Public poll, no set ending date, one answer per respondent, yadda yadda yadda.
The Producers – for taking a great premise to wonderful extremes.
Young Frankenstein – the perfect mixture of cast and writing and homage, and Brooks didn’t go too far overboard.
I’d put the original
Producers up there near the top, along with
SpaceBalls and
To Be or Not to Be (heresy – I prefer it to the original) and the under-rated
The Twelve Chairs.
Below that I’d put
Blazing Saddles (heresy, I know, but I don’t care for it that much),
High Anxiety,
Silent Movie, and
History of the World, Part I
Then below that his later movies,
Dracula, Dead and Loving it
Robin Hood – Men in Tights
I haven’t seem Life Stinks, but it doesn’t look good. I’m not sure when I’d put the new Producers, but I don’t feel compelled to see it again. That’s not a good sign.
Young Frankenstein I would have named anyway, but mentioning Teri Garr, that just cemented it.
I really couldn’t care less about Terri Gar - I’m not even sure which female she is, the assistant or his girlfriend back home - but Young Frankenstein is at the top of the list for me, with History of the World close behind.
Sorry, it’s Blazing Saddles, all the way.
Do NOT waste any of your precious seconds on this earth with the new version of The Producers. <shudder>
I’m torn between Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles; both are superb parodies of distinct film genres. I’m a tad more partial to YF for sentimental reasons: I lost my first tooth watching it, and my sister used to crack me up as a kid with her Marty Feldman impression: “I ain’t got no booooody…”
This is tough, but I think I’d have to go with Blazing Saddles.
My favorites are Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles
The scene with Peter Boyle as the monster and Gene Hackman as the blind monk may be the funniest five minutes of film I have ever seen.
a close second is the following exchange:
Sheriff Bart: “Are we awake?”
Waco Kid: “We’re not sure. Are we…black?”
Sheriff Bart: “yes, we are.”
Waco Kid: “Then we’re awake, but we’re very puzzled…”
I selected Blazing Saddles, because it’s one of those movies where if I’m not doing anything else, and I see it’s on, I will stop and watch it immediately. However, Young Frankenstein is a close second; I can’t hear “Putting on the Ritz” without singing it like the monster…
I’ve gotta go with Blazing Saddles - not only outright funny as hell for almost the entire movie, but amazingly subversive in its racial commentary, considering it was a studio movie, made by a middle-aged Jew.
And this quote is 32 flavors of awesome, for an elitist liberal such as myself who grew up in an ass-backward hick farming town:
Don’t get me wrong, I love Young Franksenstein. I’d like to say it comes a close second, but it doesn’t - not through any fault of its own, but Blazing Saddles is just so damn good, nothing else Brooks has done comes close.
Oh, and say what you want about Teri Garr in Young Frankenstein, give me Medeline Kahn as Lili Von Shtüpp any day - rowwr. Yes, indeed, I would like some schnitzengrüben.
Young Frankenstein, because I can recite the whole thing by heart, and it is still funny.
Although yes, I vould like a roll in ze hay.
Regards,
Shodan
IMO there is nothing, nothing, committed to the silver screen that comes anywhere close to Springtime for Hitler in terms of satirical gnaw-your-knuckles-to-the-bone tastelessness.
To be or Not To Be - one word: SCHULTZ!!!
This and **Blazing Saddles **have to be some of the most quotable movies ever made.
I really like To Be or Not To Be, but… I’m going with Blazing Saddles.
I chose Young Frankenstein, but I almost went this direction…
Gilligan, you moron! What about High Anxiety?
As for Spaceballs, I find that it’s best reminisced about, and not watched - it’s one of those movies that just doesn’t hold up. Some funny bits, but overall forced and badly dated - outside of the fact that it targeted its satire (or more accurately, parody) at a specific franchise instead of an entire genre, it also really suffers for lack of a better cast.
And the script is really not that good - when your funniest lines are “she doesn’t look Drewish”, “use the schwarz”, and “she’s gone from suck to blow”, you’re reaching a bit.
If anyone cares, here would be my top Mel Brooks movies, in descending order:
[ol]
[li]Blazing Saddles[/li]
[li]Young Frankenstein (I told you it wasn’t a close 2nd)[/li][li]The Producers[/li][li]High Anxiety[/li][li]ETA: To Be Or Not To Be - can’t believe I forgot this one![/li][li]History of the World, Part 1[/li][li]Silent Movie[/li][li]a bunch of other movies not worth repeat viewings[/li][/ol]
ETA: THANK YOU, Equipoise! I was hard pressed to pick The Producers over High Anxiety as my # 3 - but the latter has nothing that approaches the brilliance of Springtime for Hitler.
Blazing Saddles comes in second to YF only because I didn’t like the deconstructionist ending. It really lost focus and just kind of fell apart there. Not funny and didn’t have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
Brand me as being a product of my age, but Spaceballs is the greatest. Too much Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein. The ending of History of the World, Part 1 falls flat, which couldn’t come soon enough after the sloooooooow-ass musical numbers. The Producers is good and funny, but rarely rises above its premise. Blazing Saddles is closest to Spaceballs, the biggest single tripping point is the reliance on racial humor, the style of which doesn’t translate well today.
Blazing Saddles