THE MEL BROOKS COLLECTION (BLAZING SADDLES / YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN / SILENT MOVIE / ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS / TO BE OR NOT TO BE / HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PART I / THE TWELVE CHAIRS / HIGH ANXIETY) (BILINGUAL)

Details

• Genre: Concert Film
• Plot: This 8-dvd set includes: Blazing Saddles / Young Frankenstein / Silent Movie / Robin Hood: Men In Tights / To Be or Not to Be / History of the World, Part I / The Twelve Chairs / High Anxiety.; ; That means you can sample a 23-year stretch of Brooks's outrageous and affectionate spoofing of everything from movies to popular legends to movies to historical figures to more movies.; ; The earliest film, The Twelve Chairs (1970), is the least known, but is one of the funniest, helped greatly by a good story (adapted from a 1920s Russian tale) and the casting of Ron Moody and Frank Langella as treasure hunters. Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles followed in 1974. The former, a spoof of horror films, is easily one of the top two or three funniest movies of all time, and the latter is justly famous for its often-tasteless send-up of Western cliches. Silent Movie (1976) is just what the title describes, with its only word of dialogue spoken from the least-likely source, and High Anxiety (1977) pays tribute to the work of Alfred Hitchcock. History of the World, Part 1 (1981) mocks historical events and epics, and To Be or Not to Be (1983) is a remake of Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 classic of the same name (it's also the only film in the set Brooks for which didn't receive writing and directing credit). By this time, Brooks was more actively taking the leading roles himself (rather than the bit parts), and unfortunately relying less on his topnotch ensemble of recurring players, which included Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Korman, and Dom Deluise. But he does rely on a new ensemble (including Cary Elwes and, in his film debut, Dave Chappelle), for Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), the feature-length spin on the same hero Brooks had spoofed in his short-lived 1975 television series When Things Were Rotten.
• Runtime: 6:17
• Media Format: Movie