It's Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks (44 page)

As for the future of the film business, in which he has participated for over half a century, Brooks has acknowledged, “The home-entertainment technology scares me more than anything because I want an audience to laugh at my movies. I want people to sit in a dark theatre, let the silver screen bathe them with images and have them laugh as a group. It’s thrilling to hear a lot of people laughing together. But with the direction of current technology, it seems we’ll have tiny little groups at home, or sometimes even one skinny person watching a big fat Mel Brooks movie. You can’t get a lot of laughs that way. I wasn’t born to make one thin person laugh; I was born to make a lot of fat and skinny people sit in the dark and laugh together.” (Once, when Mel Brooks was asked what he found to be the most difficult aspect about the filmmaking process, he amusingly responded, “Putting in the little holes. The sprocket holes are the hardest thing to make. Everything else is easy, but all night you have to sit with that little puncher and make the holes on the side of the film. You could faint from that work.”)

•     •     •

Mel Brooks, the venerated elder statesman of show business, who refuses to abandon his career no matter how many ups and downs he experiences in the process, has never forgotten the best advice anyone ever gave him. “I asked a 97-year-old who was still the busy guy in the herring business, ‘Mr. Horowitz, what’s your secret?’ He said, ‘Follow your nature, boy. Follow your nature.’”

Mel Brooks’s Film, Stage, and Television Credits

Feature Films*

New Faces

Twentieth Century-Fox, 1954, color, 98 minutes, no rating

Producers: Edward L. Alperson and Berman Swarttz; director: Harry Horner; sketches: Melvin Brooks, John Cleveland, Luther Davis, Ronny Graham, and Paul Lynde, based on the Broadway revue
Leonard Sillmans New Faces of 1952;
camera: Lucien Ballard; editorial supervisor: Ace Herman

Selected cast: Ronny Graham, Eartha Kitt, Robert Clary, Alice Ghostley, June Carroll, and Paul Lynde (themselves)

The Producers

Embassy, 1968, color, 88 minutes, rated PG

Producer: Sidney Glazier; director/screenplay: Mel Brooks; original songs: Mel Brooks & John Morris; Norman Blagman; original music: John Morris; camera: Joseph Coffey; editor: Ralph Rosenblum

Selected cast: Zero Mostel (Max Bialystock); Gene Wilder (Leo Bloom), Kenneth Mars (Franz Liebkind), Christopher Hewett (Roger De Bris), Lee Meredith (Ulla), Andreas Voutsinas (Carmen Ghia), Dick Shawn (Lorenzo St. DuBois), and Mel Brooks (voice of Nazi soldier in “Springtime for Hitler”)

Putney Swope

Cinema V, 1969, black and white/color, 84 minutes, rated B

Producers: Robert Downey Sr. and Ron Sullivan; director/screenplay: Robert Downey Sr.; original music: Charles Cuva; cinematographer: Gerald Cotts; editor: Bud S. Smith

Selected cast: Stanley Gottlieb (Nathan), Allen Garfield (Elias Jr.), Archie Russell (Joker), Ramon Gordon (Bissinger), Bert Lawrence (Hawker), Arnold Johnson (Putney Swope), David Kirk (Elias Sr.), Anthony Fargas (the Arab), Mel Brooks (Mr. Forget It), and Allan Arbus (Mr. Bad News)

The Twelve Chairs

UNC. 1970, color, 94 minutes, rated G

Producer: Michael Hertzberg; screenplay: Mel Brooks, based on the novel
The Twelve Chairs
by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov (Ilya Faynzilberg and Yevgeny Katayev) as translated by Elizabeth Hill and Doris Mudie as
Diamonds to Sit On;
original song: Mel Brooks; original music: John Morris; camera: Djordje Nikolic; editor: Alan Heim

Selected cast: Ron Moody (Ippolit Vorobyaninov), Frank Langella (Ostap Bender), Dom DeLuise (Father Fyodor), Andreas Voutsinas (Nikolai Sestrin), Diana Coupland (Madame Bruns), and Mel Brooks (Tikon)

Shinbone Alley

Fine Arts Films, 1971, color, 85 minutes, rated PG

Producers: Preston M. Fleet and John D. Wilson; director: John D. Wilson; screenplay: Joe Darion, based on the “archy and mehitabel” stories by Don Marquis and the Broadway musical (book by Joe Darion and Mel Brooks; lyrics by Joe Darion; music by George Kleinsinger); cinematographers: Ted C. Bemiller and Gene Borghi; editor: Warren Leighton

Selected cast (voices of): Eddie Bracken (archy), Carol Channing (mehitabel), John Carradine (Tyrone T. Tattersall), Alan Reed (Big Bill), Ken Sansom (Newspaperman Byron Kane), and Hal Smith (Spiders and Insects)

Blazing Saddles

Warner Bros., 1974, color, 93 minutes, rated R

Producer: Michael Hertzberg; director: Mel Brooks; screenplay: Mel Brooks & Norman Steinberg & Andrew Bergman & Richard Pryor & Alan Uger, based on the screen story by Andrew Bergman; original songs: Mel Brooks and John Morris; original music: John Morris; cinematographer: Joseph Biroc; editors: Danford Greene and John C. Howard

Selected cast: Cleavon Little (Sheriff Bart), Gene Wilder (Jim, the Waco Kid), Slim Pickens (Taggart), Alex Karras (Mongo), Mel Brooks (Governor William J. LePetomane/Indian chief/World War I aviator in bad men lineup/voice of German dancer/voice of moviegoer); Harvey Korman (Hedley Lamarr), Madeline Kahn (Lili Von Shtupp), and Dom DeLuise (Buddy Bizarre)

Young Frankenstein

Twentieth Century-Fox, 1974, black and white, 106 minutes, rated PG

Producer: Michael Gruskoff; director: Mel Brooks; screen story/screenplay: Mel Brooks & Gene Wilder, based on characters from the novel
Frankenstein
,
or the Modem Prometheus
by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley; original music: John Morris; cinematographer: Gerald Hirschfeld; editor: John C. Howard

Selected cast: Gene Wilder (Dr. Frederick Frankenstein), Peter Boyle (the Monster), Marty Feldman (Igor), Madeline Kahn (Elizabeth), Cloris Leachman (Frau Blücher), Teri Garr (Inga), Kenneth Mars (Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friederich Kemp), Gene Hackman (the Blind Man), and Mel Brooks (voice of screeching cat/voice of werewolf)

Silent Movie

Twentieth Century-Fox, 1976, color, 87 minutes, rated PG

Producer: Michael Hertzberg; director: Mel Brooks; screenplay: Mel Brooks & Ron Clark & Rudy DeLuca & Barry Levinson; screen story: Ron Clark; original music: John Morris; cinematographer: Paul Lohmann; editors: Stanford C. Allen and John C. Howard

Selected cast: Mel Brooks (Mel Funn), Marty Feldman (Marty Eggs); Dom DeLuise (Dom Bell); Sid Caesar (Studio Chief); Harold Gould (Engulf); Ron Carey (Devour); Bernadette Peters (Vilma Kaplan); and Anne Bancroft, Liza Minnelli, Paul Newman, Marcel Marceau, and Burt Reynolds (guest stars)

High Anxiety

Twentieth Century-Fox, 1977, color, 94 minutes, rated Pfi

Producer/director: Mel Brooks; screenplay: Mel Brooks & Ron Clark & Rudy DeLuca & Barry Levinson; original songs: Mel Brooks; original music: John Morris; cinematographer: Paul Lohmann; editor: John C. Howard

Selected cast: Mel Brooks (Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke), Madeline Kahn (Victoria Brisbane), Cloris Leachman (Nurse Charlotte Diesel), Harvey Korman (Dr. Charles Montague), Ron Carey (Brophy), Howard Morris (Professor Lilloman), and Dick Van Patten (Dr. Philip Wentworth)

The Muppet Movie

Associated Film Distributors. 1979, color, 95 minutes, rated G

Producer: Jim Henson; director: James Frawley; screenplay: Jack Burns & Jerry Juhl; original songs: Paul Williams & Kenny Ascher; cinematographer: Isidore Mankofsky; editor: Christopher Greenbury

Selected cast: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and Dave Goelz (Muppet characters); Charles Durning (Doc Hopper); Austin Pendleton (Max); Mel Brooks (Professor Max Krassman); Dom DeLuise (Bernie the Agent); Madeline Kahn (El Sleezo Patron); Cloris Leachman (Lord’s Secretary); Richard Pryor (Balloon Vendor); and Orson Welles (Lew Lord)

The Nude Bomb

Universal, 1980, color, 94 minutes, rated PG

Producer: Jennings Lang; director: Clive Donner; screenplay: Bill Dana, Leonard Stern, and Arne Sultan; based on characters created by Mel Brooks & Buck Henry; original song: Don Black and Lalo Schifrin; original music: Lalo Schifrin; cinematographer: Harry L. Wolf; editors: Walter Hannemann and Phil Tucker

Selected cast: Don Adams (Maxwell Smart), Sylvia Kristel (Agent 34), Rhonda Fleming (Edith Von Secondberg), Dana Elcar (Chief), Pamela Hensley (Agent 35), and Norman Lloyd (Carruthers)

History of the World: Part I

Twentieth Century-Fox, 1981, color, 92 minutes, rated R

Producer/director/screenplay: Mel Brooks; songs: Mel Brooks & Ronny Graham; original music: John Morris; cinematographer: Woody Omens; editor: John C. Howard

Selected cast: Mel Brooks (Moses/Comicus/Torquemada/Jacques/Louis XVI), Dom DeLuise (Emperor Caesar), Madeline Kahn (Empress Nympho), Harvey Korman (Count de Monet), Cloris Leachman (Madame DeFarge), Ron Carey (Swiftus), Gregory Hines (Josephus), Pamela Stephenson (Mademoiselle Rimbaud), Sid Caesar (Chief Caveman), Mary-Margaret Humes (Miriam), and Orson Welles (Narrator)

To Be or Not to Be

Twentieth Century-Fox, 1983, color, 107 minutes, rated PG

Producer: Mel Brooks; director: Alan Johnson; screenplay: Ronny Graham & Thomas Meehan, based on the 1942 screenplay by Edwin Justus Mayer and the screen story by Melchior Lengyel and Ernst Lubitsch; original songs: Mel Brooks & Ronny Graham; original music: John Morris; cinematographer: Gerald Hirschfeld; editor: Alan Balsam

Selected cast: Mel Brooks (Dr. Frederick Bronski), Anne Bancroft (Anna Bronski), Tim Matheson (Lieutenant Andre Sobinski), Charles Durning (Colonel Erhardt), Christopher Lloyd (Captain Schultz), Jose Ferrer (Professor Siletski), Ronny Graham (Sondheim), and Max Brooks (Rifka’s Son)

Spaceballs

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1987, color, 96 minutes, rated PG

Producer/director: Mel Brooks; screenplay: Mel Brooks & Thomas Meehan
&
Ronny Graham; original song: Jeff Pescetto, Clyde Lieberman, & Mel Brooks; original music: John Morris; cinematographer: Nick McLean; editor: Conrad Buff IV

Selected cast: Mel Brooks (President Skroob/Yoghurt), Rick Moranis (Dark Helmet), Bill Pullman (Lone Starr), Daphne Zuniga (Princess Vespa), John Candy (Barfolemew [“Barf”]), George Wyner (Colonel Sandurz), Joan Rivers (voice of Dot Matrix), and Dick Van Patten (King Roland)

Look Who’s Talking Too

TriStar, 1990, color, 81 minutes, rated PG-13

Producer: Jonathan D. Krane; director: Amy Heckerling; screenplay: Amy Heckerling & Neal Israel, based on characters created by Amy Heckerling; original music: David Kitay; cinematographer: Thomas Del Ruth; editor: Debra Chiate

Selected cast: John Travolta (James Ubriacco), Kirstie Alley (Mollie Ubriacco), Olympia Dukakis (Rosie), Bruce Willis (voice of Mikey), Roseanne Barr (voice of Julie), Damon Wayans (voice of Eddie), and Mel Brooks (voice of Mr. Toilet Man)

Life Stinks

Hetro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 1991, color, 92 minutes, rated PG-13

Producer/director: Mel Brooks; screenplay/screen story: Mel Brooks & Ron Clark & Rudy DeLuca & Steve Haberman; original music: John Morris; cinematographer: Stephen B. Poster; editors: Michael Mulconery, David Rawlins, and Anthony Redman

Selected cast: Mel Brooks (Goddard “Pepto” Bolt), Lesley Ann Warren (Molly), Jeffrey Tambor (Vance Crasswell), Howard Morris (Sailor), Rudy DeLuca (J. Paul Getty), and Teddy Wilson (Fumes)

Robin Hood: Hen in Tights

Twentieth Century-Fox, 1993, color, 104 minutes, rated PG-13

Producer/director: Mel Brooks; screenplay: Mel Brooks & Evan Chandler & J. David Shapiro; screen story: Evan Chandler and J. David Shapiro; original songs: Mel Brooks & Hummie Mann; original music: Hummie Mann; cinematographer: Michael D. O’Shea; editor: Stephen E. Rivkin

Selected cast: Cary Elwes (Robin Hood), Richard Lewis (Prince John), Roger Rees (Sheriff of Rottingham), Amy Yasbeck (Maid Marian), Dave Chappelle (Ahchoo), Isaac Hayes (Asneeze), Tracey Ullman (Latrine), Patrick Stewart (King Richard), Dom DeLuise (Don Giovanni), Dick Van Patten (the Abbot), and Mel Brooks (Rabbi Tuckman)

The Silence of the Hams

October Films, 1994, color, 81 minutes, rated R

Producers: Julie Corman and Ezio Greggio; director/screenplay: Ezio Greggio; original music: Parmer Fuller; cinematographer: Jacques Haitkin; editors: Robert Barrere and Andy Horvitch

Selected cast: Ezio Greggio (Antonio Motel), Dom DeLuise (Dr. Animal Cannibal Pizza), Billy Zane (Jo Dee Foster), Joanna Pacula (Lily Wine), Charlene Tilton (Jane Wine), Martin Balsam (Detective Martin Balsam), and Mel Brooks (Checkout Guest)

The Little Rascals

Universal, 1994, color. 82 minutes, rated PG

Producers: Michael King and Bill Oakes; director: Penelope Spheeris; screenplay: Paul Guay & Stephen Mazur & Penelope Spheeris: screen story: Penelope Spheeris & Robert Wolterstorff & Mike Scott & Paul Guay & Stephen Mazur; original song: Leroy Shield; original music: William Ross; cinematographer: Richard Bowen; editors: Ross Albert and Peter Teschner

Selected cast: Travis Tedford (George “Spanky” McFarland), Kevin Jamal Woods (Matthew “Stymie” Beard), Jordan Warkol (Robert “Froggy” Lawford), Zachary Mabry (Patrick “Porky” Lee), Ross Elliot Bagley (William “Buckwheat” Thomas), Mel Brooks (Mr. Welling, the banker), Whoopi Goldberg (Buckwheat’s Mom), and Reba McEntire (A. J. Ferguson)

Dracula: Dead and Loving It

Columbia, 1995, color, 88 minutes, rated PG-13

Producer/director: Mel Brooks; screenplay: Mel Brooks, Rudy DeLuca, and Steve Haberman; screen story: Rudy DeLuca & Steve Haberman; original music: Hummie Mann; cinematographer: Michael D. O’Shea; editor: Adam Weiss

Selected cast: Leslie Nielsen (Count Dracula), Peter MacNicol (R. M. Renfield), Steven Weber (Jonathan Harker), Amy Yasbeck (Mina Murray), Mel Brooks (Dr. Abraham Van Helsing), Lysette Anthony (Lucy Westenra), Harvey Korman (Dr. Jack Seward), and Anne Bancroft (Madame Ouspenskaya, the gypsy woman)

The Prince of Egypt

DreamWorks, 1998, color, 99 minutes, rated PG

Producers: Penney Finkleman Cox and Sandra Rabins; directors: Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, and Simon Wells; screenplay: Phil LaZebnik; additional screenplay material: Nicholas Meyer; story: Ken Harsha and Anthony Leondis; additional story: Ronaldo Del Carmen, Carole Holliday, and Frank Tamura; original songs: Stephen Schwartz and Hans Zimmer; original music: Hans Zimmer; editor: Nick Fletcher