(Mel Brooks, US 1974, 93 min., 35mm)
Mel Brooks’s third feature, and his first box-office blockbuster, turns the western upside down and inside out. Scheming politician Hedley (not Hedy!) Lamarr (Harvey Korman) appoints a Black sheriff (Cleavon Little) to the small town of Rock Ridge in order to drive the people away. When the plan backfires, he is forced to take further desperate measures to unsettle the town's unity, while Little teams up with washed-up gunslinger Gene Wilder to do his job.. A delirious mix of postmodern parody (the finale) and bathroom humor (the campfire scene), the film was co-scripted by Richard Pryor, who lends the film an in-your-face send-up of racist stereotypes that remains both hilarious and powerful.
Upcoming Events in this Series
Film Screenings | Matinee: Young Frankenstein (DCP)
100 Years of Mel Brooks 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.
Film Screenings | Silent Movie (35mm)
100 Years of Mel Brooks Mel Funn (Brooks), a washed-up Hollywood director, announces his plans to make a contemporary silent movie. With the help of collaborators Dom Bell (Dom DeLuise) and Marty Eggs (Marty Feldman), Mel sets out to recruit a top-notch cast (Burt Reynolds, Liza Minnelli, Paul Newman, Marcel Marceau and Anne Bancroft) in order to secure funding for his magnum opus.
Film Screenings | High Anxiety (35mm)
100 Years of Mel Brooks Comedic genius Brooks plays Dr. Thorndyke, the new administrator for the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous.