CANFIELD REVIEWS THE MEL BROOKS BOX SET

Mel Brooks best film? It’s a tossup between Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. I’d have to go with Young Frankenstein not because I’m such a Universal Monster freak but because in the end Frankenstein just does a better tighter job spoofing it’s subject whereas Blazing Saddles is more scattershot throwing in unrelated gags. Saddles certainly hasn’t aged as well.

But if you were to ask me what my favorite Brooks film is I would, for highly personal reasons, have to say High Anxiety. “I got it… I got it…uh…I ain’t got it.” Personally I’m not sure there is a funnier moment in the Brooks canon than Harvey Korman shooting rubber bands and frothing at the mouth while wearing those idiotic werewolf teeth.

I also really like the idea that fans could get critically acclaimed efforts like the early The Twelve Chairs starring Frank Langella and Dom Delouise and Brooks fabulous remake of To Be or Not To Be which is certainly his greatest non spoof film. The only substantial films missing from this collection are Spaceballs, Dracula Dead and Loving It and The Producers. Those are all owned by other studios and available in really great SE’s anyway.

You get Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety, History of the World Part I, To Be or Not To Be, The Twelve Chairs, Silent Movie and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. What you don’t get are a ton of special features although many that have been included on the discs before are present including a couple great documentary’s and audio commentary for Young Frankenstein- which is one of the best appointed DVD’s ever. How sad that marty Feldman, and madeline Kahn aren’t here to do commentaries.

There’s a theory about these films that they just aren’t that funny. It’s often applied to the Pink Panther films as well. But the plain truth is that these films have a charm that Adam Sandler and Rob Schnieder in their wildest dreams couldn’t possibly create. I think we remember the laughs, but there’s a quiet comfort in the charm, in knowing that a group of supremely talented writers and performers had the time of their lives playing like kids and are remembered fondly for it.

In closing I would say, “Frau Blucher!!!!!”