Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx *** (1970, Gene Wilder, Margot Kidder, Eileen Colgan) – Classic Movie Review 8096

Director Waris Hussein’s 1970 comedy Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx stars the late lamented comedy genius Gene Wilder as an Irish dung-collector called Quackser, who crosses all kinds of barriers to romance an American college girl Zazel (Margot Kidder) in his own idiosyncratic fashion.

This gentle, rather pleasing romantic comedy succeeds thanks to Gabriel Walsh’s carefully thought-out screenplay and a charming performance by Wilder as Quackser. It helps that Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx is unique. In how many romances is dung central to the plot or a dung-collector the main character?

Its strengths in its whimsicality and its freshness are also its weaknesses, as it verges on coyness and comes across as terribly twee in parts, but its whimsicality and its freshness win out. It was the sort of film that you did not think they made any more in 1970, but, apparently, they did.

Also in the cast are Eileen Colgan, Seamus Ford, May Ollis, David Kelly, Danny Cummins, Liz Davis, Tony Doyle, John Kelly, Caroline Tully, Paul Murphy, Brendan Matthews and David Hogarty.

Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx is also known as Fun Loving.

Gene Wilder (1933–2016).

Margot Kidder (1948–2018).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8096

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