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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

See No Evil, Hear No Evil (film)

1989 film by Arthur Hiller

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 27, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

See No Evil, Hear No Evil is a 1989 American crime comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller. The film stars Gene Wilder as a deaf man and Richard Pryor as a blind man who work together to thwart a trio of murderous thieves. This is the third film featuring Wilder and Pryor, who had appeared previously in the 1976 film Silver Streak and the 1980 film Stir Crazy. The film was released in the United States on May 12, 1989.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “See No Evil, Hear No Evil (film)” as 1989 film by Arthur Hiller. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Evil, Hear and film.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1989, 1976, 1980—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Evil, Hear and film providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “See No Evil, Hear No Evil (film)”, the useful work is to connect “1989 film by Arthur Hiller” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 27, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1989, 1976 and 1980.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “See No Evil, Hear No Evil (film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow See No Evil, Hear No Evil (film) primary sources, See No Evil, Hear No Evil (film) archive and Evil research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “See No Evil, Hear No Evil (film)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “See No Evil, Hear No Evil (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.