Silent Movie

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Silent Movie is just that: a totally nonverbal comedy, save for one single line. Director Mel Brooks stars as a once-famous comedy director, who with his faithful assistants Dom DeLuise and Marty Feldman return to Hollywood with plans for a comeback. Brooks wants to return to the good old days by producing a silent movie (he explains this via subtitle). Producer Sid Caesar is agreeable, provided Brooks can line up top stars. In a series of vignettes better seen than described, Brooks persuades Burt Reynolds, Liza Minelli, Paul Newman, James Caan and Anne Bancroft (Brooks' real-life wife) to star in his project. The only holdout is mime Marcel Marceau, who after a few moments of walking against the wind shouts the film's solitary line: "No!" Meanwhile, the crooked executives of the Engulf and Devour conglomerate want to take over Caesar's studio and are worried that Brooks' film might be so huge a hit that Caesar won't be interested in selling. To prevent this, the conglomerate dispatches sexy Bernadette Peters to lure Brooks into drink and ruination. The film's climax is lifted from the 1943 Olsen and Johnson film Crazy House). Featured in brief comic cameos are Harry Ritz as the man with half a suit, Charlie Callas as the blind man, Dom DeLuise's wife, Carol Arthur, as the incredibly pregnant woman, Fritz Feld as the headwaiter (whose trademarked "Pop" is conveyed on a subtitle) and Henny Youngman as the diner with a fly in his soup. Co-writers Ron Clark, Rudy DeLuca and Barry Levinson also show up on screen as three of the Engulf & Devour minions. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Screen: Letterbox for TV
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Features:
  • cc

AWARDS

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comed - 1976 (Mel Brooks)
•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pictu - 1976 (Marty Feldman)
•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pic - 1976 (Bernadette Peters)
•     Nominated Best Picture - Musical or Comedy - 1976

• National Board of Review

•     Nominated Best Picture - 1976

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Mel Brooks - Mel Funn
       Marty Feldman - Marty Eggs
       Dom DeLuise - Dom Bell
       Bernadette Peters - Vilma Kaplan
       Sid Caesar - Studio Chief
       Harold Gould - Engulf
       Ron Carey - Devour
       Carol Arthur - Pregnant Lady
       Fritz Feld - Maitre d'
       Patrick Campbell - Motel Bellhop
       Charlie Callas - Blind Man
       Henny Youngman - Fly-In-Soup Man
       Eddie Ryder - British Officer
       Al Hopson - Executive
       Rudy de Luca - Executive
       Barry Levinson - Executive
       Howard Hesseman - Executive
       Lee Delano - Executive
       Jack Riley - Executive
       Sivi Aberg - Beautiful Blonde
       Erica Hagen - Beautiful Blonde
       Robert Lussier - Projectionist
       Anne Bancroft - Herself

• Director:

  Mel Brooks

• Producer:

  Michael Hertzberg

• Screenwriter:

  Mel Brooks, Ron Clark, Rudy de Luca, Barry Levinson

• Cinematographer:

  Paul Lohmann

• Composer (Music Score):

  John Morris

• Editor:

  John C. Howard, Stanford C. Allen, Andrew Horvitch

• Production Designer:

  Stephen Myles Berger, Albert Brenner

• Set Designer:

  Rick Simpson

• Costume Designer:

  Pat Norris

• Makeup:

  William J. Tuttle

• Special Effects:

  Ira Anderson, Jr.

• Stunts:

  Jesse Wayne

• Choreography:

  Robert Iscove

• Stunts Coordinator:

  Max Kleven

REVIEW:

• Silent Movie is not Mel Brooks's best film, but it may be his sweetest. There's a touching innocence about most of this film, as well as a sense of playfulness that's rather endearing. The trio of characters at the core of the film are essentially childlike in nature, and with no "dialogue" to speak of, there's little room for the raunchiness or crassness that is often found in other Brooks films. (One notable, and hysterical, exception, is the reaction of the Engulf & Devour Board of Directors to Bernadette Peters' Vilma Kaplan. Brooks uses the title cards to good effect, as when Marcel Marceau's ringing phone is accompanied by a "Sonnez" title card or when some clearly off-color remarks are translated in a bowdlerized version. And, of course, there are a plethora of sight gags, some of which work, some of which do not. (The ping-pong game on the life support screen being a good example of the former.) On the down side, too many of the gags are a bit predictable, and the episodic nature of the piece makes it drag somewhat. The very sweetness of the film also seems to water down the humor somewhat; there are not as many laughs as one would expect from a silent movie comedy, especially with this cast. Still, it's always enjoyable, and Brooks deserves credit for trying something as different as a silent movie in the first place. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi