The Producers review

 Number 574 on the top 1000 films of all time is Mel Brook's black-comedy 'The Producers.'

Max Bilaystock (Zero Mostel) is a has-been Broadway producer desperately searching for his next hit. Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) is a naive and neurotic accountant hired to audit Max's books. Together the two cook up a scam to make them rich. To this end, they produce a play called "Spring Time for Hitler," which celebrates the life of the notorious dictator.

The Producers was Mel Brooks' directorial debut. He won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. He later went onto win the EGOT, as well as directing very funny films like Blazing Saddles and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. I was expecting a lot, but I was disappointed.

Sure I could see the blackness - Mel Brooks has said the only way to get back at genocidal maniacs like Hitler is to laugh at them. Except I didn't laugh at all. Not because I was offended by the risque subject matter, but because it just wasn't funny. The jokes either didn't land or were drawn out longer than was funny.

I also didn't rate the lead actors either. Gene Wilder was a frequent collaborator of Mel Brooks, going onto star in Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. He was a funny man, but here he was painfully over-the-top. I understand that Leo Bloom was a deeply neurotic character, but Wilder took the neuroticism to an obnoxious level.

I didn't think Zero Mostel was much better as the hapless Broadway producer. He was similarly over-the-top and annoying. After a while, I became annoyed whenever I saw him on screen. The same went with Wilder. Considering both of them were the main characters, this was not a good thing.

I really wanted to like the Producers; I love Robin Hood, Men in Tights, but the Producers was a complete directorial debut dud.

Blazing Saddles review

 Number 507 on the top 1000 films of all time is Mel Brooks' parody of the Western genre: Blazing Saddles.

Bart (Clavon Little) is a black railway worker in 1974 on the American frontier. When the townspeople of Rock Ridge realise they're going to be bullied out by the corrupt politician Hedley Lemar (Harvey Korman) they designate Bart to be the sheriff of the town. He is assisted by alcoholic gunslinger Jim the Waco Kid. (Gene Wilder)

My favourite Mel Brooks' film is his parody of Robin Hood: Men in Tights. I thought it was absolutely hilarious and so clever. In many ways Blazing Saddles was his warm-up act - to a lesser extent, you also had Young Frankenstein. But Blazing Saddles shared the same meta-humour as Men In Tights. Men in Tights even hearkened back to its spiritual predecessor.

Granted, Blazing Saddles gets a bit ridiculous toward the end where it not only breaks the fourth but the fifth, sixth and seventh walls. Bart and Jim's posse fight with Hedley Lamar's posse spills out onto a neighbouring film set and the real world with Lemar escaping to a nearby cinema. The cinema is showing none other than Blazing Saddles. It was silly, but I didn't mind.

The film was full of tis funny meta-humour like when Lamar recruits a posse and everybody from the SS to the KKK and the Hells Angels turn up.

Yet this film wasn't all just humour. There was also some good performances from Cleavon Little - for the longest time I thought it was Richard Pryor in the lead role, but he just wrote the script. Gene Wilder also showed his comedic chops with a touch of emotional intensity as Jim.

Overall, I enjoyed Blazing Saddles. Sure it was silly at times, but it was just a warm up for Men in Tights. Mel brooks was a master of parody, wasn't he?

Young Frankenstein review

Number 279 on the top 1000 films of all time is Mel Brooks' parody of the horror genre ‘Young Frankenstein.’

Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) is the grandson of the legendary Victor Frankenstein. But he wants nothing to do with his grandfather, so much so, that he goes by “Fronkensteen.” However, upon returning to Transylvannia, he soon returns to his grandfather’s experiments aided by his deformed servant I-gor (Marty Feldman) and his love interest and assistant Inga. (Terri Garr)

Mel Brooks is well-known for his parodies from Blazing Saddles to the fantastic Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Although primarily a loving pastiche of the Frankenstein films of the thirties, it also pastiches the horror genre of a whole. Mel Brooks utilised a number of transitions, such as the screenwipes that you would never see today.

He also made the unusual choice of rendering the film in black and white. Yet this stylistic decision coupled with the background scenery of houses painted at abstract angles, made for a delightful call-back to the German expressionist films of the thirties. Brooks’ scenery, music and camerawork wouldn’t have been out of place in a Fritz Lang film.

Wilder and Feldman were also brilliant. Wilder gave it his all, as the maniacal Frankenstein. He was delightfully over-the-top, just how you would expect in one of the horror films of old. Marty Feldman provided most of the laughs as the hapless assistant I-gor. Some of this came from his brilliant improvisational talents. I-gor has a hump which Feldman kept secretly moving from side to side. When Frankenstein questions him about this, I-gor replies “what hump?”

Lastly, I have to give some credit to Terri Garr who played Inga. She very much encapsulated the standard damsel-in-distress prone to standing around and looking pretty/scared. It’s a role you would commonly expect from the old horror films. And it’s a role that she did well.

Yet despite all this, the film felt lacking. Sure it was funny, but I wasn’t crying tears of laughter. I’m glad I saw it the once, but I don’t need to see it again.