(Mel Brooks, US 1974, 106 min., 35mm)
Mel Brooks followed-up his anarchic Western parody Blazing Saddles with something even better: a spot-on spoof of the great Universal horror pictures of the 1930s. In perhaps the finest sustained parody ever made on film, the manic Gene Wilder is Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (that’s pronounced Fronk-en-steen), reluctant heir to the man who re-animated dead life. With the help of two assistants (goggle-eyed Marty Feldman and Teri Garr), Dr. F. resumes his grandfather’s work and creates his own monster (Peter Boyle). The uniformly sterling and hilariously funny cast also includes Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, and Gene Hackman.
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Film Screenings | Spaceballs (35mm)
100 Years of Mel Brooks One of Brooks’s most quotable films, this Star Wars send-up takes on the mega-franchise, American politics, and Hollywood itself.