#1,432. Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

Directed By: Mel Brooks

Starring: Cary Elwes, Richard Lewis, Roger Rees




Tag line: "The legend had it coming... "

Trivia: Hulk Hogan was offered the part of Little John but he turned it down








In my formative years, I spent a good deal of time watching the movies of Mel Brooks. I loved every single film he directed, from The Producers to History of the World, Part 1 and everything in between, movies that, no matter how often I saw them, never lost their ability to make me laugh. Then, in the late ‘80s, things started to change. Most of the cutting edge material that made Brooks’ early pictures so memorable slowly faded away, replaced by a more juvenile brand of comedy that put the focus squarely on slapstick and broad humor. I noticed this shift in style in 1987’s Spaceballs, a very funny movie that I enjoyed, but which sometimes aimed low, going for the obvious joke more often than Brooks ever had before. This trend continued in 1992, when the writer / director made Life Stinks, a comedy / romance that I absolutely detested. All at once, I found myself wondering if Mel Brooks had lost his edge.

So it was with great trepidation that I approached 1993’s Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Brooks’ take on the legend of Robin Hood. Having missed the movie during its theatrical run, I rented the video from my local Blockbuster the day it was released, and sure enough, my worst fears were confirmed. Robin Hood: Men in Tights felt like "Mel Brooks lite", with jokes and situations that, more often than not, fell flat on their face. Full disclosure: I stopped the tape a half hour in, hopped into my car, and returned it to Blockbuster with the intention of never watching it again.

Still, as much as I disliked what I saw, I always felt a slight tinge of regret that I never finished the movie. So, today, I finally set things right, and to my surprise, Robin Hood: Men in Tights is funnier than I thought it would be. I didn’t love it, but I did like it.

While crusading in the Holy Land, Robin of Loxley (Cary Elwes), aka Robin Hood, is captured by the enemy and placed in a Jerusalem prison. With the help of fellow inmate Asneeze (Isaac Hayes), Robin escapes and swims back to England, where he’s reunited with his blind servant Blinkin (Mark Blankfield). Unfortunately for Robin, he returned home just in time to see Loxley castle being repossessed by the bank for failure to pay back taxes. Vowing to regain his family’s belongings, Robin, along with his new friends Ah-Choo (Dave Chappelle), Little John (Eric Allan Kramer), and Will Scarlet O’Hara (Matthew Porretta), faces off against the tyrannical Sheriff of Rottingham (Roger Rees), a faithful servant of Prince John’s (Richard Lewis). It’s during this time that Robin first meets Marian (Amy Yasbeck), a member of the king’s court, with whom he falls instantly in love. But is romance truly in the cards, or will Robin and his merry men be captured by the Sheriff and thrown in jail?

I still had problems with the opening moments of Robin Hood Men in Tights; aside from a rather dated rap sequence, Brooks throws in a brief scene spoofing the Home Alone movies that goes nowhere. On the plus side, Cary Elwes, so good as the swashbuckling hero in The Princess Bride, makes for a perfect Robin Hood, and many of the film’s musical numbers are well executed, including "Men in Tights", a tune written by Brooks himself. And while the humor does occasionally come across as juvenile (during an archery competition, Robin fires an arrow that defies the laws of both physics and gravity), there’s plenty here for adults to enjoy as well (Brooks’ cameo as Rabbi Tuckman is outshined only by Dom DeLuise's, who, in his brief appearance as Don Giovanni, does a Marlon Brando impression that’s positively hilarious).

In the end, I was glad I got to finish Robin Hood: Men on Tights, a movie that, despite its flaws, gave me a few good laughs.

But nothing…. Nothing… can get me to watch Dracula: Dead and Loving it. That’s where I draw the line!

#1,053. The Producers (1967)

Directed By: Mel Brooks

Starring: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn



Tag line: "Hollywood Never Faced a Zanier Zero Hour!"

Trivia: Mel Brooks based the character of Max Bialystock on a real Broadway producer he knew who used to seduce little old ladies in exchange for checks that were supposedly to produce his latest play






Once the most respected producer on Broadway, Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) - the lead character in Mel Brooks' 1967 film The Producers -  hasn’t had a hit in years, and now makes his money by "servicing" little old ladies. 

When accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) reviews the books for Bialystock’s most recent play, he realizes it’s possible for a producer to make more money with a flop than he can with a hit. 

So the two form a partnership and set out to produce the worst play in Broadway history: Springtime for Hitler, a love letter to Germany’s former dictator. They hire the wrong director, the worst stars, and take every possible measure to ensure that Springtime for Hitler will close on opening night. 

Alas, on Broadway, there are simply no guarantees.

The role of Max Bialystock was tailor-made for Zero Mostel, who is perfect in the part. Reduced to pleasuring old ladies in order to survive, he’s a scoundrel in search of a get-rich-quick scheme. Enter Leo Bloom, the nebbish accountant who is prone to anxiety attacks and still carries his baby blanket around with him. The opening scene, which begins wth Bloom walking in to find Bialystock in a compromising position with “Hold Me, Touch Me” (Estelle Winwood), and ends with the two men leaving to have lunch in the park, is one of the funniest sequences ever committed to film, with each actor taking their turn at manic behavior (from Mostel’s self-pity and posturing to Wilder’s fear of being jumped on).

It’s during this opening that the two hatch their scheme, which puts them in touch with a few more loons, including playwright Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars), author of Springtime for Hitler (subtitled “A Gay Romp with Adolph and Eva at Berchtesgaten”). When he’s not busy with his pigeons (which he keeps on the roof of his apartment building), Liebkind is lamenting the loss of his “beloved Fuhrer”, and expressing anger that Winston Churchill is now more respected than Hitler. 

To direct the play, Bialystock chooses Roger De Bris (Christopher Hewitt), a flamboyant personality who is completely out of touch with the world around him. When discussing Springtime for Hitler with Bialystock and Bloom, De Bris praises the play's historical aspects (“I never knew the Third Reich meant Germany”, he says. “It’s drenched with historical goodies like that”). 

Perhaps craziest of all is the star of the play, Lorenzo St. DuBois (Dick Shawn), a hippie whose friends call him “LSD” for short. His audition for the part of Hitler is beyond weird, and yet another high point in a film that’s nothing but high points.

Flowing from one bit of lunacy to the next with the greatest of ease, and with excellent performances from every member of its cast, not a single scene in Mel Brooks’ The Producers falls flat. 

Evoking everything from snickers to hearty belly laughs, The Producers is a comedy classic.

#1,025. Silent Movie (1976)

Directed By: Mel Brooks

Starring: Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise





Trivia: The pregnant woman in the first scene is Dom DeLuise's real-life wife, Carol Arthur











Only Mel Brooks would have attempted something like this: a totally silent comedy that pays tribute to the films of Hollywood’s infancy. 

But then, only Mel Brooks could have possibly pulled it off. An homage to the days when slapstick was king, Silent Movie is a very funny motion picture.

Movie director Mel Funn (Brooks), a recovering alcoholic, is trying to revive his career. Along with his partners Eggs (Marty Feldman) and Bell (Dom DeLuise), Funn has written a screenplay for what he’s convinced will be his next box office smash: a silent movie! 

The head of the studio (Sid Caesar) isn’t impressed, but green-lights the project when Mel promises to get the biggest stars in Hollywood to appear in it. If the movie is a hit, Mel will save not only his career, but the studio as well, which, due to its financial woes, is in danger of being swallowed up by the huge East Coast conglomerate Engulf & Devour.

As the film’s main characters, Brooks, Feldman, and DeLuise form one of the most unusual trios in comedy history. Throughout the movie, each manages to generate a few hearty chuckles on their own (like when DeLuise has a painful run-in with a Coca-Cola vending machine), but it’s their scenes together that will have you laughing the hardest.  The sequence when the trio surprises Burt Reynolds in the shower is a classic, as is the one where all three, wearing very heavy suits of armor, visit the studio's commissary to try and convince Liza Minnelli to appear in the picture (somehow, Marty Feldman’s helmet gets turned around while it’s still on his head). Even without dialogue, these three keep the laughs rolling through much of the movie.

Having spent most of his career telling jokes, Silent Movie gave Brooks a chance to show us a few instead, proving he’s just as adept at physical comedy as he is one-liners and funny anecdotes.

#953. Spaceballs (1987)

Directed By: Mel Brooks

Starring: Mel Brooks, John Candy, Rick Moranis





Tag line: "May the Schwartz Be With You"

Trivia: President Skroob's name is an anagram of Mel Brooks, the man who plays him







While I thoroughly enjoy Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs, the director’s 1987 spoof of Star Wars and the science fiction genre, I also consider it the movie that marked the beginning of the end of his cinematic career, a mixed bag featuring moments of pure hilarity, and others that are dead on arrival.

To avoid an arranged marriage to the eternally sleepy Prince Valium (Jim J Bullock), Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) of the planet Druidia jumps into a shuttlecraft with her robot maid, Dot Matrix (voiced by Joan Rivers), and hightails it to the dark recesses of space, where she becomes the unwitting pawn in an intergalactic showdown. It seems the planet Spaceballs is almost out of fresh air, and has ordered its massive flag ship, Spaceball 1, to capture the Princess and hold her prisoner until Druidia agrees to surrender its oxygen supply. Under the command of the evil Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), Spaceball 1 traps the Princess’s ship in a tractor beam. Yet before they can drag her on-board, she and Dot are rescued by Lone Star (Bill Pullman) and his faithful companion, Barf (John Candy), two pirates who’ve agreed to save the princess in exchange for $1 million space bucks. But Dark Helmet isn’t about to give up his prize so easily, and vows to comb the galaxy in pursuit of Lone Star and the Princess.

Nearly all the laugh-out-loud scenes in Spaceballs feature Rick Moranis’ Dark Helmet, a not-so-thinly veiled take on Darth Vader, the arch-villain of Star Wars. From his ill-advised order that Spaceball 1 jump to Ludicrous Speed (which is faster even than Light Speed) to his inability to differentiate between the ship’s radar system and the coffee machine, Moranis does more than his part to keep the laughs flowing. Brooks himself plays two different characters in Spaceballs: Skroob, the shifty President of planet Spaceballs; and Yogurt, the tiny green alien who’s a master of the mysterious power known as the “Schwartz”, and a whiz when it comes to merchandising. Other highlights include John Candy’s likeably oafish Barf, Lone Star’s half-man, half-dog sidekick (“I’m my own best friend”), and a cameo by John Hurt, reprising his famous scene from Ridley Scott’s Alien, yet with a funnier payoff. The remainder of the movie is a bit uneven; Pullman and Zuniga are fine as the romantic leads, but I could have done without Joan Rivers’ Dot Matrix, who I found very annoying, and an appearance by Dom DeLuise as Pizza the Hut, the unscrupulous trader Lone Star owes money to, didn’t work at all.

Despite not measuring up to Brooks’ earlier outings like The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein, the comedy in Spaceballs is still more hit than miss, and it was the last truly funny film the writer/director would ever make.

#916. Young Frankenstein (1974)

Directed By: Mel Brooks

Starring: Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman




Tag line: "The scariest comedy of all time!"

Trivia: Rock band Aerosmith took a break from a long night of recording to see "Young Frankenstein" in 1974. Steven Tyler wrote the band's hit "Walk This Way" the morning after seeing the movie, inspired by Marty Feldman's first scene, the "walk this way... this way" scene





1974’s Young Frankenstein features writer / director Mel Brooks doing what he did best: satirizing Hollywood’s illustrious past. This time around, he’s taking jabs at Universal’s classic Frankenstein movies, pillaging elements from the series’ first three films (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein) to spin a hilarious tale of science run amok. 

Co-written by Gene Wilder (who also stars), Young Frankenstein is one of the craziest, most side-splitting spoofs ever made. 

Frederick Frankenstein (Wilder) is the grandson of Victor Frankenstein, the madman who tried to bring the dead back to life and, in the process, created a monster. As you can imagine, Frederick, who is also a scientist, isn’t exactly proud of his lineage, going so far as to change the pronunciation of his last name (insisting he be called Fronk-en-steen) to distance himself from his notorious grandfather. 

Destiny catches up with Frederick, however, when he inherits the family castle in Transylvania. Leaving his pampered fiancée Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) behind, he travels to the home of his ancestors, and, once there, inadvertently stumbles upon Victor’s research journals. Upon reading them, Frederick has a change of heart, and sets out to prove his grandfather’s theory was correct. 

With the help of assistants Igor (Marty Feldman) and Inga (Teri Garr), Frederick successfully duplicates the experiment that, years earlier, resulted in disaster. Unfortunately, Frederick’s “creation” (Peter Boyle) is every bit as monstrous as his grandfather’s, once again striking fear into the hearts of nearby villagers. 

So, which character in Young Frankenstein gets the most laughs? 

It’s impossible to say. 

Gene Wilder’s Frederick is a borderline psychotic through much of the film, and his frenzied personality is good for some hearty chuckles (starting with the opening sequence, in which Frederick is teaching a class on nerve impulses and motor reflexes). Neither Madeline Kahn’s Elizabeth nor Cloris Leachman’s Frau Blucher, the caretaker of the Frankenstein estate, are given much screen time, yet make the most of what little they get, and Teri Garr’s Inga strikes the perfect balance between innocent and sexy. 

In addition, Kenneth Mars plays Inspector Kemp, the local constable with the wooden arm who is not above cheating at darts; and many of Peter Boyle’s facial expressions as the mute monster are downright priceless (at one point, he drops in on a blind hermit played by Gene Hackman, whose attempt to serve the monster hot soup leads to what may be the film’s funniest moment). 

In my opinion, though, Marty Feldman’s Igor steals the show; from his initial scene at the train station (“walk this way”) through to his “fight” with Elizabeth’s mink stole, the saucer-eyed Feldman remains in top form every second he’s on-screen. In a movie with so many great characters, he manages to stand above the rest. 

The debate rages on as to which of Brooks’ films is his masterpiece, with many fans split between this movie, The Producers and Blazing Saddles. One thing most agree on, however, is that Young Frankenstein is one of the best comedies of the 1970's, and one of the funniest films ever made.

#863. History of the World: Part 1 (1981)

Directed By: Mel Brooks

Starring: Mel Brooks, Gregory Hines, Dom DeLuise




Tag line: "IN MEL WE TRVST"

Trivia: Richard Pryor was originally cast but had to pull out of the picture








Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part 1 has a few things in common with another movie I reviewed recently, Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life.

1. They are ‘80s comedies that never deliver on their title’s lofty promise (this is no more a “history of the world” than the Python’s outing was a dissertation on the greater purpose of life) 

and... 

2. Both are absolutely hilarious

While not an extensive journey through the history of civilization, History of the World: Part 1 does touch on several high points, starting with a trip back to the days of the Neanderthals, where we follow the exploits of a caveman played by the great Sid Caesar. 

Then, after a brief layover in Old Testament times, where Moses (Brooks himself) delivers God’s fifteen… er, make that Ten Commandments to the masses, the film journeys to Imperial Rome, which is under the rule of a slovenly Emperor (Dom DeLuise). 

It’s here that we’re introduced to Comicus (Brooks again), a stand-up philosopher (read “Bullshit Artist”) who has been invited to perform at the palace. 

Unfortunately, his act doesn’t go over too well, and before he knows what’s hit him, Comicus is being hunted by the Emperor’s Praetorian Guard, and must join forces with an Ethiopian slave named Josephus (Gregory Hines), who is also on the run. 

History of the World: Part 1 then treats us to a musical interpretation of the Spanish Inquisition before whisking us off to 18th century France, where King Louis XVI (Brooks... yet again) is in danger of losing his crown - as well as his head - to an angry mob of peasants.

History of the World: Part 1 even takes a moment to drop in on the Last Supper, with Jesus (John Hurt) delivering his message to the apostles, then pausing to give artist Leonardo Da Vinci (Art Metrano) a chance to paint this monumental event.

Having already taken on a number of genres (westerns, horror, silent movies, and even Alfred Hitchcock), History of the World: Part 1 sees Brooks spoofing the epics of the ‘50s and ‘60s, movies like The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur and The Fall of the Roman Empire. 

The humor is often crude (the opening shot features early man standing upright for the first time, then proceeding to jerk off), yet even the film's occasional lapses into bad taste are hilarious, like the way Brooks portrays King Louis XVI as if he were a sexual deviant (“It’s good to be the King!”). 

Many of the writer / director’s normal stock players are on-hand, including DeLuise, Caesar, Madeline Kahn (as the oversexed Empress Nympho), Harvey Korman (as the French Aristocrat Count de Monet, a name every bit as confusing as his Hedley Lamaar’s was in Blazing Saddles) and Cloris Leachman (as a rather disgusting French peasant). 

Yet the most memorable of the supporting characters is Hines’ Josephus, who has a number of great scenes (my favorite being the one where he’s pretending to be a Eunuch). Surrounded by comedy legends, Hines manages to outshine them all on several occasions.

I saw History of the World: Part 1 when it was first released to theaters in 1981, a time when I was certainly too young to be seeing it. Being only 11 years old, I could tell it was a funny movie, but, admittedly, some of the jokes went right over my head. 

Well, I get them all now, which makes the movie funnier than it's ever been!

So when do you think Mel will be making Part 2?

#756. The Twelve Chairs (1970)

Directed By: Mel Brooks

Starring: Ron Moody, Frank Langella, Dom DeLuise




Tag line: "A wild and hilarious chase for a fortune in jewels"

Trivia: This film featured the screen debut of Frank Langella

Mel Brooks’ second directorial effort is also one of his most overlooked, and differs from such later works as Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and High Anxiety in that it’s not a direct spoof of a film genre. Shot on location in Yugoslavia and featuring a wonderfully over-the-top performance by Dom DeLuise, The Twelve Chairs is, nonetheless, a very funny movie.

Ippolit Vorobyaninov (Ron Moody) was once a nobleman in Czarist Russia, but lost everything he owned as a result of the Bolshevik Revolution. Among his former belongings are twelve dining room chairs, which have since been packed up and scattered, far and wide, across the Soviet Union. On her deathbed, Vorobyaninov’s mother-in-law makes a startling confession: fearing the loss of her beloved jewels, which are worth a small fortune, the old gal sewed them into one of the chairs just prior to the revolution. Determined to track down those jewels, Vorobyaninov teams up with Ostap (Frank Langella), an experienced con man, and spends the next several months traveling around the country, searching high and low for each of the chairs. But someone else has also joined the quest: Father Fyodor (DeLuise), the priest of Vorobyaninov’s village, who learned about the jewels during the mother-in-law’s final confession, and has set aside his spiritual duties to indulge in a little worldly greed. Who will be the first to find the chair that will make their dreams come true?

Ron Moody is hilarious as Vorobyaninov, walking a fine line between sophistication and insanity (with insanity usually winning out in the end), while Langella gets the job done as his partner, Ostap, the swindler who teaches Vorobyaninov how to survive on the streets. Yet it’s Dom DeLuise’s manic portrayal of Father Fyodor that steals the show. A Holy man who occasionally communicates directly with God (after a disappointing discovery, he looks up and wails “Oh, God…you’re so strict!”), Fyodor veers back and forth between greedy exuberance and suicidal depression. One of the film’s laugh-out-loud scenes has the good Father, upon realizing he’s once again located the wrong chair, attempting to finish himself off with a knife, only to writhe around in excruciating pain the moment the tip of the blade touches his stomach.

The Twelve Chairs was the first of six Brooks movies DeLuise would appear in, and as great as he was in some of them (his effeminate director in Blazing Saddles was a howl, as was his gluttonous Emperor in History of the World, Part 1), Father Fyodor may be his crowning achievement.

#655. High Anxiety (1977)

Directed By: Mel Brooks

Starring: Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman





Tag line: "Danger, Intrigue, Romance... and a Touch of Kinkiness!"

Trivia: Three of the film's writers appear in comic supporting roles

High Anxiety is writer/director Mel Brooks' send-up of Alfred Hitchcock movies, surely one of the few filmmakers in the history of motion pictures worthy of an entire spoof of his own!

Dr. Richard Thorndyke (Mel Brooks) has just been appointed head of the Institute for the Very Very Nervous, the leading mental health clinic on the West Coast. However, Dr. Thorndyke, along with being one of the country's most prominent psychiatric minds, also suffers from a crippling fear of heights, a condition known as “High Anxiety”, which makes his flight to California to accept the post a harrowing experience. 

He's met at the airport by the Institute's chauffeur, Brophy (Ron Carey), who informs Thorndyke his appointment was opposed by both Dr. Charles Montague (Harvey Korman), who wanted the job for himself, and senior nurse Charlotte Diesel (Cloris Leachman). As Dr. Thorndyke settles into his new position, he comes across some disturbing discrepancies, including the fact that the facility's wealthiest patients are being held long after their scheduled release date. 

Fearing he might blow the whistle on their illegal activities, Montague and Diesel frame Thorndyke for murder. Suddenly a wanted man, Dr. Thorndyke has no alternative but to turn to Victoria Brisbane (Madeline Kahn), the daughter of a patient at the Institute, for help.

High Anxiety is bursting at the seams with Hitchcockian references. The main story, concerning a psychiatrist trying to track down a murderer, is straight out of Spellbound, and the Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, where most of the film's first half takes place, looks a lot like the convent featured in a key scene in Vertigo. For that matter, Brooks' decision to set the second half of the film in San Francisco, as well as having a lead character afraid of heights, also harkens back to Vertigo, 

But it's High Anxiety's straight-on spoofs of Hitchcock films that will have you laughing out loud, including its brilliant take on the Psycho shower scene and a rather messy run-in with some pigeons that owes a lot to 1963's The Birds. Brooks even throws in a direct reference to one of the Master's most famous pictures when he tells Victoria to meet him at the “North...by Northwest corner” of the park. 

Yet High Anxiety is more than just a Hitchcock parody. There are also a handful of funny moments lampooning psychiatry (while speaking at a conference, Thorndyke attempts to “clean up” his presentation on penis envy after spotting a couple of youngsters in the crowd) and a musical number in which Brooks himself belts out the movie's title song (a tune you'll be humming for days).

Filled with nods to Hitchcock's greatest works, High Anxiety is a loving homage to the master of suspense, presented by one of the screen's finest comedic minds.

#113. Blazing Saddles (1974)

DVD Synopsis: Filmmaker, star and paddle-ball wiz Mel Brooks goes way out West and way out of his mind with a spiffy spoof set in an 1874 Old West where 1974 Hollywood is one soundstage away – and where nonstop fun blasts prejudices to the high comedy heavens. Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn and more join for horseplay and horselaughs, making Blazing Saddles the #6 choice among the American Film Institute's Top-100 Comedies.

I'm a Mel brooks fan, and for me, Blazing Saddles is his masterpiece. 

Irreverent, tasteless, and very, very funny, Blazing Saddles is both a send-up of the Hollywood Western and a bold statement on racial prejudice. It's also completely - even brilliantly - chaotic, with moments that occasionally veer as far from the film's central themes as they possibly can. 

Aside from the now-famous ending, where a street fight between outlaws and townsfolk spills onto a neighboring sound stage disrupting a Busby-Berkeley-style musical, several other examples of inspired lunacy can be found throughout Blazing Saddles. In the small, peaceful, and very racist town of town of Rock Ridge, everyone's last name is Johnson (there's even a Howard Johnson, who owns the local Ice Cream Parlor that bears a sign boasting “1 Flavor”). Later, at a gathering of outlaws, recruited to attack Rock Ridge, we find, mixed in with the usual assortment of western toughs, a few Nazis, two Klansmen, and even a gang of bikers.

And when it comes time to send these assorted criminals off to destroy Rock Ridge, their leader, Hedley Lamaar (Harvey Korman), gives a pep talk in which he declares, “You will only be risking your lives, whereas I will be risking an almost certain Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor”. 

Whatever his ultimate goal was, whether it be to plunge a dagger into the heart of Western mythos, shine a light on the insanity of racial prejudice, or simply shake up the world, with Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks has crafted a singular comedy classic.