See No Evil, Hear No Evil

This past week, we lost legendary filmmaker Arthur Hiller. Hiller was behind such classics as the original The Out Of Towners, The In-Laws, and The Hospital, not to mention the comedy classic Silver Streak with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. In 1989, he reteamed with these two funnymen for See No Evil, Hear No Evil.

Wilder is Dave, a deaf man who runs a newspaper stand. He hires Wally, Pryor, a blind man desperate for work. The two become quick friends, and just as quickly become targets for two killers, Kevin Spacey and Joan Severance, who murdered a man at Dave's stand.

The whole blind guy/deaf guy routine may sound like a one joke movie, and it is a bit gimmicky, but Pryor and Wilder make it work with some really funny results. Wilder originally turned it down due to it's depiction of the deaf and blind, but the studio let him rewrite it. Plus Wilder and Pryor were so careful to not insult the blind or deaf communities that Wilder went to the NY School For The Hard Of Hearing and Pryor went to the Braille Institute OF LA to prepare for their roles.

Spacey and Severance, who also played a murderous duo on the tv show Wiseguy, are also terrific as the evil twosome. Spacey, for reasons unknown, is ashamed of this picture. I don't get it. He just did a talking cat movie but hides this one from his resume.

This was a pretty big hit when it originally came out, but it doesn't seem to be as well remembered as Silver Streak or Stir Crazy. Personally, I think it was the best teaming of Pryor and Wilder. It's a shame that this wasn't their last film together. They could have gone out on a high note instead of appearing in the dreadful Another You.

It's available on dvd and blu ray.