Sucker!

Films: Dracula: Dead and Loving It
Format: DVD from Northern Illinois University Founders Memorial Library on various players.

How exactly does this happen? There was a time when Mel Brooks was the best and most fearless satirist and comedian in Hollywood. This is a guy who did both Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles in the same year. This was a guy whose first movie as a writer and director won an Oscar for its screenplay. And the last movie he ever directed was Dracula: Dead and Loving It, which is like Stanley Kubrick ending his career with The Room.

This is going to be a relatively short review because it’s goddamn depressing. Brooks was once incredibly edgy. Blazing Saddles--still funny after 45 years—was incredibly edgy in 1974. Characters said things that were dangerous in that movie, and did it for a laugh. And the guy that wrote and directed that movie ended his directorial career with a “comedy” so timid that it takes not a single risk.

Springtime for Hitler

Film: The Producers
Format: DVD from Rockford Public Library on kick-ass portable DVD player.

Of late, I’ve been watching a lot of seriously depressing movies, so I figured it was time for a change. I don’t remember the first time I saw The Producers, but I remember that it was really funny. Screamingly funny. Pee in your pants and almost pass out funny. So it was time to watch it again because I’d really had enough of watching things that made me want to pound my head on the wall until I fell unconscious.

The Producers is the first movie Mel Brooks ever directed, and in many ways it is his best film. It’s his most coherent film, at least. Many of his other films go off on wild, fourth-wall-breaking tangents. These tend to be funny, but off the plot. The Producers arguably breaks the fourth wall once or twice, but tends to follow a basic story from start to finish.

Our story features a Broadway producer named Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) who has fallen on hard times. Once one of the best producers in town, he currently produces only flops. To get money to produce his flops, he is reduced to seducing little old ladies in his office. During one such seduction, he is interrupted by an accountant named Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder), there to do his books.

What Leo discovers is that for his last play, Bialystock took in $60,000 but spent only $58,000, making a sort of profit of $2,000. Bloom is convinced to hide the two grand and makes the observation that under the right circumstances, a producer could make more money with a flop than with a hit. If he oversold the play, getting tons and tons of investors, and then produced a terrible play, there’d be no profit to split with the backers, and he could keep everything.

The two decide to go for it, and look for the worst play they can find. The find it in “Springtime for Hitler,” a play praising the Third Reich, written by a former Nazi named Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars). They then seek the worst director they can find, settling on the flamingly gay, cross-dressing, and completely off the deep end director Roger de Bris (Christopher Hewitt). They then need to cast the worst star they can, getting permanently drugged oddball Lorenzo “LSD” St. Dubois (Dick Shawn). Bialystock seduces the little old ladies, they fund the show, and Max and Leo prepare to make close to a million dollars (real serious money in 1968) and head down to Rio. Unfortunately, the play turns out to be a massive hit because de Bris has turned it into a comedy, leaving Bialystock and Bloom facing a long prison term and an author who wants them dead.

It’s a straightforward story. To turn this into a comedy, Brooks needs to get as much out of every situation as he possibly can, and he does. The film is consistently funny at the start, balancing the manic energy of Zero Mostel against the near-hysteria of Gene Wilder, who could not be more perfect as the needy, nervous and painfully neurotic Leo Bloom. He’s a step or two past believable, but it doesn’t matter because he’s ridiculously funny.

The movie starts to kick into high with the appearance of Kenneth Mars, who is one of the real high points of this film. Kenneth Mars is great, and his character, like all of the characters in this film, is too far to one extreme to be a real person, but is so funny that it doesn’t matter. He wrote his play praising Hitler because he hates Churchill, and because Hitler was a great dancer. Bialystock and Bloom, two Jews, are forced to wear swastikas and sing the German national anthem to convince him, but the play is so bad, they figure it’s worth it.

Dick Shawn’s arrival is equally brilliant. He’s taken so many drugs in his lifetime that he has trouble remembering his own name, and he can’t manage to keep a thought in his head for longer than a couple of seconds.

Although all of this is great and everything is going the way Max and Leo want it to, no single moment in this film, and few moments in the history of film are as funny as the actual opening of the play and the musical number “Springtime for Hitler.” No matter how many times I see it, it never fails to make me laugh out loud to the point where I have trouble breathing. I can’t think of a single moment of film that makes me laugh harder than this one. Even the lyrics are great: “Springtime for Hitler and Germany/Winter for Poland and France./We’re marching to a faster pace./Look out, here comes the master race.”

The Producers, like all good Mel Brooks comedy from his heyday, is horribly offensive and in terrible taste. That’s sort of the point. If you let yourself be offended by it, it’s there to give you offense. If you let it go, it cannot fail to make you laugh unless you have no sense of humor. This film is constantly and consistently funny, and builds to a crescendo of humor that truly and completely pays off. What Brooks figured out with this film is that the best way to defeat a tyrant isn't to engage in debate or shout him down, but to laugh at him. Laughter makes it possible to not take him seriously, and that spells defeat for any despot.

Mel Brooks made a lot of funny movies early in his career, but he was never again this focused. The Producers remains one of the funniest films I have ever seen, and certainly will be forever. The remake is cute, but doesn’t have the manic intensity of the original. Watch this. Watch it soon, and then watch it again. You’ll laugh just as hard the second time.

Why to watch The Producers: Because it’s damn funny.
Why not to watch: If you offend easily, it will offend you.

It's Twue! It's Twue!

Film: Blazing Saddles
Format: DVD from personal collection on big ol’ television.


If you put a gun to my head and ask me to choose Mel Brooks’s best movie, I’d tell you that he never got better than his debut film, The Producers. It’s certainly his most coherent, and the one that doesn’t rely on being a direct parody of another film or film genre, at least of the ones I’ve seen. However, if you ask me which one I like the best and which one I find the funniest, my answer is Blazing Saddles in a heartbeat.

You’ve probably already seen this movie, and you probably already agree with me that it’s one of the funniest things ever filmed. If you haven’t seen it, you should go find a copy of it as soon as you can and watch it. There’s a fairly decent chance that this film will offend you horribly, but there’s an even better chance that you won’t care because you are laughing so hard at everything going on.

Here’s the basics in case you’re under the age of 15 or have lived in a place where movies are seen as a type of voodoo magic that you fear. A railroad is being built through the west. The foremen, a man named Taggart (Slim Pickins) and his assistant Lyle (the sadly almost unknown Burton Gilliam) send a pair of (and I’m being politically correct here, because the movie never is) African-American workers to see if there’s quicksand on the line ahead. Of these, the one that bears watching is Bart (the great Cleavon Little in a role that should have made him a much bigger star). It turns out there is quicksand, and Bart and his friend sink. Left to die in the quicksand, they escape, and Bart smacks Taggart over the head with a shovel. Just as importantly, because of the quicksand, the train line has to be moved—right through the heart of the town of Rock Ridge.

From here, we are introduced to a few of the other major players. First and foremost is the evil assistant governor, Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). He realizes that the land Rock Ridge is on will soon be worth millions, but to get it for himself, he needs to get rid of the people. Taggart and his men attack the town, which causes the people to petition for a new sheriff. In what he thinks is a brilliant move, Lamarr gets the incompetent governor, William LePetomane (Mel Brooks) to appoint Bart to the position.

And hilarity ensues. There are plenty of other great character actors in major parts throughout here, the most entertaining being the giant, stupid, thuggish Mongo (Alex Karras) and the exotic and speech-impaired Lili von Schtupp (the great Madeline Kahn). The townspeople of Rock Ridge are also populated by great character actors (David Huddleston, John Hillerman, and others). Later in the film, Dom DeLuise shows up. Early on, Count Basie makes an appearance as himself. It’s the power of Mel Brooks, evidently.

The film is an obvious parody of the western genre, but there are plenty of other parodies as well. Kahn’s performance is specifically meant to recall Marlene Dietrich’s film roles in both Destry Rides Again and Der Blaue Engel. The movie is also incredibly self aware—the actors frequently speak directly to the audience, for instance. As with any good parody, the jokes are both big and small. There are sight gags aplenty, but a lot of the really funny stuff, or at least a lot of what I find funny here is the subtle stuff. All of the people who live in Rock Ridge, for instance, have the same last name: Johnson. Howard Johnson runs the ice cream parlor, a precursor of the famous hotel/restaurant chain famous for its 28 flavors. Howard Johnson here has a single flavor. Now that’s funny.

Much of the reason that Blazing Saddles works is that there’s more than just regular humor here—there’s a lot of meta-humor as well. There’s almost constant funny going on here, and some of it doesn’t really hit until a couple of minutes or hours after the moment is passed.

It’s interesting to me that Brooks’s career as a director is so limited. For a moment, try to think of all of the Mel Brooks movies you can. If you’re like most people, you can come up with maybe half a dozen, maybe one or two more—this one, The Producers, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety (maybe), Spaceballs, History of the World Part 1…and then you’re probably tapped. With the exception of a couple of stinkbombs, that’s pretty much his entire directorial output.

He never got better than this film in terms of bringing as much funny as possible. The film is entirely overwhelming with great moments, great lines, and brilliant performances. It does, however, get too meta- near the end. It gets even sillier than it probably should, too self aware. I dearly love this movie, but I could live without the last 10-15 minutes, or at least would prefer something that isn’t so clever by a half. Still, even with that, it’s one of the funniest 90 minutes ever filmed.

Why to watch Blazing Saddles: Mel Brooks at his insane best.
Why not to watch: Guilt feelings over laughing at racial humor in this day and age.

It's Alive! Alive!

Films: Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein
Format: DVD from DeKalb Public Library (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein), DVD from Highland Community College Library through interlibrary loan (Young Frankenstein), all on big ol’ television.


Movie conventions all start somewhere, and in the case of cinematic visions and variations of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus, they all start from James Whale’s 1931 classic Frankenstein. At times, as is the case here, the conventions become so well known and so completely a part of the culture and architecture of our world that we lose sight of where these things came from. Think of almost everything you know about Frankenstein as a story. Virtually everything you know comes not from Shelley’s book, but James Whale’s film.

For instance, in Shelley’s book, there is no windmill laboratory. There’s no hunchbacked assistant named Igor (more on this later). There’s no laboratory filled with giant electrodes and machinery designed to expose the monster to a storm. These things, all of which seem to have become a part of what we all expect in a Frankenstein story, are from the movie.

This is a story you should already know. Essentially, a man wants to investigate the mysteries of what causes life. To do this, he robs a few graves, cuts down a few men from the gallows, and cobbles together a new body, which he brings to life with the power of a gigantic storm and a few handy electrodes. The monster escapes, terrorizes the countryside, and is eventually hunted down by peasants wielding pitchforks and torches.

Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is the mad creator, and he brings the monster (Boris Karloff) to life not in private, but with an audience consisting of his hunchbacked assistant Fritz (Dwight Frye), his former professor Dr. Waldman (Edward van Sloan), his best friend Victor Moritz (John Boles), and his fiancée Elizabeth (Mae Clarke). He and Waldman study the creature for a time until Henry breaks down after the creature kills the sadistic Fritz (Fritz, not Igor). Left on his own, Waldman plans to dissect the monster, but is killed instead when the creature is improperly sedated on the operating table. The monster then escapes and terrorizes the countryside.

Much of the movie concerns itself with the chase of the monster and the monster’s crimes, but until the last part of the film, the monster is played sympathetically by Karloff. In fact, even while the monster goes on his rampage, much of it is caused by misunderstanding or a simple lack of knowledge on the part of the creature. Karloff’s performance is masterful because it is so tragically human, and while he never speaks and is off-screen for much of the film, it is he who drives the action.

There are, naturally, significant differences between the book and the movie. The book, for instance, is told in flashback, and the nature of the monster’s creation is never elucidated. The story takes place somewhere vaguely in Europe, while the book occurs in Switzerland. There is no assistant. Even the names have changed. In Shelley’s book, Frankenstein’s name is Victor, and his best friend is named Henry Clerval. Here, he is named Henry, and his friend is Victor. But the thrust of the story is the same—that the person of Dr. Frankenstein is a promethean figure who dabbled too much in things that were better left alone.






















Of course, once started, such desires to create life cannot be quickly squashed, which brings us to the first of many sequels: Bride of Frankenstein. The name of this film is somewhat misleading, since it concerns itself with the bride of the monster rather than the bride of Frankenstein himself. This film has the rare distinction of being arguably better than the original that spawned it.

The story follows along the same basic lines of the original film. We start with the personages of Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron discussing Mary Shelley’s book. By way of exposition, Byron covers the high points of the original movie, claiming that they come directly from Mary’s work, a bit of a laugh for anyone who has read Shelley’s original work. As her new story begins, since this is essentially told as if she were relating the tale to Byron and her husband, we discover that the monster survived the fire in the windmill, and that Henry Frankenstein survived his fall from the top of the windmill.

While Henry (still played by Colin Clive) recovers from his ordeal, he is visited by a Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger). Pretorius claims to have discovered the secret to creating life as well. He demonstrates this by showing Henry his creations, which are tiny, perfectly formed people. Pretorius claims that rather than animating dead tissue, he generated his little people from inorganic matter in the same way nature does, by growing them. His desire is to create a woman as a mate for Henry’s original creature, because while his own creatures are more attractive and in some sense more pure, Dr. Frankenstein was able to create something of significant size.

The monster (still played by Boris Karloff) continues to roam the countryside, and when spotted by a shepherdess, is again hunted down by an angry peasant population. The monster is captured and almost immediately escapes, much to the dismay of constant comic relief, Minnie (Una O’Connor). The monster eventually comes across an old blind beggar, who takes him in, and teaches him to speak.

When he is discovered in the beggar’s cottage, the monster leaves, robs a grave, and returns to Frankenstein’s castle. He demands that, since he is alone but has now known a friend, that Pretorius create a mate for him, a mate created in the same way he was, and played by an uncredited Elsa Lanchester, who is listed on the cast list as just a question mark. When Pretorius doesn’t run from him immediately, the monster is convinced that he has found another friend. Frankenstein is much more difficult to convince. In fact, he is forced into helping despite his recent marriage to Elizabeth (Valerie Hobson).

Pretorius has grown a new, unused brain in his lab. What he needs is Frankenstein to create the body, coercion created by the presence of the monster. Naturally, Henry is disturbed by the appearance of his creation, but agrees to help because of threats against himself and, in particular, against Elizabeth, who is stolen away by the monster to act as a hostage.

Whale’s second film works in many ways because it is more terrible and tragic than the first, but also contains little touches of humor throughout. This is a serious film, but is not so serious that it doesn’t intentionally inject levity throughout, often in the person of Minnie. Some of the classic Frankenstein tropes come from here as well, such as the henchman shouting about the storm being ready.


The basic Frankenstein formula has spawned a number of additional stories, some good and many, many bad. Of all of them, if I’m honest with myself, the best is Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein. Despite my personal love for a film like The Re-Animator, the parody still is the most interesting and best film in the genre that isn’t one of the original two.

Here, we have a new Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder), who so wants to distance himself from the actions of his grandfather that he pronounces his last name as “Fronkensteen.” A gifted neurosurgeon, he inherits the entirety of the Frankenstein estate where he encounters many of the trappings of the original story. He says goodbye to his fiancée Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) and heads off to Transylvania. He is quickly introduced to Eye-gor (Marty Feldman), the grandson of Dr. Frankenstein’s original hunchbacked servant. He also encounters the sexy Inga (Terri Garr), Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman) whose name causes horses to whinny, and Inspector Kemp (Kenneth Mars), whose most distinguishing characteristic is his mechanical right arm.

Once at the castle, Dr. Frankenstein the younger discovers the original lab of his grandfather as well as all of the notes on the creation of his original monster. Eye-gor goes out to find an appropriate brain for the monster, but comes back with an abnormal one, which naturally causes the monster (Peter Boyle) to be much less than he wanted.

The reason that Young Frankenstein works as well as it does is because it includes many of the same scenes that are in the original two films. For instance, the blind beggar scene in Bride of Frankenstein is brilliantly parodied here with Gene Hackman in the role of the blind man, who in short order dumps hot soup in the creatures lap, smashes his wine glass, and lights his thumb on fire, all in the guise of attempting to be friendly.

What also makes Young Frankenstein work is the combination of both broad and subtle humor. There are dozens of little touches thrown in that aren’t necessarily obvious right away, but that add significantly to the general tone of the film. For instance, Inspector Kemp wears an eyepatch and a monocle on the same eye, a subtle comedic touch that is never questioned or referenced throughout the film. This is Mel Brooks at his best because it is Mel Brooks before he started applying every joke he made with a sledgehammer.

Filmmakers who currently create films that they call parodies should take a good long look at the connection between Young Frankenstein and the two films that are its source. Young Frankenstein works not because it does the opposite of the original films, but because it does the same thing skewed just a few degrees to one side or the other. It works because the parody is funny for those who know little of the original story and funnier for those know more.

Why to watch Frankenstein: The best of the reanimation films and the source of virtually all of the Frankenstein tropes.
Why not to watch: I can’t think of a single reason not to watch.

Why to watch Bride of Frankenstein: More mad science, more comedy, more horrific.
Why not to watch: You like your reanimation films without comedy.

Why to watch Young Frankenstein: You’ve seen the originals and want to see another side of the story.
Why not to watch: You have no sense of humor.