Silver Streak

Directed by Arthur Hiller, Silver Streak follows Gene Wilder’s mild-mannered George Caldwell as he finds himself caught up in a complicated murder scheme during a cross-country train ride. Filmmaker Hiller, armed with Colin Higgins’ screenplay, delivers an exceedingly erratic comedy that isn’t, for the most part, as engaging or engrossing as one might’ve anticipated, which is a shame, ultimately, given that the movie boasts a predictably captivating Wilder performance and a handful of admittedly compelling sequences – with, in terms of the latter, the runaway-train finale certainly ensuring that the picture concludes on an impressively potent and exciting note. The movie’s less-than-engrossing atmosphere is perpetuated and compounded by a mystery that isn’t, for the most part, as captivating (or even interesting) as Hiller has obviously intended, and there’s little doubt, consequently, that the film’s padded-out midsection contains its fair share of tedious stretches and palpable lulls. (It doesn’t help, either, that the narrative is oftentimes far too convoluted to comfortably follow.) It’s clear, then, that Silver Streak benefits substantially from the chemistry between Wilder and his two primary costars, Jill Clayburgh and Richard Pryor, with the film unsurprisingly at its best when focused on George’s all-too-brief encounters with Pryor’s appreciatively over-the-top figure. (It’s impossible, certainly, not to get a kick out of the decidedly un-PC sequence wherein Pryor’s Grover Muldoon helps George disguise himself as a black man to escape the police.) The final result is an endeavor that could (and should) have been trimmed down significantly from its 114 minute runtime, as Silver Streak does, generally speaking, feel like a fairly solid comedy trapped within the confines of a thoroughly bloated example of hit-and-miss moviemaking.

**1/2 out of ****