Podcast 254: The Frisco Kid

Movie Title: The Frisco Kid
Release Date: July 13, 1979
Runtime: 119 minutes / 1 hr 59 min
Director: Robert Aldrich
Screenplay Written By: Michael Elias and Frank Shaw
Based On: Original screenplay; not based on prior source material.
Is it a remake?: No. AFI notes Warner Bros. also made a 1935 film titled Frisco Kid, but the 1979 film is otherwise unrelated.

Main Cast:

Gene Wilder
Harrison Ford
Ramon Bieri
Val Bisoglio
George DiCenzo
Leo Fuchs
Penny Peyser
William Smith
Jack Somack
Vincent Schiavelli
Ian Wolfe

Budget: Approximately $9.2 million to $10 million. Wikipedia reports $9.2 million; AFI cites a producer statement reporting production costs of $10 million.

Box Office:

Domestic: $9,346,177
Worldwide: $9,346,177, based on Box Office Mojo’s current listing with no international total reported.

Awards:

IMDb lists 2 nominations total.
Stinkers Bad Movie Awards nomination — Worst Fake Accent: Male, Gene Wilder.
No major Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA, or Saturn Award nominations verified from the sources checked.

Core credits, runtime, release date, production company, budget range, and box office were cross-checked through AFI Catalog, IMDb, Box Office Mojo, and Wikipedia.

Short Plot Summary:

A naïve Polish rabbi, Avram Belinski, travels to America to lead a Jewish congregation in San Francisco. After being robbed and stranded, he slowly makes his way west through a series of frontier misadventures. Along the way, he is helped by Tommy Lillard, a bank robber with a reluctant conscience. Their journey becomes an odd-couple western about faith, friendship, survival, and finding courage in a strange new country.

Key Quotes:

“Come back! Come here, horsie! I’ll be good to you. I’ll be nice!” — Avram
“You sure talk funny. Where you born at?” — Tommy
“Poland.” — Avram
“Oh. Is that near Pittsburgh?” — Tommy
“No, that’s near Czechoslovakia.” — Avram
“I think I can say with complete confidence… none, whatsoever. But I’m still hungry.” — Avram

Quotes verified through IMDb quote listings and secondary quote databases.

Trivia

Director:
- Robert Aldrich directed the film; AFI lists him as director and Warner Bros. as the production/distribution company.
- AFI reports that Aldrich replaced Dick Richards as director during the final weeks before shooting.
- The original title was No Knife, but Warner Bros. changed it to The Frisco Kid after the earlier title tested poorly with theatergoers.
- Producer Mace Neufeld said he optioned the property in 1971, but studios initially showed little interest in a story centered on a rabbi. Warner Bros. approved the project in November 1977.
Cast / Casting:
- Gene Wilder plays Rabbi Avram Belinski, and Harrison Ford plays outlaw Tommy Lillard.
- AFI reports Wilder turned down the role of Avram twice before accepting after reading a revised second draft in 1977.
- Wilder worked closely with writers Michael Elias and Frank Shaw to polish later drafts.
- John Wayne was reportedly interested in playing Tommy Lillard but ultimately declined the part.
- During development, a possible pairing of Dustin Hoffman as Avram and Jack Nicholson as Tommy was also considered.
- Frank De Vol, the film’s composer, also appears onscreen as a piano player/old timer.
Soundtrack / Score:
- Frank De Vol composed the music. AFI and Wikipedia both list De Vol as the film’s composer.
- AFI credits Baruch Cohon with “original chant,” reflecting the film’s use of Jewish religious material within its western-comedy framework.
- The score supports the film’s mix of frontier western, road movie, religious comedy, and sentimental buddy story.
Location:
- Principal photography began October 30, 1978, in Greeley, Colorado.
- The production later moved to Arizona near Nogales and the San Rafael Valley, where Native American sequences and the cliff-jumping stunt were filmed.
- Additional locations included Tucson, Saguaro National Monument, Texas Canyon, El Capitan Beach north of Santa Barbara, Lake Tahoe, and Jenner, California.
- Cast and crew also used four soundstages at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and the backlot of The Burbank Studios.
- AFI reports the shooting schedule totaled 61 days and finished three days early.
Act 1:
- Avram Belinski is sent from Poland to San Francisco to serve as a rabbi for a new congregation.
- He arrives in Philadelphia but quickly proves inexperienced with American travel, frontier customs, and basic survival.
- Avram is tricked by con men, robbed, and left stranded, turning his religious mission into a long survival journey west.
- The early mistaken-identity material includes Avram encountering Amish people and initially assuming they are fellow Jews because of their clothing and appearance.
Act 2:
- Avram eventually crosses paths with Tommy Lillard, a bank robber who becomes his reluctant protector and guide.
- Their friendship becomes the movie’s central odd-couple structure: Avram is guided by faith and innocence, while Tommy survives through outlaw pragmatism.
- One key comic conflict involves Avram refusing to ride on the Sabbath, even when danger is close behind.
- The journey includes encounters with Native American characters, harsh weather, frontier violence, and a monastery sequence built around silence and misunderstanding.
Act 3:
- Near San Francisco, Avram again encounters the men who robbed him earlier in the film.
- A beach confrontation forces Avram into a moral crisis when he kills in self-defense.
- Avram begins doubting whether he is still worthy to be a rabbi, especially after realizing he prioritized saving the Torah over saving Tommy.
- Tommy helps restore Avram’s confidence by reminding him that his actions do not erase who he is inside.
- The ending resolves Avram’s journey in San Francisco, where he regains his composure, faces his enemies, and begins his new life with Tommy as his best man.
Easter Eggs:
- The title The Frisco Kid reused the name of an unrelated 1935 Warner Bros. film set during the mid-19th century. AFI specifically notes the 1979 movie is otherwise unrelated to the earlier production.
- The poster tagline — “The greatest cowboy who ever rode into the wild west… from Poland.” — sells the film’s central fish-out-of-water joke.
- The original title No Knife connects directly to Avram’s nonviolent religious identity, but the studio replaced it with a more marketable western-comedy title.
- Harrison Ford’s casting came shortly after Star Wars and before Raiders of the Lost Ark, placing the film in an interesting transition point in his late-1970s career.
Misc:
- AFI reports the film received poor-to-mixed reviews overall, though several contemporary reviews praised Wilder’s performance.
- Box Office Mojo lists the film’s domestic opening at $160,292 from 26 theaters and total domestic gross at $9,346,177.
- Wikipedia lists the film’s first-year U.S. box office as $4.7 million, while Box Office Mojo’s current total is $9,346,177; use Box Office Mojo for the current box-office total and note the discrepancy if discussing historical trade reporting.
- AFI states the production cost was reported as $10 million, while Wikipedia lists the budget as $9.2 million.