It's time, oh it's time, for another Out of the Past Showdown! In the first outing we saw The Seventh Seal take the victory over Wild Strawberries. The second time around was a much harder pick with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid beating The Sting. This time I stack up against each other two of the most classic and hilarious movies ever, ever! In 1974 Mel Brooks made his two greatest comedies. Mel has made many hilarious movies, but his two best amazingly came out in the same year. Both are in the same style, but are almost completely different. For the third showdown I give you Young Frankenstein vs. Blazing Saddles!
Young Frankenstein
We all know the story of Frankenstein. The mad scientist reanimates life in the form of a monster. Well, what happens when the mad doctor's grandson decides to follow in his footsteps? Never is the premise for Young Frankenstein funny. Gene Wilder is Dr. Frankenstein's grandson(it's pronounced Fr-onk-en-steen) and he takes his experiment with the utmost sincerity. It's the supporting cast that brings the jokes. The hump-switching humpback, Igor; Terri Gar(the one and only time she was hot) as Wilder's dim country girl love interest, Peter Boyle as the monster and the genius Madeline Khan as Frankenstein's annoying fiancé. Gene Wilder doesn't play the funny man, but is genius as the ever so serious doctor in pursuit of reanimation. It's his deadpan performance that let's Young Frankenstein work.
The hilarity of Young Frankenstein lies in it's seriousness. Young Frankenstein plays on the bad acting and cheesy dialogue of the 1930's Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. Poking fun at the ridiculous names of the characters, the gothic mansion and even the clichéd hidden passage. The genius of Young Frankenstein is that Mel Brooks dialogue is insanely goofy, but the characters are oh so serious. Nothing beats Frankenstein assistant's choice of a person's brain for the monster, Abby Normal. The comedy is always a wink to the audience(as in most Mel Brooks movies). It's what Gene Wilder was always best at, and what Mel Brooks became a legend for. Not matter how low the joke, it's always acceptable, because in some odd way, it's never cheap.
Blazing Saddles
By far, the most socially controversial movie Mel Brooks has ever done. You take an idiot, white western town in 1874 America, throw in a black sheriff, well that's just say certain people dressed in bed sheets wouldn't approve. Now, this defiantly isn't American History X. Imagine the old John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart westerns, now instead of Wayne or Stewart, imagine a black guy. Now, that's the premise to one of the funniest movies ever. So funny, I can't really quote any of the dialogue because I don't Matchflick would approve. Blazing Saddles is so full jokes that are always to one extreme or another. Whether the theme of the joke be racist, sexual or both. It's a nonstop wink to the audience and a slap in the face to bigots.
Blazing Saddles is about a black railroad worker who is put into the role of the Sheriff of a town so that a corrupt government official can run off the citizens. Thus, running a railroad through the town. It's a genius idea for a movie. The only complaint, I guess, that could be made is that the jokes are always at the bottom. That's the movie's goal though. To offend every conservative bone in the audience. There's no punches pulled in the gags. Every subject they can run with, they do. The amazing thing is Blazing Saddles, while taking on several controversial topics, never becomes preachy. While the movie attacks racists, bigots and general idiots, Mel Brooks never felt the need of displaying a big moral message. Racists are racists, bigots are bigots, and most of all, idiots are idiots.
Winner - Blazing Saddles
Both films are parodies of 1930's classics. You have the cheesy monster horror flick and the cheesy hero sheriff western. Both of the movies are probably as funny as the other. I have to go with Blazing Saddles because of it's range of jokes. Young Frankenstein takes a parody of a cheesy movie genre and runs with it. Blazing Saddles accomplishes the same thing, but also goes further with social topics and pop culture jokes that are still relevant over 30 years later. Blazing Saddles just tackles more ground. Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles are about equal in terms of being funny, but as the years go by, I think Blazing Saddles will survive a little bit better. The Producers was his first, but Blazing Saddles is Mel Brooks' masterpiece. It's tough though. Brooks has done so many great films. I'll defiantly have to do a "A Guide to" for him some day.
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That's it for this week. Next time I'll be switching gears from comedies to thrillers. In fact, in the next edition of Out of the Past I'll be writing about the amazing team of James Stewart and the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Make sure to stop by for that one! I promise, it will be the greatest column you've ever read! I promise, right?
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| Out of the Past |
Every other Thursday
Discussing classic films from City Lights to Apocalypse
Now and everything in between and beyond.
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| Andy York |
Andy is a life long movie fanatic. The first movie he saw in the theater was Back to the Future, Part 2 at the age of 3 and he has loved movies ever since.
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