Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx

This is a really odd and somehow compelling movie. Gene Wilder is an independent and none-too-bright guy in a working class Dublin family. He does quite a good job in the role. I never much liked him away from Mel Brooks, but I have to admit he was just right in this part. I'm no expert on the working class Dublin dialects, but he fooled my ear. I couldn't even tell it was his voice!

Anyway, Wilder doesn't want to spend his life working in a factory like his dad, so he creates a profession for himself. He follows the horse-drawn delivery wagons, shovels up the horse-dropping from the streets, and resells it from a pushcart, as fertilizer. ("Get your fresh dung"!) He loves this, the city loves him for it, and he is generally loved by everyone he meets along the way.

The problem is that the modern world is encroaching on the world he has built for himself; the horses are going to be shipped off to unpleasant fates, and Wilder has no skills to find another profession. He can't even read or write.

Margot Kidder is the love interest of sorts, an adventurous American college student, and she was really college age (21) at the time it was filmed in Dublin, nearly a decade before she hit the big time as Lois Lane. She was very beautiful. Her character gradually seduces Quackser, and he thinks it's love. For her it's a frolic, which she regrets by the time they actually sleep together.

Just when things look bleakest for Quackser, without job or girl, there is a deus ex machina happy ending which spoiled for me an otherwise realistic and bittersweet movie.

Waris Hussein is a talented director but not someone I would pick to helm a quirky, romantic comedy-drama. Hussein's films, such as this one or "The Possession of Joel Delaney", clearly pinpoint the stamp he likes to leave: peculiar plot structures, depressed or otherwise forlorn characters, bleak and muted surroundings. In "Quackser Fortune" (how's that for a title?), Gene Wilder is self-employed in Dublin, scooping up horse droppings from the carriages to use as fertilizer; he eventually meets university student Margot Kidder, who is sort of a displaced hippie. I saw this in 1975 when it played a double-bill with "The Other Side Of The Mountain"; it came on second and proceeded to empty out the theater. I was glad I stayed to watch because it's so very unusual. However, it is such an oddity that even when A&E's Biography did an hour on Margot Kidder's career, it wasn't even mentioned. ** from ****

Gene Wilder, right after Producers and Revolution, but just before Willy Wonka. And Margot Kidder (Superman's chick), in her very early days. Wilder is Quackser Fortune, who has a horse manure collection cart in Ireland. They spend an awkward but fun day together, and hit it off right away. Quackser seems a bit "slow", but we quickly learn he is deeper than it appears. Beautiful photography of the Irish countryside along the way. His family wants him to earn an honest but boring living working at "the foundry".

When his own trade is no longer a viable option, he must find another path. Along the way, there are numerous misunderstandings, happy moments, sad moments, and the like. Zazel (Kidder) starts out liking Quackser as a boy toy, but can't quite decide if she REALLY likes him. She strings him along a couple times, and he keeps coming back for more. Not a very deep film, but a fun hour and a half. We don't really learn any life lessons here, but there are worse ways to spend the afternoon than watching Gene Wilder in his early days. Story very similar to Being There, with Peter Sellers. Directed by Waris Hussein, who appears to have been a big shot at BBC.

I saw this particular movie in a Dublin theatre way back in the early 1970's and I found it to be a very memorable film about a working class lad who couldn't bring himself to follow in his father's footsteps and work in the factory punching a clock. When his livelihood dries up with the retirement of horse drawn wagons, he attempts to go to the factory but ends up making his own way in the end. Ah, yes, there is a love interest as well, which keeps the story interesting. Not many movies stick with me so that's saying something for me. It was the first time I noticed Gene Wilder in a film (though I'm sure I saw him in Bonnie and Clyde) and I thought he was very good - and genuine. His success doesn't surprise me. It's an "off the beaten path" kind of movie in a way - but not in the wild and crazy sense. And I would recommend it if you can find a copy somewhere.

Searched for this after reading a little about Wilder's career. He was a very accomplished stage actor, and studied at The Actor's Studio and with Stanislavsky. This little movie shows his talent, and his genius. It is not much, movie-wise, but I enjoyed every second of watching Gene Wilder do his thing and create a character with depth and detail. Comedy is hard, and a performance like this shows you how a 'serious' actor can turn his craft into comedy gold.