Mel Brooks is an actor, writer and director of comedy on TV, on the stage and in film. He’s also done stand up, particularly early in his career in the Catskills. Regarding films, the hallmarks of a Mel Brooks movie are 1) Humor 2) Poor taste and 3) A bad ending. Here are my choices for the top 5 Mel Brooks movies.
To Be or Not to Be – Mel Brooks starred as Dr. Frederick Bronski in this movie about a Jewish actor in Poland who is struggling to make a living when World War II breaks out. The troupe isn’t very good. At the beginning of the movie they are putting on a show called “highlights from Hamlet”. As if that weren’t problem enough, his wife (played by Brooks’ real-life wife Anne Bancroft) is fooling around. The troupe that Brooks is the leader of becomes part of the underground. Brooks stars as a misunderstood Hitler, famously singing that, while people say he wants war, all he wants is piece “A little piece of Poland, a little piece of France …..” This is a remake of a 1942 comedy that starred Jack Benny.
Silent Movie – Mel Brooks co-wrote, directed and starred in Silent Movie, which came out in 1976. This movie is entirely silent except for one word. That word is uttered by Marcel Marceau, who is, of course, a famous mime. The plot concerns a trio of filmmakers (Mel Brooks as Mel Funn, Marty Feldman as Marty Eggs and Dom DeLuise as Dom Bell) who have an idea for a movie – a silent movie. They try to pitch it to the unnamed Studio Chief (Sid Caesar). And they try to recruit a lot of big named stars, including Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minelli, Anne Bancroft, Paul Newman and the already mentioned Marcel Marceau. Marceau says “non”, which Brooks claims not to understand because “I don’t speak French”.
There are side plots including an impending takeover of the studio by New York conglomerate Engulf and Devour.
Silent Movie is, naturally, full of visual humor.: A table rises mysteriously when the executives sitting around it view a beautiful woman. A newsstand is repeatedly destroyed by ever larger editions of newspapers featuring a story about the movie. A wheelchair chase scene when they are recruiting Paul Newma.
The Producers – Mel Brooks wrote and directed the original (and better) version of this movie in 1968. It features Zero Mostel as Max Bialystock – a Broadway producer who is very good at soliciting money but not very good at producing plays, and Gene Wilder as Leo Bloom, an accountant who points out that, if you are willing to be dishonest, it’s possible to make more money with a flop than a hit. Bialystock is more than willing, and they set out to make the worst possible play. They go through reams of scripts until they find Springtime for Hitler, written by Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars) a Nazi who feels Hitler was misunderstood. Then they search for the worst director and find Roger de Bris (Christopher Hewitt). To play Hitler they choose Lorenzo DuBois, who wandered into the theater by accident.
Meanwhile, Bialystock is selling shares in the play to his friends in “little old lady land”. He sells far more shares than exist. But then the play is an unexpected hit, and Bialystock and Bloom are in serious trouble.
Young Frankenstein – Mel Brooks co-wrote and directed this spoof of horror movies. The grandson of the famous Dr. Frankenstein is now a doctor in his own right and pronounces his name Fronk En Steen inherits his grandfather’s castle. The castle is inhabited by a hunchback (Marty Feldman), a beautiful assistant named Inga (Teri Garr) and a terrifying housekeeper known as Frau Blucher, whose very name causes the horses to whinny in fear. At first, young Frankenstein is unwilling to have anything to do with the old doctor’s schemes, but he changes his mind and reanimates a monster (Peter Boyle). Later, they put on a show that has both Wilder and Boyle dancing in top hats as they “put on the Ritz.
Blazing Saddles – Mel Brooks wrote and directed this spoof of western movies that came out in 1974. It’s 1870 and the town of Rock Ridge sits right on the path of a new railroad. So the corrupt governor (Hedley Lamarr, played by Harvey Korman) decides to ruin the town. Meanwhile, a Black man named Bart (Cleavon Little) is sentenced to be hanged. But the governor gives him a reprieve and appoints him sheriff of Rock Ridge. There, he teams up with the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder) and saves the town.
Blazing Saddles is perhaps the archetype of Mel Brooks movies. It’s hysterically funny, in very poor taste, and just doesn’t know where to end.
Sources Wikipedia, IMDB
