"Off the Wall' is a free-wheeling comedy picture set in a Tennessee prison that only occasionally lives up to the humor implicit in its title. With several "film surgeons" cited in the end credits, it is difficult to parcel out blame or credit for the finished film, but in any event "Wall" is not funny enough or in step with popular tastes to make much of a dent at the theatrical boxoffice, with its future clearly as a sleeper to be sampled by cable television.
Randy (Patrick Cassidy) and Rico (Billy Hufsey) are Yankee boys hitchhiking in the South, picked up by the beautiful daughter (Rosanna Arquette) of the governor of Tennessee. She leaves them holding the bag for a car accident, and after a poor defense by their lawyer (Stu Gilliam), the end up with six months' time at Snake Canyon Prison.
In stir, Randy falls in love with Jennifer (Brianne Leary), the daughter of Warden Castle (Paul Sorvino), while Rico becomes the romantic object of the prison's leading wrestler, ultimately becoming his tag-team partner. Amidst various running gags, duo learn the ropes from their roommate, an escape artist Johnny Hammer (Ralph Wilcox).
Director Rick Friedberg and his coscripters Ron Kurz and Dick Chudnow (latter doubling as the warden's sidekick) have engineered some amusing situations, but the film over-relies on rather dated Southern stereotypes to launch his gags. Best of these is Stu Gilliam's bit as a black lawyer right out of "Amos 'N Andy". Star Paul Sorvino has a role a s the redneck, paranoid warden, but his overplaying, in common with that of most of the cast, is of the desperate sort. An on-target satire could have been played straight with stronger material.
Biggest disappointment here is that second-billed Rosnna Arquette who, since filming "Off the Wall", has become an important young star in "The Executioner's Song" and "Baby, It's You". She has a relatively small role, Physical production is impressive, with an atmospheric prison locale and excellent stuntwork by the great vehicle specialist Everett Creach.
Following "Wall", producer Frank Mancuso Jr. Hit paydirt with 3-D in "Friday the 13th Part 3" and the current "The Man Who Wasn't There", but what this comedy lacks is not another dimension but simply better writing.
My review was written in July 1983 after a multiplex screening in West Palm Beach, Florida.
