The Mel Brooks Collection

Filed Under: Film, Reviews | Article Tags : DVD review

By: The Dweeb

May 2006

DVD Features

Video: 1.85:1, 1.33:1 Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0, Dolby Digital Stereo French: Dolby Digital Stereo, Mono Spanish: Dolby Digital Stereo, Mono

Robin Hood: Men In Tights (1993)
HBO Special: Robin Hood: Men In Tights – The Legend Had It Coming
Original Theatrical Trailer
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Mel Brook’s Audio Commentary
Documentary: Making Frankensense of Young Frankenstein
Interviews with stars Marty Feldman, Gene Wilder & Cloris Leachman
7 Deleted Scenes
Outtakes/Bloopers
Production Stills
To Be Or Not To Be (1983)
Making-Of Featurette
Character Profiles & Interviews with Mel Brooks, Anne Bancroft & Charles Durning
Blazing Saddles (1974)
Production Notes
Theatrical Trailer

Theatrical release: Various
DVD released on 4/04/2006 by 20th Century Fox
Running time of 772 minutes

Starring: Mel Brooks, Teri Garr, Tim Matheson, Bernadette Peters, Slim Pickens, Frank Langella, Amy Yasbeck, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Anne Bancroft, Tracey Ullman, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Cary Elwes, Gene Wilder, Dom DeLuise, Peter Boyle, Richard Lewis, Dave Chappelle, Harvey Korman, Sid Caesar, Cleavon Little

Director: Mel Brooks

Plot:

High Anxiety (1977)
In this outrageous homage to Hitchcock thrillers, Mel Brooks plays renowned Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Richard Thorndyke, a nut-job with a paralyzing fear of heights, who’s just become head of the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very Very Nervous.

Robin Hood: Men In Tights (1993)
Mel Brooks scores a bull’s-eye with this hysterical reinvention of the Robin Hood fable! In days of olde, when men were men, men wore tights. And none wore tights mightier – or tighter – than Robin Hood! Aided by his band of merry men, Robin of Loxley wrested power from the evil Prince John, brought humiliation upon the despicable Sheriff of Rottingham and found the key to the fair Maid Marian’s heart – and her chastity belt.

Silent Movie (1976)
Only Mel Brooks would tell his laugh-packed tale about a silent movie -as a silent movie – with one word of dialogue. Joining him in his outrageous, nonstop parade of sight gags are Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise, Sid Caesar, Harold Gould, Bernadette Peters and Ron Carey.

Young Frankenstein (1974)
Mel Brook’s monstrously crazy tribute to Mary Shelley’s classic pokes hilarious fun at just about every Frankenstein movie ever made. Summoned by a will to his late grandfather’s castle in Transylvania, young Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) soon discovers the scientist’s step-by-step manual explaining how to bring a corpse to life.

To Be Or Not To Be (1983)
Mel Brooks lets the Nazis have it with both barrels in this hilarious remake of Ernst Lubitsch’s classic comedy. Brooks stars as Frederick Bronski, the great Polish actor an amazing amount of people have never heard of. Anne Bancroft co-stars as his actress wife, with whom he fights an eternal tug-of-war for center stage.

The Twelve Chairs (1970)
Although the plot of The Twelve Chairs is wild enough to have been created by Mel Brooks, it’s actually based on a Russian story written by two Soviet journalists, Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov, in the 1920s. Set in Russia in 1927, this much-loved, hilarious Mel Brooks comedy classic is the tale of a former aristocrat (Ron Moody) who is now a Russian clerk under the new Soviet regime. When he learns that of a secret family fortune in jewels are hidden in one of twelve dining room chairs, he sets off across Russia to find it.

History Of The World Part I (1981)
Mel Brook’s uproarious version of history proves nothing is sacred as he takes us on a laugh-filled look at what really happened throughout time. His delirious romp features everything from a wild send-up of “2001″ to the real stories behind the Roman Empire, the French Revolution and the Spanish Inquisition.

Blazing Saddles (1974)
The railroad’s bound to run right through the sleepy town of Rock Ridge. Land there will be worth a fortune – but the townfolk already own their own land. How do you drive them off? Send in the roughest, toughest, meanest, leanest gang you’ve got…and appoint a new sheriff you figure will last about 24 hours.

Ah, the legendary Mel Brooks finally gets his box set collection. If you are a fan of this man’s work then this is what you have been waiting for, or is it? For a box set this DVD collection is surprisingly bare, and the selection of films is missing several notable ones, including some of his best work like “Spaceballs” and the now popular “The Producers”. I’m sure MGM is holding on tight to those rights, but at least his two other greatest films are included in this set, “Young Frankenstein” and Warner Bros. “Blazing Saddles“. The rest, well aside from “High Anxiety”, are rather lame and don’t get much out of me in the chuckle department.
One has to have a special appreciation for a Mel Brooks film, either you will like it or find it dumb, almost like women trying to find the Three Stooges funny. His brand of humor in a lot of these films is totally old school, borrowing heavily from the early pioneers like Buster Keaton or the Marx Brothers. He likes to poke fun at such heady topics from race relations to history while spoofing some of Hollywood’s best genres be it the cowboy movie or classic horror film. Some of it is positively hilarious like in “Blazing Saddles” or “Young Frankenstein”, it’s so stupid it’s funny (“Frau Blucher! Neeeeeeeigh”). But a lot of his work is so stupid that it is well, stupid.
I know and love each of the afore mentioned films above, but I was in unfamiliar territory with the rest, and now I know why. The majority of the films in this set are at best forgettable, aside from “High Anxiety” and “History Of The World” which are mediocre at best. I couldn’t sit through “Silent Movie” because the running joke grew old real quick, and I couldn’t help checking my watch during “To Be Or Not To Be” at each lame one liner joke. I still don’t understand how he could have nabbed cameos from Hollywood’s biggest stars during the 70’s for “Silent Movie”. Maybe I’m just too grown up to appreciate his work anymore, I should ask a 12 year old instead. The inclusion of “Men In Tights” should have been verboten, as the odd man out it is the most unfunny comedy ever. I’m sorry to say that his best work was during the 70’s and 60’s (“Get Smart” was his baby) and that now he probably should stick to just reviving his past glories on Broadway (“The Producers”) and doing voice over work (“Robots”).
The box set itself is rather just a cobbled together collection of DVD’s wrapped in a cardboard holder, and the discs are held in the thin DVD cases. The films that are already out on the market you can find reissued in this set, and it seems no effort was made to make something worthwhile of a box set itself. The transfers are probably taken from some second hand source as some of the films have definitely not been cleaned up. At this price point I would have to say stay away and just buy the individual movies instead, make your own box set!