Which Way Is Up?

– Richard Pryor plays three roles - a beleaguered, sex-starved farm worker named Leroy Jones; the farm..

Type:
Movie
Rating:
6.40 / 10
Duration:
One Hour and 34 Minutes
Release Year:
1977
Which Way Is Up? (1977)

Richard Pryor plays three roles - a beleaguered, sex-starved farm worker named Leroy Jones; the farm worker's randy old father Rufus; and the hypocritical town preacher Rev. Lenox Thomas - and Pryor has never been so outrageously funny. The lives and love lives of these three men cross and crisscross as Leroy tries to get his life back on track.

Story Timeline:
Producing Country:
USA
Filming Locations:
Genre:

Which Way Is Up? (1977) - Trailer

Release Date:

23 Jun 1978

Language:

English

MPAA Content-Rating:
R – Restricted

Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. Contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them.

Director:

Michael Schultz

Writer:

Lina Wertmüller, Carl Gottlieb (screenplay), Cecil Brown (screenplay)

Main Actors:

Richard Pryor, Lonette McKee, Margaret Avery, Morgan Woodward

Plot:

Richard Pryor is playing three different roles here. The first being a poor orange picker named Leroy Jones who gets laid off when by mistake he joins the worker's union during one of their demonstrations. Afterwards he is forced to leave his wife and family behind which also includes Leroy's father (also played by Pryor) to go to Los Angeles. Leroy ends up working for the same company that fired him back home. He is a manager at the company but he is now distant from his former pals. He meets and falls in love with Vanetta who is a labor organizer which leaves him splitting time between his wife Annie Mae and Vanetta. When Leroy finds out that the Reverend Lenox Thomas (also played by Pryor) has got his wife pregnant while he was absent, he then make the moves on the reverend's wife.

Production:

Universal Pictures

Ratings:
Internet Movie Database:
6.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes:
20%