Confession - this movie isn’t very much about the writing process. But I didn’t have time to write a full blog this week. Enjoy.
This film was released in 1976, but the last time I saw it was sometime in the late 80s or early 90s. I’m sometimes surprised by the number of Richard Pryor movies I was allowed to watch as a child. But this blog is going to focus more on Gene Wilder’s character, a book editor onboard a train to attend a wedding. Just a quick warning that if you decide to watch the film, it does include jokes that cross some modern boundaries and use less-than-faltering stereotypes.
Silver Streak stars Wilder as George Caldwell who starts his journey meeting a cast of Agatha Christie-esque characters played by Ned Beatty as a lecherous lawman, Clifton James as an accusing sheriff, and Jill Clayburgh as the female sidekick Hilly. The cast is rounded out by bit parts by Fred Willard, Patrick McGoohan, Ray Wlston, Richard Kiel, and Scatman Crothers.
George confesses to taking the train because he needs to get some reading done for his publishing job. Hilly has recently taken a job for an academic trying to sell his book on Rembrandt so the pair quickly create the usual banter using nonfiction as the subject. The film automatically gives the notion that book editors make bank because George has a first class train cabin and orders fancy food with lots of champagne.
My question is, while George and Richard Pryor’s character are tossed into a world of art conspiracies and murder, what happened to all of the books George was supposed to be editing on the train? Those poor authors. I hope they had carbon copies.
