Wilder and Brooks – don’t leave Mel out of his own picture.
BTW – Brooks originally wanted the part of Ygor for himself. “But,” he said, “I saw Marty and he hypnotized me with those eyes.”
I voted for Blazing Saddles because iot was ground breaking but I also wanted to vote for History of the World and Young Frankenstein. ( pronounced Frankensteen)
Young Frankenstein, because of Teri Garr and everything else. A masterpiece.
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By having Mel appear in it. His over the top vaudeville mugging schtick kept bringing Blazing Saddles to a screeching halt, yanking me out of the movie. Would have had the same effect on YF. Thank god he kept himself off camera, giving us a perfect movie.
Teri or Madeline? Madeline for me, but it’s close.
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“Taffeta, sweetheart.”
I voted for “Negro love songs” given that I am pigmentally challenged and Skald is not.
Upon reading all those damned, boring posts however, I must change my mind and vote for Young Frankenstein because Terri Garr was on Star Trek.
One must have some principles.
I am delig…er, distressed to skew your statistics.
Blazing Saddles. End of debate.
What have I told you about bothering me with facts?
I voted Blazing Saddles just because it probably is considered “The Greatest” of his movies.
However, personally, I enjoyed Young Frankenstein and SpaceBalls much more!
Those who voted for Young Frankenstein, though ultimately mistaken, have made a reasonable and understandable mistake, as it does feature Teri Garr at the height of her goddesshood.
But Spaceballs? Are you mad? It has JOAN FREAKING RIVERS in it. I checked with Calliope, muse of epic poetry, and she confirms that nothing starring Joan Rivers has ever been any good. The maximum amount of screen time she can be on screen without utterly destroying a movie is the 4.56 minutes she enjoys in The Muppets Take Manhattan, and even that was a close thing.
I am, first and foremost, all about the “facts.” Pissing off some people, and likely being banned for my trouble, is far down the list, but not something that was worth the trouble.
Okay, I’ll say “Nigger work song,” and a quartet breaks into Porter’s “I get a kick out of you.” Satisfied? I’m not, because Count Basie should be backing him up. Which would be sweet.
Met Duke Ellington’s kid, Mercer, when their tour bus stopped at my station. Helluva guy.
Such logic is inescapable, even had the movie not been awful.
Calm yourself, Kimosabe, you will bust something.
Young Frankenstein, not only for Terri Garr and Star Trek, but Frau Blucher. (Whinnnnney!)
Spaceballs.
Sir, I may be pigmentally challenged, but do not presume to debate a fellow minority member over Jews in Space!
Blazing Saddles, because there’s just so much funny (and wierd) stuff in it. Look at the Indian headress on the movie poster - does that look like Navajo symbols on it? No? Me, I learned only a little German in high school, but just listen to the chief exclaim to his brave: “Ein schwartze! Solch’ hab’ ich nie gesehen!” (Did I get that right?) Anyhow, oy veh!
And then there’s all the other pure sight gags, you see 'em or you don’t.
There’s even more humor in that movie than lots of people know about.
Spaceballs is quoted in this house regularly…
“I hate it when my Schwartz get twisted”
“What is it you do here, Yogurt?” “Moichandizing”
“WHAT?? You went over my helmet?”
“They’ve gone PLAID!”
“Ludicrous speed”
“No, not that!” “Yes, that”
“I knew it, I’m surrounded by Assholes”
“I’m a mog. Half man, half dog. I’m my own best friend.”
“Never underestimate the power of the Schwartz”
And that’s just off the top of my head. It’s probably quoted in the RubyHaus only second to The Princess Bride.
Blazing Saddles all the way. An utter lampoon of westerns, the movie industry and social mores. Completely offensive by the standard of the times, and more so now. It could not be remade it is so politically incorrect and funny. Slim Pickens. Hedley Lamar.
Young Frankensteen and High Anxiety are also masterpieces, and more fully formed as movies that are truer homages to their genres. Blazing Saddles is much better because it is so much angrier and more pointed a dagger to the heart of America’s injustices.
Honorable Mention to The Producers, which I suppose was the first thing of its kind.
All Brooks’ movies are filled with great gags.
It’s between Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles for me, as well. I’ve never understood the whole “dated” criticism of Space Balls, though (it’s in every review I’ve ever read). All of his parody movies are from genres or specific movies that are decades old. YF is closer to Son of Frankenstein (mostly), Frankenstein and Bride of F than Space Balls is of Star Wars specifically. I suspect it’s because it is the only one that is parodying a film/genre from our lifetimes. Frankenstein, Hitchcock, etc. are all ancient history.
Definitely To Be or Not To Be.
I must disagree. When I first saw Blazing Saddles as a teen, I laughed like crazy all the way through, and then got blown away by the absolutely brilliant absurdity of that ending. I’d never seen anything like it and it just floored me.
Of course I’ve seen lots of silly fourth-wall breaking since then, but to this day I don’t think anybody’s done it better than Brooks did there.
Young Frankenstein was great as well; a close second IMO. I did like High Anxiety, Spaceballs, and Silent Movie, but for me those don’t quite rise to the same level as his two master works.
Now you see that Evil will always triumph, because Good is dumb!