“The Toy”

7.2

What starts out as highly problematic actually sticks the landing as a hilarious, heartfelt tale of friendship and personal growth. Jackie Gleason and Richard Pryor at the height of their powers. Pryor and Scott Schwartz have great chemistry together on screen as they melt the cold heart of Master Bates’s “throw money at the problem” father. This really shouldn’t work as well as it does, but it knocks it out of the park and is one of the great hidden gems of the ’80s on this page. “I’m going to hell for laughing at this” humor at its finest.