BLAZING SADDLES (1974)

On Mel Brooks’ surprisingly short list of films (a mere eleven features), THE PRODUCERS/’67 wins Best Idea; YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN/’74 Best Film; HISTORY OF THE WORLD: PART I/’81 Most Underrated; SPACEBALLS/’87 Sleeper; and BLAZING SADDLES Biggest Hit.  Not hard to see why; at its best, this uneven parody of Hollywood Westerns still rude & very funny.  Claims that Political Correctness would now stop it farfetched.  You’ll hear more ‘N’ word in Tarantino or currently on FLATBUSH MISDEMEANORS; and not to characterize the speakers as racist.  (Though, as seen on our poster, Brooks’ Yiddisher Native American might have to go.)  A larger sticking point for the woke generation all those passé references.  (Cole Porter songs, Howard Johnson’s Ice Cream, genre clichés.)  But it was a lucky production: original choice Alan Arkin passed, allowing Brooks to come in as co-writer/director.  Gig Young got sick, ankling for Gene Wilder.  Madeline Kahn pulled out of MAME for this Marlene Dietrich singer.*  And if the studio got cold feet about writer Richard Pryor as the lead, a blander, far less dangerous Cleavon Little for the Black Sheriff of an all-white town never competes for attention in setting up the action.  Heck, even an ad for a Frankie Laine sound-alike brought in the real Frankie Laine to sing Mel’s deliciously OTT theme song.  Things can get pretty dull between gags, Mel’s inert compositions a wonder of bad choices.  (One scene between Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens & Kahn a textbook example of pure staging incompetence.)  But when you’ve got comic inspirations like Wilder & Kahn to fall back on, not much else matters.  Heavenly farceurs amid coarser clowning.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Brooks’ peak year, BLAZING SADDLES and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/02/young-frankenstein-1974.html

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK:  *Kahn set for Gooch, the prim virgin nanny in Lucille Ball’s MAME/’74.  A musical monstrosity that, ironically, Kahn might have saved had she played Auntie Mame.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/09/mame-1974.html