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Silver Streak | 
 enlarge | Director: Arthur Hiller
Actors: Gene Wilder, Jill Clayburgh, Richard Pryor, Patrick Mcgoohan, Ned Beatty
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $3.37
You Save: $6.61 (66%)
New (10) Used (18) from $3.36
Avg. Customer Rating:  60 reviews
Sales Rank: 8419
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Languages: English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 113
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: D2221490D
UPC: 024543114901
EAN: 0024543114901
ASIN: B0002XL37E
Theatrical Release Date: December 3, 1976
Release Date: December 14, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Despite the presence of hack director Arthur Hiller, this hybrid comedy-thriller works most of the time as pleasant faux Hitchcock. Gene Wilder is a book editor who is relaxing by taking a cross-country train ride. Then he gets caught up in a murder--and becomes a suspect. It's up to him to prove his own innocence. As noted, the script, by Colin Higgins, owes a big debt to Alfred Hitchcock; but the mystery isn't all that mysterious and the comedy isn't all that hilarious--at least not until Richard Pryor shows up, which is at least halfway through the film. Things definitely pick up from there. Jill Clayburgh, as the love interest, is merely along for the train ride. Wilder and Pryor eventually teamed up for several other films, but they were never as funny together as they are in this one. --Marshall Fine
Description
In this wild comedy adventure, rail passenger George Caldwell (Gene Wilder) finds that a romantic escapade with a sultry secretary (Jill Clayburgh) puts him in the middle of a Hitchcockian murder plot. Leaping on and off the train, in and out of roomettes
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| Customer Reviews: Read 55 more reviews...
 Classic Comedy June 29, 2008
I recently bought Silver Streak on DVD to watch on my laptop while on a cross-country train trip. Even though the clothes and hair styles date this movie, it's still as funny as it was when first released. Classic Gene Wilder / Richard Pyror comedy that one never tires of watching.
 Silver Streak June 27, 2008
Probably one of the best comedies ever. I've seen it several times and have never been bored. Lots of action. It definitely belongs in my collection. Highly recommended.
 dvd May 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Not near as funny as I remembered it from the first time around years ago. I was a little disappointed.
Classic comedy December 16, 2007
Gene Wilder and Richard Prior at their best. Very funny movie, and great for the entire family.
 Better in the '70s but still worth a look September 26, 2007
Silver Streak is sort of a 1976 update of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad world with a little North by Northwest thrown in. Snappy score by Henry Mancini.
I was 29 when I saw the movie in its initial release. I thought it was a scream, one of the best movies I'd ever seen. The way Gene Wilder yells "sonofa [slang term for female dog]!" every time he gets thrown off the train. What could be funnier?
That was an era when the [slang term for illicit narcotic] flowed freely. I hardly knew anyone who didn't indulge. We usually had a few tokes to enhance the moviegoing experience. It must have worked, because in today's environment (no one I know indulges), Silver Streak is mostly unremarkable. I recently watched the movie again, hoping to revisit a durable '70s classic like Five Easy Pieces.
The movie starts with an awkward and unsettling attempt at "romance" between Gene Wilder and Jill Clayburgh. When the dead guy appeared in the window, I was thankful that it broke up the smooching scene. I couldn't have taken much more. I'm curious how Jill Clayburgh became a star. I'm not saying she's horrible, but in this movie she's bland and listless.
As with "Mad," a phalanx of character actors in cartoonish roles are trotted out to bolster the gauzy plot. In Silver Streak, Clifton James puts in another turn as the dumb-as-a-rock backwoods sheriff. Ned Beatty is an undercover agent posing as a loutish vitamin salesman. Lucille Benson is the wacky bi-plane-flying old gal who is in the movie only so the Wilder character ("Steve") can catch up with the train after being tossed off by Richard ("Jaws") Kiel, the guy with "the goldmine in his gums." And what character actor-driven movie would be complete without Ray Walston? Walston looms large here as Mr. Edgar Whiney, the villian's sidekick.
Some scenes fall flat. When Wilder tries to explain to the redneck sheriff that he is not a multiple murderer, he only digs a predictable deeper hole for himself. As the scene played out, my mind started to wander. There is a NO LOITERING sign in the sheriff's office. Who would want to loiter in a sheriff's office?
Far into the picture, Richard Pryor shows up and immediately breathes life into the goings on. There is a memorable exchange between Pryor ("Grover Muldoon") and the Patrick McGoohan villian, Devereau, when Grover is called a [racial epithet] for the second time in the movie.
Devereau: You ignorant [racial epithet]!
Pryor: Who you callin' [racial epithet], huh? You don't know me well enough to call me no [racial epithet]! I'll slap the taste out your mouth! You don't even know my name! I'll whoop your [slang term for hind end]!
Pryor delivers these lines with searing conviction. It really makes you snap awake.
Silver Streak gets two of its three stars for the scene in which Pryor tries to teach Wilder how to act black. Wilder's black impression could be one of the funniest scenes ever filmed and makes the movie worth a look. It's probably the sole reason Silver Streak makes top comedy lists.
Note: This review has been revised to remove offensive language per review guidelines.
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