Oh, how I wanted to see The Producers on Broadway! I never made it to New York, but thanks to the magic of movies, my family and I enjoyed this highly entertaining film version on a special Christmas Day. Happily, cameras didn’t cut away during any musical routines, so we were treated to each terrific number from beginning to end.
Outrageous musical numbers evoke most of the laughs in this movie funfest. Here’s an excerpt from my review. Eat your heart out, Rockettes, because here comes a little old ladies’ chorus line (“Along Came Bialy”) to rival your success. Watch out, real-life producers, for an actor named Gary Beach (“Heil Myself”). Never, and I mean never, hire him if you want your play to flop! And stop spinning in your grave, Florenz Ziegfeld. Those “Springtime for Hitler and Germany” showgirls are all in good fun.
I am in awe of Brooks’ talent as a comedian, writer, producer, director and composer. He’s received three Oscar® nominations -– for the adapted screenplay of Young Frankenstein, for the Blazing Saddles lyrics, for The Producers (1968) screenplay -– and won the golden statuette for the latter. He also earned an Oscar® for The Critic, a very funny short film in which he did the hilarious narration.
My favorite Mel Brooks movie scene? There are so many, it’s hard to choose. But the one I love the most is his Frank Sinatra-like singing of “High Anxiety” in the film of the same name, which is a brilliant send-up of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. But I also enjoy Brooks and his talented late great wife, Anne Bancroft, singing and dancing to “Sweet Georgia Brown” in To Be or Not To Be. What a wonderfully funny and rousing routine!
I hope you had a very happy 96th birthday, Mel Brooks. And may you have many more. Thanks again for your great movies.
Humor is just another defense against the universe. --- Mel Brooks
Life literally abounds with comedy if you look around you. --- Mel Brooks
My memory of Blazing Saddles was of Alex Karras knocking a horse out. Never seen before or since--very creative. And the way that Mel portrayed Cleavon Little was a stroke of genius. The first time that a black man had been portrayed as a sheriff in western movies. I just watched a documentary of the first black man that was given a badge as a federal marshal back in the period right after the Civil War.
Where I worked at Texas Southern University in Houston. We had a mild-mannered carpenter that everyone called, Mr. Little. One day when I was chatting with him, he revealed that Cleavon was his brother and sometimes came to visit him. I don't remember the man's first name, but when I searched one time, I couldn't verify that he was. Since black people often refer to fellow black men as "Brother," that may have been what he was referring to.
Ron