Mel Brooks Movies
Farce, satire, and parody come together with Vaudeville roots and manic energy to create the Mel Brooks style of comedy. Born Melvin Kaminsky to a Russian Jewish family in Brooklyn, NY, the writer/producer/director/actor was one of very few people to win an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony award. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he worked as a standup comic at resorts in the Catskills and started writing comedy. Along with Woody Allen, Neil Simon, and others, he wrote for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, which later became Caesar's Hour. Teaming up with fellow staff writer Carl Reiner, he developed the award-winning "2000 Year Old Man" comedy skit, which led to several recordings, television appearances, and a 1998 Grammy. He and writer Buck Henry also created the spy-parody TV series Get Smart (1965-1970) starring Don Adams. During this time, he produced theater, married actress Anne Bancroft, and made his first film: an Oscar-winning animated short parody of modern art called The Critic. He then put together a screenplay based upon his experiences working with Broadway executives that led to his feature-length debut The Producers. He cast stage legend Zero Mostel in the lead role and got B-movie producer Joseph Levine to put up the funds, but the movie didn't get distributed until Peter Sellers saw it and encouraged its release. Brooks ended up winning an Oscar for Best Screenplay and, in 2000, adapted the film into a highly successful Broadway musical. By 1970, after the release of his next film The Twelve Chairs, Hollywood thought his work was "too Jewish." In 1974, Brooks made the marketable move toward parodies with the Western spoof Blazing Saddles, winning him a Writer's Guild award and introducing his stock actors Harvey Korman and Madeline Kahn. Finding his niche, he would continue to make parodies throughout his career by spoofing horror (Young Frankenstein), silent movies (Silent Movie), Hitchcock (High Anxiety), historical epics (History of the World -- Part I), and science fiction (Spaceballs).Working simultaneously as writer, director, and lead actor, Brooks started to generate negative press about his excessive style. In 1983, appearing opposite Bancroft, he concentrated on just acting for the remake of the Ernst Lubitch classic To Be or Not to Be. He continued working with his production company Brooksfilms during the '80s as an executive producer on projects as varied as The Fly, The Elephant Man, Solarbabies, and 84 Charing Cross Road (starring Bancroft). His brief stray into non-parody films in 1991 (Life Stinks) was universally dismissed, so he returned to form with Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Other than the occasional cameo or random appearance as voice talent, Brooks spent the late '90s winning awards and playing Uncle Phil on the NBC series Mad About You. In 2001, the Broadway musical version of The Producers (starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick) led to a successful national tour and broke a new record by winning one Grammy and 12 Tony awards. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- 2008
Over twenty years after President Skroob and Dark Helmet schemed to deplete Planet Druidia's air supply for their own nefarious means, Lone Star, Barf, and Princess Vespa are still fighting to keep the stars from falling to tyranny in this animated spin-off from original Spaceballs creator Mel Brooks. Brooks and Daphne Zuniga return to voice the characters they portrayed in the 1987 cult classic in this series produced for G4TV. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2007
- Add Mike Douglas: Moments and Memories to QueueAdd Mike Douglas: Moments and Memories to top of Queue
Per its title, the compilation release Mike Douglas: Moments and Memories serves up a collection of nostalgic clips from the popular talk program The Mike Douglas Show. Featured guests include Bob Hope, Bob Newhart, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Steve Martin and a young Billy Crystal. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lennon, Yoko Ono, (more)
- 2003
Taped approximately six weeks before the 100th birthday of comedy legend Bob Hope, this elaborate (and highly-rated) TV "love letter" to "Old Ski Nose" is hosted by former Today Show anchor Jane Pauley. The special covers the familiar biographical ground, tracing British-born Leslie Townes Hope from his first paying gig as a Charlie Chaplin imitator at age 12, then on to nearly two decades of singing, dancing, and adlibbing in vaudeville before achieving stardom on the Broadway stage in the 1933 musical Roberta. Achieving even greater success in films and on radio, Hope still remained just another entertainer until he began his celebrated, indefatigable tours of far-flung military camps in WWII, thereby kicking off a humanitarian "second career" that would extend well past the Vietnam era. Finally, the program covers in detail Hope's years on television, specifically the 285 specials which he headlined on NBC from 1950 to 1996. Many of the film clips will be familiar to even the most casual Hope fans, with one noteworthy exception: A clip from a mid-'80s Mike Douglas Show, in which Hope engages in a putting match with a two-and-a-half-year-old Tiger Woods. Dozens of Hope's contemporaries and fans from all walks of life show up to offer their own special tributes, though sadly many of his co-star's from his classic films -- notably Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour -- are no longer around to put in their two cents' worth. Nor does Bob Hope himself make a "live" appearance on 100 Years of Hope & Humor, though it is the understatement of the century to say he is certainly there in spirit. And need we add that the theme of the show (in more ways than one) is "Thanks for the Memory"? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Jane Pauley, (more)
- 2003
This 3D-animation children's series was staged in flashback form, as an elderly pig regaled his grandchildren with stories of his youth on the Raloo Farm in Ireland. Among the many friends of young Piggley Winks were Wiley the Sheep (his voice provided by the legendary Mel Brooks), Dannan the Duck, and Ferny the Bull. The object of the series was to teach the kids at home how to find creative solutions to problems, and to respect the wisdom of their elders. These were driven home on each episode with a live epilogue featuring soccer star Cobi Jones. Its title derived from the leading character's favorite slang expression, Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks was first seen over the PBS network on September 7, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2002
- Add It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie to QueueAdd It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie to top of Queue
What would life amongst the Muppets have been without their unofficial leader Kermit the Frog? That's the question posed by this made-for-TV confection, which not only spoofs the Yuletide classic It's a Wonderful Life, but also takes satirical aim at such pop cultural phenomena as Moulin Rouge and Fear Factor. The plot is set in motion when typically evil banker Rachel Bitterman (Joan Cusack) forecloses on the Muppets' famous variety theater, with the intention of building a gaudy nightclub. But Bitterman's machinations take a back seat when apprentice guardian angel, Daniel (David Arquette), shows Kermit (voiced by Steve Whitmire) what conditions would have been had Kermit never existed. Without going into full detail, suffice to say that a Kermit-less world would have found Miss Piggy (voiced by Frank Oz) running a fraudulent psychic hot line, Fozzie Bear as a homeless derelict, and Sam the Eagle as a caged dancer at a rave. Decked out with cameo appearances by everyone from Whoopi Goldberg to the cast of the TV series Scrubs, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie debuted over NBC on November 29, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Whitmire, Frank Oz, (more)
- 2000
Seinfeld producer/creator Larry David has often claimed that the character of George Costanza, the abrasive, neurotic, spectacularly luckless Seinfeld supporting player so brilliantly played by Jason Alexander, was based on David himself. Small wonder, then, that most of the plotlines of the self-deprecating, reality-based sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm have a distinctly Costanzan flavor -- with Larry David, in the role of former standup comic-turned-TV executive Larry David, a dictionary definition of the phrase "his own worst enemy." A spinoff of the 1999 HBO "mockumentary" special of the same name, the weekly 30-minute Curb Your Enthusiasm is filmed in cinéma vérité fashion, with much of dialogue ad-libbed (though the premise of each episode has been carefully worked out in advance).
Larry David portrays himself as the archetypal Hollywood wheeler-dealer, forever promoting "can't miss" TV and film projects, and using (and sometimes abusing) his myriad of showbiz celebrity connections -- among them Richard Lewis, Rob Reiner, Shaquille O'Neal, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Wanda Sykes, and Mel Brooks, not to mention a generous supply of former Seinfeld stars -- to further advance his already super-successful career. And yet, no matter how high he climbs, David is a slave to his own foibles, phobias, and neuroses, perpetually opening mouth and inserting foot, making as many enemies as friends in high places and never relaxing long enough to enjoy or appreciate what he has accomplished. In typical Seinfeld fashion, our hero manages to make a sizable and often insurmountable mountain out of the tiniest and least significant of molehills. While the plotlines of the first two ten-episode HBO seasons were relatively self-contained, season three was held together with the through-line of Larry opening a Planet Hollywood-style restaurant, while the focus of season four was the rather improbable premise that Larry had been offered the starring role in Mel Brooks' smash Broadway musical The Producers. Also appearing on Curb Your Enthusiasm are Cheryl Hines as Larry's spouse, Cheryl; David's longtime production associate Jeff Garlin as Jeff Greene; and Susie Essman as Jeff's wife, Susie. The series is very much an HBO production with an unending stream of hilarious profanities and sexual situations (though the series' funniest running gag is probably the cleanest: Larry David's constitutional inability to figure out the basic protocol of tipping the help). ~ All Movie Guide
Larry David portrays himself as the archetypal Hollywood wheeler-dealer, forever promoting "can't miss" TV and film projects, and using (and sometimes abusing) his myriad of showbiz celebrity connections -- among them Richard Lewis, Rob Reiner, Shaquille O'Neal, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Wanda Sykes, and Mel Brooks, not to mention a generous supply of former Seinfeld stars -- to further advance his already super-successful career. And yet, no matter how high he climbs, David is a slave to his own foibles, phobias, and neuroses, perpetually opening mouth and inserting foot, making as many enemies as friends in high places and never relaxing long enough to enjoy or appreciate what he has accomplished. In typical Seinfeld fashion, our hero manages to make a sizable and often insurmountable mountain out of the tiniest and least significant of molehills. While the plotlines of the first two ten-episode HBO seasons were relatively self-contained, season three was held together with the through-line of Larry opening a Planet Hollywood-style restaurant, while the focus of season four was the rather improbable premise that Larry had been offered the starring role in Mel Brooks' smash Broadway musical The Producers. Also appearing on Curb Your Enthusiasm are Cheryl Hines as Larry's spouse, Cheryl; David's longtime production associate Jeff Garlin as Jeff Greene; and Susie Essman as Jeff's wife, Susie. The series is very much an HBO production with an unending stream of hilarious profanities and sexual situations (though the series' funniest running gag is probably the cleanest: Larry David's constitutional inability to figure out the basic protocol of tipping the help). ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry David, Cheryl Hines, (more)
- 1999
Mel Brooks is back as Paul's redoubtable Uncle Phil. As Paul (Paul Reiser) stands on the sidelines with mouth agape, Uncle Phil elects to go for his high school diploma -- some 63 years after dropping out. This plot development is almost as fascinating as the breast-transplant treatment undergone by Jamie's (Helen Hunt) mercurial sister, Lisa (Anne Elizabeth Ramsay). ~ All Movie Guide
- 1998
In June 1998, the American Film Institute announced the top 100 films of the 20th century. The list was complied from a survey of 1,500 participants, including filmmakers, historians, critics, and other entertainment industry professionals. The AFI and CBS produced this multi-packet video feature that features film clips of those top films, including Citizen Kane, The Godfather, It's a Wonderful Life, Star Wars, and Gone With the Wind. This 145-minute special is hosted by Jodie Foster, Richard Gere, and Sally Field, and is annotated with features of the filmmakers like Martin Scorcese and Sidney Lumet. ~ Forrest Spencer, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Mel Brooks makes another unbearably funny appearance as Uncle Phil, here about to face trial for coupon fraud. Meanwhile, three-week-old Mabel is placed on a long waiting list for preschool, and Jamie (Helen Hunt) and Ira (John Pankow) have a strange adventure. Listen carefully for the Grand Great-Uncle Lullaby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Mel Brooks returns as Paul's Uncle Phil, who has been on his deathbed for what seems to be years. Phil wants Paul (Paul Reiser) and Jamie (Helen Hunt) to name their new baby after him. But Paul is convinced that the little visitor will be a "she" rather than a "he." Imagine an episode of a 1960s sitcom getting away with the title of this one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Though told to give up coffee during her pregnancy, Jamie (Helen Hunt) must somehow stay awake while burning the midnight oil on Lance Brockwell's political campaign. Meanwhile, Paul tries to decide how best to spend a large financial grant. Coming to Paul's rescue (if not Jamie's) is his aphorism-spouting Uncle Phil (guest star Mel Brooks). With this episode, Harry Groener replaces Alan Ruck as Lance Brockwell. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1993
In Frasier's first holiday episode, Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) makes plans to spend Christmas with his son Frederick (remember him from Cheers?). But when these plans fall through, a disappointed Frasier volunteers to fill in for sports-show host Bulldog at radio station KACL on Christmas Day. Unfortunately, all of his callers are just as depressed as he is, leading Frasier to seek comfort after his gig by going to a diner he has never previously visited. Our hero's uncharacteristically shabby appearance and dour demeanor have an unusual effect on the diner's regular customers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
This video contains some of the most memorable moments from Steve Allen's long-running talk show. Featured guests include Mel Brooks, Jimmy Durante and Johnny Carson. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1984
This live appearance by Mel Brooks includes songs, skits and jokes. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1982
The genuine love felt by the people of France for American comedian Jerry Lewis has become something of a topic for incredulous humor in the United States over the years, but if there was any doubt as to whether the many jokes overstated the case, this exhaustive six-hour hagiography from director Robert Benayoun quickly erases it. Nothing less than an adoring outpouring of idolatry, Bonjour Monsieur Lewis is simultaneously affectionate and reverential toward its subject, presenting hundreds of rare clips, outtakes, interviews, and tributes from Lewis' estimated six million feet of tape and film housed in his obsessively complete basement library, a collection of nearly everything he has ever done. In between highlights of his film career, there are talks with Martin Scorsese (who directed Lewis in 1982's The King of Comedy), Steven Spielberg, John Landis, Mel Brooks, and Louis Malle, among others. There are also a number of rare films of Lewis on-stage at French venues, singing "Sonny Boy" with his own father and son, reuniting with Dean Martin at a Muscular Dystrophy telethon, and engaging in some raunchy ad libs cut from his early films. The film clips are varied and fairly thorough, even excerpting Lewis' rare TV version of The Jazz Singer, but, alas, virtually ignoring the Holy Grail among Lewis completists, his aborted concentration-camp project The Day the Clown Cried. Other segments deal with his highly praised charitable efforts and relationship with children. More of a tribute than a real documentary, the film is nevertheless a treasure trove for anyone remotely interested in this talented and enigmatic comedy legend. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, (more)
- 1977
Produced and written by Dwight Brooks, Poco is a rank imitation of those Sunn International "four-waller" family flicks. Poco the dog is separated from his owner, a cute little crippled girl, in an auto accident. The faithful mutt treks across the desert, experiencing several moderately exciting adventures while searching for his mistress. Along the way, veteran character actor Chill Wills shows up, shamelessly slobbering his way through the requisite "goldhearted prospector" schtick. With Wills' aid, Poco is finally reunited with the little girl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In 1961, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner cut a comedy record entitled The 2000 Year Old Man. Largely ad-libbed, the routine consisted of an interview, conducted by Reiner, of the world's oldest living man, played by Brooks. Their freewheeling conversation covers such topics as the earliest known language ("basic Rock"), the discovery of women, the invention of laughter, the creation of the Cross (it was easier to put together than the Star of David), and the 2,000-Year-Old Man's relationship with Robin Hood ("He stole from everybody and kept everything -- he just had a good press agent") and Joan of Arc ("Know her? I went with her!"). The routine was peppered with such observations as "I have 25,000 children...and not one of them ever writes!" At the height of Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles-generated movie popularity, a half-hour animated cartoon utilizing the original "2000 Year Old Man" recording as its soundtrack was produced by Leo Salkin films and Crossbow/Acre Enterprises. This TV cartoon special first aired January 11, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
In the '90s and 2000s, Mel Brooks enjoyed tremendous success resurrecting old ideas in new venues -- just witness his hit stage musicals The Producers and Young Frankenstein. So it might intrigue casual fans to learn that his broad cinematic farce Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) also found its origins in an older project: a failed sitcom from the mid-'70s entitled When Things Were Rotten. The original series, like the movie, took place in the 12th century, with Robin Hood (Dick Gautier) presented as neither heroic nor impressive, but a complete buffoon. With his accomplices behind him, he only triumphed from episode to episode because his enemies -- led by Prince John and The Sheriff of Nottingham -- were twice as moronic as he was. Brooks packed the series with off-the-wall gags and gleeful anachronisms that had become trademarks of the creator/producer's big screen films by the mid-'70s. The series, which co-starred Bernie Kopell as Alan-a-Dale, Dick Van Patten as Friar Tuck, Henry Polic II as the Sheriff, and Misty Rowe as Maid Marian, drew high praise from critics who championed it as witty and inventive; unfortunately, audiences did not share the same level of admiration, and the series aired for the last time on Christmas Eve, 1975, three-and-a-half months after it premiered. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dick Gautier, Dick Van Patten, (more)
Based on a Broadway musical by Mel Brooks and Joe Darion, the animated feature Shinbone Alley is an adaptation of the Don Marquis stories. The film is about a love-struck cockroach named Archy (voiced by Eddie Bracken) and the object of his affections, a carefree cat named Mehitabel (Carol Channing). The movie is arranged as a series of episodic adventures and though it never quite gels into something cohesive, it has a number of fine moments, particularly when it sticks to the music. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Bracken, Carol Channing, (more)
Producer Leonard Sillman's 1952 edition of his popular Broadway revue New Faces was filmed just as it was staged, save for a wraparound fictional romantic story. The newly grafted plotline involves the efforts of director Ronny Graham to stave off an angry creditor long enough to open his show. We occasionally cut away to the backstage intrigues, but never long enough to take anything away from Sillman's talented cast of newcomers. The cast includes Eartha Kitt, singing such standards-to-be as "C'est Ci Bon" and "Monotonous"; Robert Clary, doing a medley of his hit "I'm in Love With Miss Logan"; Alice Ghostley, belting forth a brace of satirical torch songs; Paul Lynde (heavier than we're used to seeing him), offering his "safari" monologue and later participating in a screamingly funny Death of a Salesman takeoff; and Ronny Graham, performing an extended lampoon of either Tennessee Williams or Truman Capote (we aren't too sure; judge for yourself). Carol Lawrence also makes her first film appearance herein. The Broadway production's biggest song hit, "Love Is a Simple Thing," is sung and danced to the oversaturation point. Among the many writers was a young fellow by the name of Melvin Brooks (that's how he's billed). Its production flaws and budget shortcomings notwithstanding, the widescreen, full-color New Faces offers a rare opportunity for a 1990s audience to see what a '50s-style musical revue really looked like to the opening-night crowd. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronny Graham, Eartha Kitt, (more)
