GENE WILDER

In the 1960s Mel Brooks found his ideal crazy-eyed crazy guy to perfectly fit into his crazy movies. His name was Gene Wilder, and it’s hard to imagine the great Brooks films without him. Mr. Wilder died recently at 83. 
His breakthrough role was as Eugene Grizzard, an undertaker of all things, and a hostage of the outlaws in Bonnie And Clyde (1967). It isn’t a big part, but he makes the most of it. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are just right as the trashy, murderous bank robbers. This is one of the first films to use the slow motion multi-gunshot scene that has become a standard take. The outlaws are on the receiving end of this.
In that same year, Gene Wilder joined the Brooks gang in the hilarious The Producers. Zero Mostel plays the nefarious producer Max Bialistock and Wilder is the easily swayed accountant Leopold Bloom. They combine to produce a musical that is a cinch to be a failure: Springtime For Hitler. They plan to skim the money raised for the production after their play tanks. But it doesn’t tank, it becomes a huge hit and their plan is doomed to fail (“Where did we go right?”). The Producers also became a smash hit as a Broadway musical. The movie was remade with music, and featured Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.  All three productions (get it?) are hilarious.
Four years later, Gene Wilder became the magical, mysterious main character in Willie Wonka And The Chocolate Factory. He runs a candy factory visited by several obnoxious children and their obnoxious parents. Charlie is the only good kid and is duly rewarded. My favorite bad kid is the greedy Mike TV. While certainly not without its charm, I find this film slightly creepy. The remake with Johnny Depp is, like most remakes, a dud. 
Gene Wilder again teams up with Mel Brooks in the classic Blazing Saddles (1974). This film is in my all-time top five. From Alex Karras knocking out a horse with his fist to Harvey Korman as Hedley (not Heddy!) Lamarr, this movie is a laugh a minute. Mr. Wilder plays Jim, the Waco Kid, the sidekick of the newly appointed black sheriff played by Cleavon Little. The ripe-for-plucking small town is populated entirely by white people named Johnson. But the sheriff and his sidekick win them over and justice sort of prevails. Trivia bit: One of the writers was Richard Pryor!
In the same year (!) Brooks and Wilder teamed up for the marvelous Young Frankenstein, with Wilder as the title character, a grandson of the infamous Dr. Frankenstein. He of course also creates a monster (Peter Boyle) aided by his very weird assistant played by Marty Feldman. This film is high camp indeed and very funny!
Gene Wilder plays mild-mannered book editor George Caldwell in Silver Streak (1976). He is falsely accused of murder and steals a sheriff’s car containing arrested criminal Grover Muldoon (Richard Pryor). The plot is too complicated to replicate here. Let’s just say it is intermittently funny and is Gene Wilder’s last really good film.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. Willy Wonka is fine for all ages; the others are okay for 12 and up.