#Gene wilder

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YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) — dir. Mel Brooks

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GENE WILDER as WILLY WONKA in WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971)

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Puttin on the riiiiiiiitz 🧟‍♂️

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Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder in "Blazing Saddles" (released 50 years ago today in 1974)

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Blazing Saddles (1974) // Dir. Mel Brooks

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Young Frankenstein (1974)

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1974.

New Jersey critics had it out for Mel Brooks.

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Teri Garr (RIP), Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle and Mel Brooks behind the scenes: Young Frankenstein, 1974

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Teri Garr, Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman on the set of Young Frankenstein (1974)

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WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971) dir. Mel Stuart

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Just watched the Wonka movie.

I enjoyed it as a standalone film but especially enjoyed it as a prequel to the Gene Wilder Wonka. It retroactively made Wider’s Willy so much more tragic.

And that’s because Chalamet’s younger, earnest and kind Willy Wonka is CONSTANTLY having his kindness and compassion and belief in the good intentions of others thrown back at his face almost. Every. Single. Time.

What happens to him, in no particular order: People take advantage of him when he is at his lowest; they sabotage his chocolate; Hugh Grant steal his chocolate and beats him with a frying pan; he is nearly drowned by the chief of police; a boat he’s in is rigged to explode; they try to drown him AGAIN but now in melted chocolate under a church; he is tricked into debt and forced into indentured servitude; the chocolate mafia wants him dead; he has to crawl in the sewers just to sell his chocolate without the police beating the shit out of him at the chocolate mafia’s command, and a bunch of other moments either his earnest nature (or the fact he is illiterate, because by the way he is illiterate) is taken advantage of.

But he keeps believing in the good of others. He has friends, and a pseudo daughter that taught him how to read and his mother’s memory and so many dreams…

And then we arrive at Wilder Wonka. Who was betrayed one too many times. Who had his recipes stolen from him. Who shut himself from the world and trusts no one.

Who doesn’t care for these spoiled people walking around his factory, even if they were his last attempt at proving to himself that good people, good kids (Like Noodle) still exist.

Who is alone.

TL;DR: seeing a young Wonka who is so optimistic knowing how he is going to end up after being betrayed over and over and over again is a emotional experience that I was not quite ready for.