April Fools: Silent Movie (1976)

One of my favourite shots in any film ever!

It does exactly what it says on the tin. Oh yes, Silent Movie is a silent movie, for the most part (only one person gets to speak, and it's a brilliant punchline), directed by Mel Brooks, who co-wrote the film with Ron Clark, Rudy De Luca and Barry Levinson.

The plot is a brilliant slice of meta fun, as Brooks, accompanied by Marty Feldman and Dom DeLuise, convinces a studio to let him make a silent movie, and then sets out to convince a variety of big stars to appear in his silent movie. That's the excuse for one set-piece after another, from going to great lengths to talk to Burt Reynolds, to keeping things perfectly balanced in James Caan's trailer while trying to get him on board. As the film starts to look more and more appealing to those in the business, a rival studio sends out a secret weapon to scupper the whole thing, the lovely Bernadette Peters.

For film fans, this is almost as enjoyable now as it was nearly 40 years ago, when first released. The comedy, as you could probably guess, is pretty universal and timeless, and it's only some of the stars who may be slightly unfamiliar to modern audiences (even if I do dislike the thought of a world in which people don't recognise Anne Bancroft, Burt Reynolds, or Paul Newman).

Brooks and DeLuise are very funny, but Feldman is the highlight for me. The man can be funny even when not playing with material, and I thank Brooks for giving him two great movie roles (with this and Young Frankenstein). A bit of praise, however, must also be given to those stars already mentioned, as well as everyone else who joins in with the fun.

Although the movie is little more than a loosely connected series of sketches, the format allows for this without it ever feeling like a major negative. Many silent movies were broken down into a number of different acts, of course, and this feels just the same.

If you're a fan of Brooks then you should enjoy this. If you're a fan of comedy then you should enjoy this. In fact, most people should enjoy this.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mel-Brooks-Collection-DVD/dp/B000AM6NCM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391351938&sr=8-1&keywords=mel+brooks

High Anxiety (1977)

It's another top class spoof from Mel Brooks, this time taking aim at the movies of Alfred Hitchcock, and while I enjoyed many individual moments (the riff on The Birds is juvenile but also damn funny) I didn't feel that the whole thing worked as well as it could, or should, have.

The biggest plot developments, and indeed the title itself, are derived from Vertigo - the film that, despite stiff competition, just edges ahead of the pack to remain Hitchcock's finest hour. Mel Brooks plays Richard H. Thorndyke, a man who is appointed as the new administrator for the Psychoneurotic Institute For The Very Very Nervous. There's something not quite right at the institute, something that Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman) and Dr. Charles Montague (Harvey Korman) seem to be covering up. Maybe it's to do with a patient named Arthur Brisbane (Albert Whitlock), a man kept there despite him being in fine physical and mental health according to his daughter, Victoria (Madeline Kahn).

Written by Brooks, as well as Ron Clark, Barry Levinson and Rudy De Luca, the film lacks the gag quotient of, say, Blazing Saddles while the references to the original movies aren't always as immediately recognisable as they are in Young Frankenstein. Having said that, there are plenty of details and little touches that will please fans of Hitchcock even if they aren't always played for laughs.

The performances are all pretty good, in line with the material, but the best moments come from the fantastic Cloris Leachman and the equally fantastic Harvey Korman. In fact, the very best moments feature both stars bouncing off one another and wringing the maximum amount of laughs from each line.

Okay, so comparing this movie to Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein is probably quite unfair because they are two of the best spoofs ever made so I should make it clear that High Anxiety certainly rewards attentive viewers and will undoubtedly be a film that I return to now and again for some guaranteed chuckles.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mel-Brooks-Collection-DVD/dp/B000AM6NCM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1348995965&sr=8-2