Amazon.com video review:
Despite the presence of hack director
Arthur Hiller, this hybrid comedy-thriller works most
of the time as pleasant faux Hitchcock. Gene Wilder is a book editor
who is relaxing by taking a cross-country train ride. Then he gets
caught up in a murder--and becomes a suspect. It's up to him to
prove his own innocence. As noted, the script, by Colin Higgins, owes a
big debt to Alfred Hitchcock; but the mystery isn't all that
mysterious and the comedy isn't all that hilarious--at least not until
Richard Pryor shows up, which is at least halfway through the film. Things
definitely pick up from there. Jill Clayburgh, as the love interest,
is merely along for the train ride. Wilder and Pryor eventually teamed
up for several other films, but they were never as funny together as they
are in this one. --Marshall Fine
