Silent Movie (1976)

I hope Coca-Cola got their money's worth with the product placement bucks they shelled out for this flick. They got an entire wall in one scene, and I had to wonder how much dough it took for Dom DeLuise to announce 'it's the real thing'. Shameless plugs obviously weren't too shameless for the Coke folks this time out.Well, it was an interesting concept for Mel Brooks to undertake, but I thought the execution was poor. There's some slapstick I can go for but this film stretched the gimmicks way too far. Like that Liza Minnelli scene in the restaurant when Brooks, Marty Feldman and Dom DeLuise banged into each other in the armor get-ups. I thought that one would never end.The payday for the guest stars didn't look like it required all that much. Of them all, Marcel Marceau appeared to be the only one to display any real talent with his mime against the wind. That looked pretty clever and I got a kick out of it. Bernadette Peters was pretty entertaining as well.After drinking about a hundred cups of coffee, Mel Brooks' character stated (via title card) that "If I can walk, I can direct". As for myself, I identified more with studio chief Sid Caesar while watching this - "I'm alright, except for the constant pain".

Greetings from Lithuania."Silent Movie" (1976) surely has it's moments, and the whole idea was great, although this is not very funny movie. Acting was, OK i guess for this material, and there were some cameos from very famous starts, but they almost felt flat. At running time 1 h 25 min movie dragged a lot, i almost managed to watch it in like 4 days. Overall, i really wanted to like this satire on of movies and studio system, and "talkies", but this movie is just silly to me. It has some laughs, but most of them aren't really funny or smart. All in all this is not a good movie. Disappointing picture.

Of all the Mel Brooks movies of this era - Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, Spaceballs - this one was my least favorite - by far. So I have avoided seeing it for over 30 years. But, since I was revisiting all Mel Brooks films, I finally relented and fired this one up.And I'm glad I did.SILENT MOVIE, made by the genius Mel Brooks in 1976, is exactly that - a Silent Movie. Unheard of for that time. Quite the gamble. In order to hedge his bets, Brooks leaned on famous friends of the time - Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minelli, Paul Newman Sid Caesar and Brooks' wife, Anne Bancroft - for cameos in this picture and they all work out well.I don't think I was mature enough of a film watcher to appreciate the precision of slapstick that was required to make this movie, but I am now. What Brooks and his two sidekicks - Dom DeLuise and the incomparable Marty Feldman - pull off is remarkable and very fun to watch. Their antics with these celebs and other throwback schtick to the 1920's slapstick of the Keystone Cops and Harold Lloyd is very fun and impressive to see.While the the other Brooks movies gets most of the attention and praise, I would recommend you check this hidden gem out. I'm glad I did.8 (out of 10) stars and you can take that to the BANK (of Marquis)

What I'm reviewing here is the last of the "Slapstickers" series of Movies on the Lawn at the Baton Rouge Gallery-a series of classic silent comedies presented at the last Saturday of each month with an accompaniment of a live contemporary band of which this particular movie I'm commenting on had the musical stylings of Caftan Green (I think that was the name of the group). Anyway, I had previously seen this on Cinemax with the original John Morris score so it was such a treat to watch this again with a brand new score with some familiar jazz numbers spread throughout. The gags thought by director/star Mel Brooks and others were quite funny especially when they involved getting Big Stars to do his movie of which one of them was his actual wife Anne Bancroft. And both Dom DeLuise and Marty Feldman as his associates also contributed their own funny turns. I'm sure some gags may be dated to anyone born after the year this film was actually made but most of them are still quite effective today like the board of Engulf and Devour's reaction to their first viewing of a picture of Bernadette Peters' sexy poster. Oh, and many of the mostly middle aged audience I saw this with reacted appreciatively, laughing as loud as I did during the whole thing. So on that note, I very highly recommend Silent Movie. P.S. Since the score was a live one on this viewing, someone behind the screen said "Non!" when Marcel Marceau said the only spoken part of this picture.