Movies: They're Pretty Good!
Movies: They're Pretty Good!
Mel Brooks
Who wants to experience the magic of comedic genius Mel Brooks, from the comfort of your headphones? Teaming up with my brother Tyler, we're setting off on an audio adventure through the illustrious career of this Hollywood legend. We're opening the vault of laughter, discussing a range of Brooks' iconic works from the spy genre spoof Get Smart to cinematic gems like Young Frankenstein and The Producers.
We're not just skimming the surface here; we're diving deep into the comedic brilliance of Mel Brooks! Unearth the finer details of his films, dissecting the art of casting, the creation of unforgettable gags, and the sheer hilarity that Brooks breathes into every film, from High Anxiety to History of the World, Part I. We'll also be ranking the adaptations of classics, unmasking the genius behind Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It.
But, our journey doesn't stop there! We're going to wrap it all up by discussing the impact of Mel Brooks on, well, everything! From his influence on popular culture to his shaping of the comedy genre itself, we're taking a magnifying glass to the ripple effect caused by his genius. And for the die-hard fans, we're ranking Brooks' films and debating which ones, in our humble opinion, stand tallest. So buckle up, laugh-seekers, as we embark on a jovial journey through the world of Mel Brooks.
Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thank you for listening! Hope you enjoy!
Website: https://moviestheyreprettygood.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/moviestheyreprettygood
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087938154530
Twitter: https://twitter.com/moviesgoodpod
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8iGT7riyJ_K2DFLwfbTemg
Hello and welcome to another episode of movies, colon. They're pretty good. I'm your host, travis Dutting, and today or this week we're gonna be doing something a little different. I decided, I think, for the month of November I'm gonna do director centric episodes. Instead of Breaking down one movie at a time, I'm just gonna kind of go through the careers of different, different directors over the years, ones that are my, my favorites, ones that I've seen their whole film. Film ography well helps if I learn how to talk. But joining me today is A special guest, the only special guest I've had on the podcast thus far my brother Tyler.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody, and part of me if I it's been a while, because I somehow when past this, past the few episodes, because I, I what I actually know is set my vehicle to ludicrous speed.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, very on brand for who we're talking about today. All right, so let's get right into it. Me and you both had a Marathon of the Mel Brooks's whole filmography recently, so I figured that'd be a good opportunity to talk about, like what our thoughts are on him as a director and Just his movies in general, and like maybe we'll rank them, we'll give our own rankings and everything. So yeah, that's Off the bat. What are your thoughts on Mel Brooks?
Speaker 2:Well, mel Brooks is one of the few directors of comedy that basically Defined genre parodies. Well, if you think about it, let's make a checklist. In terms of television, he did get smart, which is a parody of the spy genre, because James Bond was popular, musicals was checked off with the producers. I Think the 12 chairs is count might count as a spoof. On foreign films. Yeah, I think that's based off of foreign films. Blazing saddles. It's obviously Western. Young Frankenstein spoof's the horror genre because but well known, because Mel wanted to do it in black and white but the first studio choice, columbia, wanted it in color. But Mel wanted young, his version of young Frankenstein, to be sort of in the style of the James Whale Original Frankenstein. And he saw the original Frankenstein in theaters and was terrified. And it gets even Better with his version of Frankenstein because he actually used the original Frankenstein lab equipment from the James Whale film.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cuz that that equipment was still just like sitting in someone's garage, right, yeah, had him been touched. Really, it was just sitting in storage and I think the studio was gonna get rid of it at some point. And someone was like hey, like can I have that? And Took it home. And yeah, it was just sitting in someone's garage and they were able to use the original props from the original Frankenstein.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a lot of the gadgets in silent movie were basically like based off of the Buster Keaton Kind of stuff, like the iconic waiter. There's a fly in my soup.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just a plane on all the tropes and everything from that era and All the gags that originated during that time.
Speaker 2:So going back to place and saddles. I think that's another movie where it plays off of all Western tropes, yeah. And then we get High anxiety, which is a parody slash tribute To Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, yeah. And then you see stuff like references to psycho, the birds, the plus on what copies, vertigo, and there's a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2:And Me and the some people the media lab In the film society club we have watched. Last month some offered Hitchcock films. Which ones did you end up seeing? Well, we watched. I can't believe I'm seeing this. I Can't remember the first one, but we did see a rope. You say we saw rear view window, just rear window, yeah, rear window. And then we top it off with psycho.
Speaker 1:Yep, probably the most famous, obviously Yep, and definitely one that gets spoofed in In high anxiety.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's a knife.
Speaker 1:It was a newspaper, yep.
Speaker 2:And then the punchline is Mel going. That kid gets no tip.
Speaker 1:Yep, all right, so let's, should we go movie by movie now?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right. So his first film, the producers, starring Jean Wilder and zero mostel, made in 1968 no, it was made in 67, but I don't think it's screened until 68 because it kind of got stuck in studio limbo or Distribution distribution limbo, pretty much right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Hilarious movie ended up winning the Oscar for best writing Story and screenplay written directly for the screen. So best original screenplay is how it's named now. So this is the Oscar of. Mel Brooks is Egot, so he's one of the few people that's won and Emmy, grammy, oscar, tony so producers.
Speaker 1:Hilarious movie about a Hack Play producer for Broadway Down on his luck, basically Seducing old ladies to for money. Then that's how he's like financing his plays and stuff. Jean Wilder is Works for the IRS or is just an auditor, I forget. I think he just works for the bank. But he goes there to audit him and During this Meeting realizes that you can make more money with a play that's a flop than you can with a hit.
Speaker 1:So, and the reason to do that would be that you would raise more money than Necessary. You know, instead of raising a hundred percent of the budget, you raise a thousand percent of the budget and like ten times more money than you need. And you just have to make sure that that play is a flop, because if it's a hit, then you owe ten times more than your play is making. And then so they look for the worst play possible. That play ends up being written by a German immigrant and it's called springtime for Hitler and it's a musical. They try to find the worst director, worst actor and worst play and Just it ends up so absurd that it becomes a hit and in the end they go to jail and everything. Hilarious movie, yeah. What are your thoughts on it? It's.
Speaker 2:It's a sitter, one of the funniest. It's considered a good starting point in Mel Brooks. This is directing and oddly enough, it Turned out really good. It's so good.
Speaker 1:It's spun a Broadway musical and there's a remake Based off of the musical starting Nathan Lane and Matthew Brodwick yes, so it's a movie about Broadway that Spons a Brought, an actual Broadway play, and then that spawns a film adaptation of the Broadway play based on a movie. So Full circle, yep, full circle, indeed. All right, any more thoughts on producers, or should we move on to the next one?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is one of the few movies that Mel is not a Doesn't appear in, oh, in producers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you hear his voice once during one of the musical numbers in the play, but it's dubbed over another actor and you just hear him say don't be stupid, be a smarty, come enjoying the Nazi Party. Oh, yeah, yeah, and that's, that's Mel's voice for that one. So, Moving on Yep All right. Next is 12 chairs. What can you tell us about this one? Well, it's, it was, sometime it was the.
Speaker 2:It takes place in the time at the start of the Soviet Union the. The Russian monarchy has fallen, yep and this aristocrat. His mother died, and before dying she tells her son that she had left a lot of money in one of the 12 chairs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, basically like the family jewels and all the money and everything was inside the upholstery of one of these chairs that they had in their mansion before it got taken over by the Soviets. So it's him versus a priest that was giving the mother her last rights and found out about the money as well, and it's basically just this race to go be the first to find the money it's starring. Mel Brooks was the former servant right of the family, so he makes appearances through it, but he's not one of the main characters. He got Ron Moody. He's the former aristocrat Right.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Frank Langella is the guy that's helping him. He's kind of like a con man type guy, little bit of a drifter, but you know, with a good heart and everything Right, is that how you describe him, probably?
Speaker 2:Yeah, compared to other other villain roles he did like Dracula in the seventies and Skeletor in the train wreck of a movie called Masters of the Universe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then the priest is played by Dom Delouise, who is a recurring ensemble player for Mel Brooks films.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and also this guy by the name of Dom Bluth.
Speaker 1:What about him?
Speaker 2:Yeah, dom did a lot of. Did some character voices for Dom Bluth. The only ones he didn't do were, I think, the only good ones. That he was not in was Land Before Time.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you're saying Dom Delouise was a frequent Dom Bluth player too?
Speaker 2:Yes, okay All right.
Speaker 1:Do you have anything else to add on 12 Chairs?
Speaker 2:Well, all I have to say is all for the best, it's spet the worst.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's the theme song, right yeah. Pretty much Okay. Now we come to my personal favorite Blazing Saddles.
Speaker 2:Yep. This is where the genre of parodies come in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is the first full on genre parody and probably the first actual spoof whatever you want to call it type film. The jokes are completely over the top, but in the best way, in my opinion at least. Just extreme, just silly over the top. The co-written by Richard Pryor who was supposed to star in it. But the studios wouldn't let the film get made if Richard Pryor was in it because he had like a spotty history and like drug problems and arrests and stuff like that. So yeah, he was too big of a risk but he still did write the film with Mel, but it stars.
Speaker 2:Cleavon Little.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Cleavon Little in the role that would have been Richard Pryor's, and Gene Wilder again back from the producers.
Speaker 2:And Harvey Corman as the villain.
Speaker 1:Yep Harvey Corman as the villain Hedy Lamar.
Speaker 2:That's Hedley.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Mel Brooks as the mayor right or the governor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, governor.
Speaker 1:Governor and the Native American chief. Yeah, a few other roles in there. Dom Delouise is in like a cameo role towards the end as a film director. When the film goes totally meta, literally breaks the fourth wall, they break out of the western set into the studio set at the end and just it gets crazy, gets off the walls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at this point the movie just stopped caring, Yep.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, yep, yep. But yeah, hilarious movie. I'm not just gonna. I could spend hours just repeating lines from it. But you know any other, like trivia, you want to add to it though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in terms of I think one of the big female actors started with this one, and it's Madeline Kahn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, that's who I was forgetting. Another frequent Mel Brooks star, Madeline Kahn. She plays what's the character? Lillian Von Stuck? That's right. That's right, she's a German, not like Berlesque, but she's a German singer, entertainer. Yeah, any other blazing saddles tidbits are ready to move on. Well, one of the best fart gags came from this movie and also wasn't it also like one of the first fart gags in a movie, pretty much?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that true or is that just like a?
Speaker 2:I think it's true, a misconception?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's true, yeah.
Speaker 2:Some of the racial slurs in this one. I think it's been used frequently, to the point where the whole point of this movie is how absurdly stupid racism is.
Speaker 1:yes, yeah, it's like I Think his hand. The goal of him and Richard Pryor was to point out the absurdity of racism, the stupidity behind it and everything like that, and then, but it uses racism to make fun of racism. Basically, right, that is correct. Yeah, yep, okay, I think that's it for that one. Let's move on to young Frankenstein Now. You gave a little bit of trivia on that before talking about how the original sets from the original Frankenstein were used.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, this one also introduces two more frequent frequent flyers Chloris Leachman Yep. And Marty Feldman right, yep, this was his first. Yeah, he wasn't in any of the previous ones, right? Nope, yeah.
Speaker 2:The some of the best stuff in this, especially towards the end with the, the whole putting on the Ritz sequence. That was the most iconic part of the movie and especially how they they mostly parody the original Frankenstein.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they don't really. This one's not so much a Genre, a parody, as much as it is just a straight up Frankenstein parody, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because Mostly we, and one of the best known gags is we're. If you look at I goers, a hump is switches places.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's also a recurring gag in a few other ones. Another notable one will get to. We'll get to the movie later, but in Robin Hood, men and tights the mole on King Richard's face Prince John. Prince John, yeah, not King Richard. Yeah, the mole on Prince John's face moves around throughout the movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So yeah, young Frankenstein. Oh yeah, I didn't really talk about the, so let's backtrack a little bit. I didn't really talk about the plot of Blazing Saddles, correct? So the plot of Blazing Saddles is a it's post-Civil War, but not too far past the Civil War.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not quite reconstruction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're building the railroad out west and everything, and the company wants to build. The ideal place to build the railroad is through this town called Rock Ridge. So the corrupt government wants to find a way to get rid of the town so they can tear down the town and build the railroad through there and the the their plan. Their evil plot is to put in a sheriff that the town will hate so much that they'll just leave. And so, because everyone's racist, they appoint a black sheriff and that first it's working, but then you know at, as always, that Things go awry and it backfires on them. So yeah, that's basically the plot of of Blazing Saddles. So the plot of young Frankenstein is Is that? It's the? Is it great-grand-grand-grandson or just grandson?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's his grandson.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it's doctor Victor von Frankenstein's grandson.
Speaker 2:No. Baron von Frankenstein's grandson.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:But he's the son of Victor Frankenstein okay. Actually he Know, he is the grandson of Victor Frankenstein.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I said.
Speaker 2:Yeah, his great-grandfather was Baron von Frankenstein.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, got it, got it, got it. So which one is the Frankenstein from the movie the 30s movie? Frankenstein.
Speaker 2:In the book it was Victor Frankenstein, but they changed it to Henry Frankenstein.
Speaker 1:Got it, got it. So he's the grandson of the mad scientist Victor Frankenstein.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Okay, that that's what I wanted to find out. So yeah, it's, but he's skeptical of his grandfather's work. Basically, once the who dies, that he has to go to the castle Victor dies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he goes to the castle and, basically, is led to the laboratory, gets inspired, thinks that he could do it the right way this time, and you know it's a company, so he, it works, but it doesn't work in a different way. You know, and I don't want to spoil like jokes and stuff like that, but it's Gene Wilder playing the, the Frankenstein or Frankenstein. That's a running gag and a fun tidbit about this. There's a, a joke in this film where he get. He first gets to Transylvania. He meets his assistant, igor, and then when he corrects him on how, on the pronunciation of Frankenstein to Frankenstein, igor says it's pronounced Igor. Then he says walk this way, like, like, oh, like, come this way. But he may make some walk like a specific In, like a specific stance and everything. And that joke from this movie is what inspired the Song walk this way by Aerosmith. They had gone to see it while they're on tour and they just love that joke. And then Stephen Tyler had an idea for a song after that.
Speaker 2:And also becomes a running gag that gets repeated in History of the world, part one and later Romah and men and tights yes exactly.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you got Gene Wilder playing Frederick Frankenstein, madeline Kahn is his fiancee, elizabeth. Marty Feldman plays Igor. Peter Boyle, the dad from everybody loves Raymond. He plays Frankenstein's monster, chloris Leachman, frau Blucar, terry Gar plays lab assistant Inga. And yeah, that's it for the big names in the, the main characters. But yeah, this one, this one's really funny. This is a great Watch this try to watch this once a year, you know, particularly around Halloween. But yeah, great movie, love it. A lot of good gags and this one's it's less silly than blazing saddles, it's. It's funny. It's just as funny, probably, but it's not so like over-the-top and ridiculous and I Don't know what the word I'm looking for is, but it's, it's just a. It's a different type of comedy, but it works just as well and maybe, probably, probably his like best movie as a like best film, if you want to be snooty about it. Any other thoughts on young Frankenstein?
Speaker 2:Give it a watch while you still tan.
Speaker 1:Yeah all right. Moving on silent movies next right correct, all right.
Speaker 2:This. This one is basically one of the more More based off of the physical comedy and Visual gags.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd say so, like you said before, really playing up those Gags and tropes that were originated from the old silent films and silent comedies Buster Keaton, charlie Chaplin, harold Boyd, that type of stuff, right?
Speaker 2:yeah, all the favorites.
Speaker 1:Yep Plot on this one. It's a film director Trying to get a, trying to make a revival of silent films, and it's taking place during the time period that it's made. Right, it's taking place in the 70s.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's more of a period picture now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, now it is, but you. So yeah, he's trying to do like a revival of silent films. The entire film is silent, minus one gag where the one spoken word is spoken by a mime. But yeah, no spoilers on what is said, but it's got a lot of cameos in it. What Burt Reynolds? Right, yeah, who else? Paul Newman?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and James Cohn.
Speaker 1:James Cohn.
Speaker 2:And Van Croft.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's Mel's real life wife. Were they married at the time or not? Yet?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have to look that up.
Speaker 2:And Liza Minnelli, the daughter of Judy Garland.
Speaker 1:Yep. Then it's also got Marty Feldman back from Young Frankenstein and Dom Delawes he's in this one too. Mel is the main character, he's the director and everything. We got Sid Caesar as the studio chief.
Speaker 2:Yep somewhat based off of Alan Latt.
Speaker 1:Jr.
Speaker 2:Yeah, who was the head of 20th Century Fox at the time, and this might correlate to a later movie down the timeline where he meets another inspiring director who has an idea of robots, space wizards and a far off galaxy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, but we'll wait on that one. Any other thoughts on Silent Movie?
Speaker 2:This is one of the weirdest movies because it's all over the place and there's a little pawn reference because it's my inner dammer talking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you wanna talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they go to the hospital because the studio chief was stricken and I can't believe the names of the director and his companions, mel Fun, marty Eggs and Dom Bell, are visiting the hospital. They go to the studio chief's room and Dom Bell and Marty Eggs are near the heart monitor. You unplug it and the studio chief collapses, and then plus, if I didn't wakes up unplug it collapses and then one of the two pulls the other side and then it turns into a pawn machine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're talking about the on the screen that would show the heartbeat, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anything else on Silent Movie. Are you ready to move on?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm ready to move on. But this movie is inspired by a true story. Which one? That of the whole production of the movie Silent Movie, yes, which at the end it says this is based on a true story.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, I forgot that gag. You're a ball in my mind for a second, like, really, that doesn't seem like any of this stuff really happened. Okay, all right, so High Anxiety is next correct.
Speaker 2:Yup.
Speaker 1:Yup, and this is the homage to Alfred Hitchcock. Some there's Psycho references Birds, earth by Northwest Vertigo Vertigo is probably the main one, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. The central plot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's literally the title High Anxiety is like, basically like a way to dumb down the word Vertigo. You're getting anxiety about being up high. So yeah, this one's fun you got. You know. Mel Brooks is playing the main character again. Dr Richard H Thorndike. You got Madeline Kahn as Victoria Brisbane. Chloris Leachman's back as Nurse Charlotte Harvey Corman's back as Dr Charles Montague. That's it for the main characters.
Speaker 2:Oh, you forgot Ron Kerry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, I guess he is a main character, brophy, so he's like the assistant right or kind of like the driver for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and photographer.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, is that anything you wanna add on this one?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the whole zoom in, zoom out gag.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so you get a part where the camera is zooming in on them and they're inside eating and as the camera zooms close to the window, it breaks through the window and then thus breaking the fourth wall, showing that that's a movie being made. But then they just like everyone looks and then they just go about their business like nothing happened. And that gag gets reused in Robin Hood, men and Tights right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then they do the zoom out gag as well at the end.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:Where the it shows they get married, and then you hear the crew go all right, let's pull back.
Speaker 1:And then it tries to zoom along and they're like what? Are we doing?
Speaker 2:Keep going, maybe they won't notice.
Speaker 1:Well, all right, so which one's next?
Speaker 2:History of the world.
Speaker 1:Got it okay. And when is to be or not to be? Or are we not counting that one because he didn't direct it?
Speaker 2:Actually, we might count that one.
Speaker 1:Well, we can talk a little bit. We wanna get that one out of the way real quick. Talk about what that is. Yeah, it's basically a remake of an earlier movie From the 40s.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's basically like a troop of theater actors or in the theater company in Poland. It's the beginning of World War II and they have to escape to England. Yeah, and it's got like George Sanders, george Weiner, who plays one general and then who will later appear in Spaceballs, another character played by Dick. I think, is Dick Van Pantton in this one.
Speaker 1:I don't remember.
Speaker 2:I think he might be in this one. We did two actors who will later be in Spaceballs. Yeah, and there's another general play by Christopher Lloyd.
Speaker 1:And then the two main characters are played by Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft real life married couple.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as Mr and Mrs.
Speaker 1:Bronsty.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Okay, so history of the world, part one. First off, love the title because it until this last year, with the Hulu mini series, there was never any intention to make a part two or three or whatever, and so it was just like a play on all these epics having like multiple sequels and stuff like that, and it's kind of like a what would you say, like an anthology movie where there's different vignettes and stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it starts with a satire on 2001,. A Space Odyssey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like the beginning of man and stuff. So you get some caveman jokes and, like you said, the making fun of the opening of 2001.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with them discovering the monolith.
Speaker 1:Yep, Get a couple a quick scene from the Bible with the Moses bringing down the 15, and then he drops one 10, 10 commandments.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a playoff of that Seth will be the mill movie.
Speaker 1:Yep, you get the Roman Empire.
Speaker 2:Basically the best part, and all of that was filmed in Hollywood.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep In Universal Studios correct.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, square Warriors and the Red Sea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then the chariot chase is pretty much through Agora Hills, calabasas area. Yeah. There's they get the Spanish Inquisition in the middle, then the French Revolution.
Speaker 2:Which was all filmed in England.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that closes the movie out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this.
Speaker 1:Well, the actual closing of the movie is the fake advertisement for History of the World, part II.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this is one of the movies where they start doing the whole Deus Ex Machina trope joke. Yeah, first it's only America can save them, and also the Marijuana coming out of nowhere.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, to distract the Roman soldiers, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And also the Red Sea portion. You did tell that it's the tram ride.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, from at Universal Studios, like where near, where JAZZ is correct.
Speaker 2:I think it was. After the after seeing, that's before. You see the prompt environment and then the swear of warriors.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And it's right. Before a little Europe and then the earthquake attraction.
Speaker 1:Got it. Anything you want to add on History of the World, part I.
Speaker 2:This movie is basically epitably hilarious to the point where it just makes fun of. It just makes fun of everything, and it's the first time you see some vernachronistic humor with the, the guy in the Roman Empire with the boom box. Oh yeah, plenty of fun to tell, yep.
Speaker 1:All right, moving on to Spaceballs, which I think was the first Mel Brooks movie. Either of us all right. Yeah, on TV at our Grandma's house from Dad's side of the family, yes, so yeah, it's Spaceballs, mostly a Star Wars spoof, but it's kind of it's spoofing sci-fi in general. Yeah, this one, this one's pretty funny. You got Bill Pullman as Lone Star, which is kind of a combo of Luke and Han Solo. You got Rick Moranis as Dark Helmet, the Darth Vader character.
Speaker 2:If it's not obvious enough, yeah.
Speaker 1:You got John Candy as Barf, the sidekick Mel Brooks as President, Scroob and Yogurt, which is Yoda. Daphne Zuniga as Princess Vespa, Obviously.
Speaker 2:Princess.
Speaker 1:Leia Yep and Joan Rivers as Dot Matrix, the C-3PO.
Speaker 2:Count-A-Part, but the body movement was LaRine Yarnel.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Joan.
Speaker 1:Rivers did the voice. Got it, got it, got it.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, this movie is pretty hilarious If you've seen the original Star Wars trilogy in their unaltered state it just makes this movie even funnier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then you got Lone Star and Barf or like. Basically just what? What would they be Like? What's their job? I mean, it's similar to Star Wars. They owe somebody money, but it's yeah, Pizza the Hut. Yep Pizza, the Hut.
Speaker 2:A playoff of Java the Hut.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's the voice of Dom Delawes, but I think it was Rudy DeLuca who was in the costume.
Speaker 1:Oh, maybe.
Speaker 2:No, I think Rudy DeLuca was Vinny.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, but yeah, they end up rescuing Princess Vespa.
Speaker 2:She's running away from her arranged marriage wedding, and then and, of course, the room to be is Prince Valium, which is a playoff of the comic book character Prince Valiant.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, and also the Valium sedative, yeah exactly Because he's like yawning and half asleep the whole time.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of spoofs of other sci-fi films, like the beaming stuff from Star Trek.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we get a Planet of the Apes reference of the climax in any. My favorite scene in Spaceballs is the alien reference with the chest-burster.
Speaker 2:And it turns into an homage to the Looney Tunes Tartune One Froggy Evening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's Michigan.
Speaker 2:J Frog right the hello my lady, hello my honey.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember that from the little Giants VHS tape.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's what it was on. Okay, I was trying to remember where we saw that and why we saw that as many times as we did, but that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Because it was the before or future presentation of Little Giants. We're celebrating the birthday of Mission to J Frog by watching the Tartune that made him a star on Friday evening. Oh, okay, all right, anything else to add on Spaceballs or Well, this is one of the movies where they got permission from George Lucas to help with the special effects with ILM, and the whole merchandise scene was made because of George Diving Mel, the condition of not to make any merchandise of Spaceballs, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:And the other condition that was lesser known was not to have Lone Star be dressed as Han Solo Got it, but Mel being the clever guy, he is made Lone Star's wardrobe based off of Indiana Jones. Yeah.
Speaker 1:The other, george Lucas, harrison Ford, character.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because during his intro you see him with the hat, but the hat disappears for the rest of the movie. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:All right, next up we got Life Stinks. This one is one that I had seen it, not when it came out, but when I was younger, when I was first getting into Mel Brooks and trying to watch all his movies and this one, I didn't like it that much the first time I saw it, but in this rewatch I was able to appreciate it a little more. It's the second lowest rated of his filmography on IMDb, not that that really matters, but yeah, this one's a greedy businessman, makes a bet that he can live on the streets of LA for 30 days, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the other guy that Mel made the bet against is played by Jeffrey Tambor.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly. So, yeah, obviously he goes through with it. He wins the bet, but some dirty dealings were done while he was away and they make him look like a crazy person and everything. But he, along with the other homeless people that he's made friends with, basically fight the man at the end and win.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this one's good. This one has a lot of heart in it and, like I said, better than I remember, but not a lot to say on it. It's good, you know, but I just don't have the attachment to it like I do with the other movies, because I haven't seen it as many times.
Speaker 2:I've only seen bits of it same as Travis did. We were in the Apple Valley at our Nana's first house there. Yeah, and it was a rental.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we rented it from either Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, because that tells you how long ago this was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, 90s kid and 2000s outwessons, yep.
Speaker 1:So yeah, anything else to add on that one? None, all right. So next up is Robin Hood Men and Tights. Pretty much a one for one spoof of the Kevin Costner Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah with the, but the costume Kari Elwis was wearing is based off of the Earl Flynn one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep, yeah, this one, this one's good. I like this one a lot. Like you said, kari Elwis is Robin Hood, got Richard Lewis as Prince John, you got Roger Reese as Sheriff of Nottingham, amy Yazbek as Maid Marion, dave Chappelle as Achu.
Speaker 2:Bless you.
Speaker 1:You got Isaac Hayes as his dad Asniz.
Speaker 2:And as a playoff, of Hasim, the Warden Freeman character from Prince of Thieves Yep.
Speaker 1:Tracy Oldman as Latrine, patrick Stewart as King Richard and Dom Delouise as Don Giovanni, which is the random Godfather reference in a Robin Hood movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this was out of nowhere. And Mel plays Rabbi Tuckman, which is a playoff of Fryer Tuck.
Speaker 1:Yep, but you know, mel, being Jewish, wanted to play. Put a rabbi in there instead of a priest, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in terms of Robin Hood movies, this is right up probably the best of one of the Robin Hood adaptations. One of the two things two Robin Hood adaptations I've seen the whole thing of the other one being the Disney version.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, like I can't really compare it to anything else other than the Disney one and they're just two completely different feelings and vibes and everything. So yeah, I can't really compare it to like the Kevin Costner or whatever, like the weird ones that they've done.
Speaker 2:Or the Errol Flynn one, which is the classic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I still haven't seen that one that's on my list. I haven't got to that one yet. But yeah, lots of good gags in here. Really funny, great cast, great jokes, great movie. Alright, moving on to the final of his director filmography Dracula dead and loving it.
Speaker 2:Yup, a spoof, mostly on the Legosi version of Dracula. Yeah, with a little bit of nods to the Coppola one and the use of blood from the Hammer films.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, this one. You got Leslie Nielsen as Dracula, you got Mel Brooks as Van Helsing, you got Peter McNichol as Renfield, peter McNichol from Ghostbusters 2.
Speaker 2:Added his family values as one of the Tam counselors.
Speaker 1:And being the movie right, yes.
Speaker 2:He played Renfield, similar to Dwight Fry in the Bell of the Dosey one.
Speaker 1:Yep, alright. Then you got Steven Weber as Harker. You got Amy Yazbek back from Rumpf-Tytes. She's Mina Lissette Anthony as Lucy, harvey Corman as Dr Seward.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Yep, then the minor characters and stuff, but yeah, that's this one I for some reason missed as a kid, like when I was getting into Mel Brooks before and I watched all his other movies for whatever reason. This one just like slipped past me, didn't even know about it for forever, or that he was involved, or that it was his movie that he directed. You actually saw it before I ever did right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I saw it on the, but when it was available for that short amount of time, netflix threw the Wii.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, that was when Netflix first started allowing streaming. You could do it through the Wii. That was crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then later I found a DVD copy of it at Barnes Noble. Okay, and then it was through that DVD copy that I got that. You first saw it when you were in.
Speaker 1:Maryland. Yep, that's right. Yeah, but I saw it, but I didn't really get to pay too much attention to it. So this time that we did our marathon was the first time I actually got to sit down and fully watch it and it was good. You know it was good. It's not my favorite of the Mel Brooks canon, but it was still way more enjoyable than I expected.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yep, all right, so Shall we. Do you know what your ranking would be? Do you want to go from Least to best or the other way around?
Speaker 2:I say at least to best.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. Why don't you go ahead while I pull up my letterbox to count and see what that says?
Speaker 2:Okay. Lifesteins was no, actually stretch that. It's to be or not to be. It was pretty okay. And then lifesteins and then the 12 chairs, and then there's the producers, which is pretty good, and then spaceballs, which would have been higher up because of the Star Wars nerd inside me. But there's also silent movie, which is quite a romp. Then there's High Anxiety Again, if you're more into Alfred Hitchcock, hitch for the World, because of like historical updates, like Ten Commandments or Ben Herr. Then there's Romathem and the Tights, which I consider to be one of the best selling if I was to watch that in 2003.
Speaker 2:Yeah, actually, no, I think it was earlier than that when you were getting started into Mel Brooks, yeah. And then there's Dracula, Den and Loving it, which was again if you are more into the horror genre and learning film history, if you get some of the stuff like the Dracula tropes.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm Jan.
Speaker 2:Frankenstein, which was a good Halloween watch, might make a good double feature with Dracula, den and Loving it, yeah. And of course, blazing Saddles, which is the top tier of Mel's filmography, because very quotable. Actually, all the movies are quotable, yeah, except for silent movie. Because of only one word Nope, that's part of my Marcel Marceau, all right.
Speaker 1:So that's your whole list. Yep, all right. What was your number? What was your number one? Again Blazing?
Speaker 2:Saddles.
Speaker 1:That's right, okay, yeah, I figured. Okay Now for my list. We got my In the bottom. I'm going to go with Dracula, den and Loving it. I'd still enjoyed it, but it's just not one of my favorites. A little bit cheesier, some of the jokes made me groan a little bit Like oh you know, but you know, still not bad you know, in terms of Mel Brooks and that style of humor and everything, it was still a good movie.
Speaker 1:Next I'm going to go with Life Stinks. Like I said, it was better than I remembered, but you know it's still not like super memorable, like not a lot's like living in my head, not a lot of stain power personally. Next I would go High Anxiety A little bit better, a little more memorable than the other ones. Jokes are a little better, but still not my favorite compared to some of the other ones. And then I'm going to go with History of the World, part 1.
Speaker 1:It has, in my opinion, some of the best jokes but also some of the worst jokes. It just that's just my opinion. You know a lot of stuff doesn't age well or just doesn't just isn't funny anymore to me. But you know, I still like it, still enjoy it. Next I'm going to go 12 Chairs.
Speaker 1:This one it's pretty good, it's a pretty good movie but, like I said, with Life Stinks just not too memorable. You know, not a lot of stuff staying with me afterwards. Then I'm going to go Silent Movie. I think that that one's right in the middle. Yeah, that one's funny, just not as like laugh heavy as some of the other ones for me. Then I'm going to go Spaceballs. Some great jokes, some. Some are a little stale, but still pretty good. Love the Star Wars stuff, love the alien gag at the end or towards the end. But then I'm going to go Robin Hood, men and Tights. Just, I'm laughing more throughout that one than Spaceballs if I had to put them one up against the other. So a lot, a lot of stuff that is just always in my head for that one.
Speaker 1:Then the producers this is the one that's. I'd say it's just under perfect. It's pretty close to a perfect comedy, but he just doesn't have his footing yet quite as much as he does with my favorite two and I'm going to go Young Frankenstein as my second favorite and Blazing Saddles as my favorite. Blazing Saddles is just so like, just so hilarious. It's a laugh every second. Pretty much it's a lot of the jokes still hold up. Just, I just never get sick of that one. It's just so funny to me. So, yeah, I got the same number one as you Blazing Saddles, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the best joke comes from that movie where the White-O-Kid and Bart disguise themselves as Klansmen but they get discovered and then they run off and one of the headlies lackeys yells Well, have them off at the pass. And headless responses had them off at the pass. I hate that cliche.
Speaker 1:I think one of my favorite jokes is the in order to slow down the bad guys, they set up a toll booth in the middle of the desert. There is no fence on either side of this toll booth, but it still stops them and they're like oh, and then the head bad guy that's there says somebody better go back and get a shitload of dimes. And then they go through a one by one.
Speaker 2:And this gag was also repeated around with him and in times of the bridge, where Robin first meets Will John and then. Achu is all like. You don't have to do this. This is not the Mississippi, and the remember is just this little creek.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's literally like standing on either side of the creek and yeah, but yeah, in terms of comedy directors and I'd say probably one of the most consistent Maybe not, but still like one of the most loved, especially in our household growing up, you know right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and really one full force, when the Multi-pack DVDs came out and then later on the Blu-rays, mm, hmm, yep still got.
Speaker 1:I still have that original multi-pack of DVDs. That's the one had 12 chairs blazing saddles. Young Frankenstein silent movie high anxiety.
Speaker 2:History of the world part one to be or not to be in rather human and tights.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it was missing producers spaceballs, which they included with the Blu-ray.
Speaker 2:Yeah, life stands in Dracula, then loving it yeah and that's just studio.
Speaker 1:The rights right that mess that, mess those up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and also the then do something with television, which was get smart, mm, hmm, but that was based off of, like I said, the spy genre because of James Bond.
Speaker 1:Mm, hmm, yeah, and he also was a notable producer as well. Like he did, he was executive producer for the Elephant man, the David Lynch film, which is very, very out of character for both David Lynch and Mel Brooks, but a great movie like an amazing movie.
Speaker 2:And there was a rumor that David Lynch was pitched to be by George to do a return of the Jedi oh yeah, that's, that's right.
Speaker 1:And he ended up turning it down because he was going to go do Dune, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there was a rumor that it was going to be Steven Spielberg, but Jedi ended up with Richard Mark. Richard Mark, wanda.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep, all right. So do you have any other trivia or anything else you want to say about Mel Brooks?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the whole. The establishment of the diner scene which does the alien spoof, If you look at the bottom like it's sort of a blanking to miss it.
Speaker 1:Mm, hmm.
Speaker 2:You see a model of the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's right yeah.
Speaker 2:Sort of a little tip of the hat to George Yep, and the fact that the whole thing with the Space Bomb Wand turning into Megamate I'm thinking of Transformers with the Unicron going into robot mode, yeah, and also the fact that the voice of Unicron, orson Wells, was the narrator for History of the World Part One.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's right, he was All right. So thank you, Tyler, for joining me again. Can't wait to do this again another time.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having this idea and glad we got to have that movie marathon together and everything and have this conversation, talk about one of our favorites, someone that we both enjoyed over the years growing up together. So thank you again and yeah, and for the audience, thanks for listening and hope that you guys stick around for the rest of the month. Hopefully this director series works well and if it doesn't, then I'll never do it again. All right, you can look on the find me on Instagram at movies they're pretty good with no punctuation in it and see you next Tuesday. Thanks Bye, and may the shorts be with you. May the shorts be with you indeed.
