The Frisco Kid (1979) on Netflix
A Polish rabbi, Avram Belinski, travels to San Francisco to lead a congregation. Con men rob him on the road, and a bank robber named Tommy Lillard befriends him.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.4/1011,236 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes53%
Trailer
Plot summary
Avram Belinski finishes last in his class at a Polish yeshiva and is sent to San Francisco as a congregation's new rabbi, carrying a Torah scroll for the synagogue. In Philadelphia he falls in with three swindlers, Matt Diggs, his brother Darryl, and their partner Mr. Jones, who persuade him to put up money for a wagon and supplies. They rob him and strand him with his belongings on a deserted road in Pennsylvania. Continuing on foot, he comes upon an Amish colony, mistakes their plain black clothing for Hasidic dress, and faints when he sees a cross on a Bible. The Amish care for him and collect money for a train ticket. In Ohio he works on the railroad to buy a horse, then meets Tommy Lillard, a bank robber who looks after him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Frisco Kid (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- According to Gene Wilder's autobiography, the Tommy Lillard role played by Harrison Ford was originally planned for John Wayne, who was eager to take it on as a comic follow-up to True Grit and Rooster Cogburn; salary concerns nixed the idea, and Wayne died shortly before The Frisco Kid opened.
- Aldrich did not always get on with Harrison Ford during the shoot. Producer Mace Neufeld said that every time Aldrich looked at Harrison, he saw John Wayne, adding that Harrison was aware of that but was always fun to be around.
- Wilder was offered the film in 1976 and turned it down, read a rewrite the following year and turned it down again, then agreed after a revised second draft; Warner Bros. asked him to work on the script, so he helped build a third draft and wrote a fourth himself.
- Robert Aldrich replaced director Dick Richards during pre-production, and Roger Ebert wrote that it is really nobody's movie, the screenplay having been around Hollywood for several years and Aldrich seeming to have taken it on as a routine assignment.
- The film was in development for seven years, known as No Knife for a long time, then briefly as Greenhorn, before someone suggested the title The Frisco Kid.
