THE FRISCO KID (1979) ** Gene Wilder is the locomotive Polish rabbi on his way to the coast to marry a woman with big cleavage he's only seen in a photo, keeping the faith while crossing the wild west and facing bigotry at every turn, militant indians bearing peyote, the occasional beer, saloon fights, the elements, and his own limited survival skills. Fortunately providence provides him with bank robber Harrison Ford as a guide and accessory. For a comedy there's nothing particularly funny about it, but Gene is so warm that you can't help suspecting that his great strengths are as a human, perhaps, rather than as an actor, even though his accent of a Polish rabbi pretending to be a cowpoke couldn't be more perfect as it slides back and forth. And what's more important? Mr. Ford wasn't yet the star that he was to become and it's his acting that slides in and out, ranging from tough guy funny to wildly and unintentionally over the top. I can see how some might consider that this film trivializes anti-Semitism and bigotry, but that's not what I got out of it. Rabbi Gene's gentle character with an iron resolve charms and finds common ground with many an initially hostile spirit, and his faith unquestionably saves him in those rare cases where his strengths are not enough alone. As counterpoint Robert Aldrich can't help flashing in a few dramatic closeups of gun barrels. And that, my friends, is how San Francisco gained its first rabbi. Actually, I'm sure that the real story is at least as dramatic.