By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Ever watched a movie where the actors are so good that they elevate an otherwise mediocre script? These are the films that remind us that great performers can transform the simplest story into something transcendently funny. And whether you need to experience such transcendence or just need a few good laughs, now is the perfect time to watch See No Evil, Hear No Evil on Netflix.
See No Evil, Hear No Evil is a pretty direct title…you see, one of our main characters is deaf and the other one is blind. The two begin working together, but it doesn’t take long before they are accused of a crime they didn’t commit. They set out to clear their good names, but it soon becomes clear that cleaning up their reputation may cost this dynamic duo their lives.
The best reason to stream See No Evil, Hear No Evil on Netflix is that it has a wonderfully off-kilter cast that includes Richard Pryor, the legendary comedian arguably best known to movie buffs for his appearance in Superman III. It also stars fellow funnyman Gene Wilder, best known for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory as well as Young Frankenstein. Rounding out the cast of familiar faces is Kevin Spacey, best known for L.A. Confidential and American Beauty (and, yes, some fairly notorious Hollywood allegations).
At the box office, audiences were all too happy to see some Evil: the film ultimately earned $46.9 million against a budget of $18 million. That’s the kind of profit that would normally merit a sequel, but this side-splittingly funny movie never got a proper follow-up. With that being said, Wilder and Pryor were regular collaborators who starred in films like Blazing Saddles and Brewster’s Millions, and they went on to make one more film together after this: the quirky 1991 comedy Another You.
On Rotten Tomatoes, See No Evil, Hear No Evil has a critical score of 29 percent. The site’s critic consensus is particularly brutal: “A film whose title offers words to live by as well as a warning, See No Evil, Hear No Evil proves that even a brilliant comedy duo can team up for an unfunny dud.” Notably the movie has an audience score of 72 percent, and it was the number one movie in America for its first two weeks despite being absolutely savaged by the critics.
That makes this one of the occasions where the critics got it completely backward: while See No Evil, Hear No Evil really does have a barebones script, the performances of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor make this film completely compelling from beginning to end. Critics might have found this an “unfunny dud,” but audiences didn’t. That’s why this film was such a box office success and remains a beloved classic to this day.
Of course, there’s one caveat here: your enjoyment of See No Evil, Hear No Evil entirely depends on how funny you think Wilder and Pryor are. Around here, we could watch these guys read a phone book, and we consider these two comedy pioneers for Blazing Saddles alone. These two are funnier on their worst day than most comedians on their best, and their chemistry keeps each scene crackling with potently electric energy.
Will you find See No Evil, Hear No Evil as laugh as raucously funny as we did, or will this film make you wish you were both deaf and blind? You won’t know until you watch it for yourself. Afterward, you may be tempted to binge-watch every single one of these late, great comic legends’ films.
