin Spacey Alan North
Music by	Stewart Copeland
Editing by	Robert C. Jones
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures
Release date(s)	May 12, 1989
Running time	103 min.
Language	English

See No Evil, Hear No Evil is a 1989 comedy film starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, directed by Arthur Hiller.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Reception 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Richard Pryor plays a blind man named Wally Karue and Gene Wilder plays a deaf man named Dave Lyons. They meet in Dave's shop, where Wally wants to get a job. After a few complications, Dave hires him. As Wally goes outside to get the newspapers for Dave, a man (Wally's bookie) comes in and asks Dave for some antacid (Dave reads lips). Playing for some time to hide a valuable gold coin, the man asks Dave to read the back of the packet to him. As Dave is reading it, the man slips the coin in a cigar box (for tips), hoping that nobody would find it. After he does it, a tall lady dressed in red comes looking for the coin. While Dave is reading, she shoots the bookie when he fails to give it to her. She slips away and disappears out of sight. Dave didn't hear the gunshot and Wally didn't see anybody but he heard the gunshot. Soon after finding that there is a dead man on the floor and with Dave holding the murder weapon, the two of them are put into jail for questioning. Wally and Dave become the prime suspects and the police refuse to believe them. The two then cunningly escape from the police station. On the run from the law, they are also tracked by the real killers, played by Joan Severance and Kevin Spacey, and their boss, played by Anthony Zerbe, who want the gold coin in their possession. Dave and Wally must be each other's eyes and ears to stop the criminals and clear their names.

[edit] Reception

TriStar Pictures was looking to produce another film starring Wilder and Pryor, and Wilder agreed to do See No Evil, Hear No Evil only if he was allowed to re-write the script. The studio agreed and See No Evil, Hear No Evil premiered on May 1989 to mostly negative reviews. Many critics praised Wilder and Pryor, and even Kevin Spacey's performances but they mostly all agreed that the script was terrible. Roger Ebert called it "a real dud",^[1] the Deseret Morning News described the film as "stupid", with an "idiotic script" that had a "contrived story" and too many "juvenile gags",^[2] while Vincent Canby called it "by far the most successful co-starring vehicle for Mr. Pryor and Mr. Wilder", also acknowledging that "this is not elegant movie making, and not all of the gags are equally clever."^[3]

Despite the negative reviews, the films was a box office success, able to stay as # 1 for two weeks.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• See No Evil, Hear No Evil at the Internet Movie Database

Preceded by Pet Sematary

Box office number-one films of 1989 (USA) May 14, 1989 – May 21, 1989

Succeeded by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

v • d • e Films directed by Arthur Hiller The Careless Years (1957) • This Rugged Land (1962) • Miracle of the White Stallions (1963) • The Wheeler Dealers (1963) • The Americanization of Emily (1964) • Promise Her Anything (1965) • Penelope (1966) • Tobruk (1967) • The Tiger Makes Out (1967) • Popi (1969) • The Out-of-Towners (1970) • Love Story (1970) • The Hospital (1971) • Plaza Suite (1971) • Man of La Mancha (1972) • The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974) • The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) • Silver Streak (1976) • W.C. Fields and Me (1976) • The In-Laws (1979) • Nightwing (1979) • Making Love (1982) • Author! Author! (1982) • Romantic Comedy (1983) • The Lonely Guy (1984) • Teachers (1984) • Outrageous Fortune (1987) • See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) • Taking Care of Business (1990) • The Babe (1992) • Married to It (1993) • Carpool (1996) • An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997) • National Lampoon's Pucked (2006)