Silent Movie (1976)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Mel Brooks

Writers:

Mel Brooks (screenplay) &
Ron Clark (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

16 June 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A film director and his strange friends struggle to produce the first major silent feature film in forty years.

Plot Keywords:

Talking Mime | Self Referential | Murphy Bed | Armor | Motorcycle Cop

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Golden Globes. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Mel Brooks	...	Mel Funn
Marty Feldman	...	Marty Eggs
Dom DeLuise	...	Dom Bell
Sid Caesar	...	Studio Chief
Harold Gould	...	Engulf
Ron Carey	...	Devour
Bernadette Peters	...	Vilma Kaplan
Carol Arthur	...	Pregnant Lady
Liam Dunn	...	Newsvendor
Fritz Feld	...	Maitre d'
Chuck McCann	...	Studio Gate Guard
Valerie Curtin	...	Intensive Care Nurse
Yvonne Wilder	...	Studio Chief's Secretary
Harry Ritz	...	Man in Tailor Shop
Charlie Callas	...	Blindman
Henny Youngman	...	Fly-in-soup Man
Arnold Soboloff	...	Acupuncture Man
Patrick Campbell	...	Motel Bellhop
Eddie Ryder	...	British Officer
Al Hopson	...	Executive
Rudy De Luca	...	Executive (as Rudy DeLuca)
Barry Levinson	...	Executive
Howard Hesseman	...	Executive
Lee Delano	...	Executive
Jack Riley	...	Executive
Inga Neilsen	...	Beautiful Blonde #1
Erica Hagen	...	Beautiful Blonde #2
Robert Lussier	...	Projectionist
Burt Reynolds	...	Himself
James Caan	...	Himself
Liza Minnelli	...	Herself
Anne Bancroft	...	Herself
Marcel Marceau	...	Himself
Paul Newman	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sivi Aberg	...	Beautiful Blonde #3 (uncredited)
Brian Clark	...	Young man in nite club (uncredited)
Dody Goodman	...	Tourist woman #1 (uncredited)
Phil Leeds	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Candice Rialson	...	Bit part (uncredited)
Ray Stewart	...	Movie House Manager (uncredited)
Jerry Trent	...	Dancer (uncredited)

Directed by
Mel Brooks

Writing credits
Mel Brooks		(screenplay) &
Ron Clark		(screenplay) &
Rudy De Luca		(screenplay) (as Rudy DeLuca) &
Barry Levinson		(screenplay)
Ron Clark		(story)

Produced by
Michael Hertzberg	....	producer

Original Music by
John Morris

Cinematography by
Paul Lohmann		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Stanford C. Allen
John C. Howard

Casting by
Mary Goldberg

Production Design by
Albert Brenner		(as Al Brenner)

Set Decoration by
Rick Simpson

Costume Design by
Patricia Norris

Makeup Department
Mary Keats	....	hair stylist
Charles H. Schram	....	makeup man (as Charles Schram)
William Tuttle	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Frank Baur	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Max Kleven	....	second unit director
Edward Teets	....	assistant director (as Ed Teets)
Richard A. Wells	....	second assistant director (as Richard Wells)

Art Department
Stephen Myles Berger	....	assistant art director (as Steve Berger)
Richard Evans	....	assistant property master
Tom Fairbanks	....	property master (as Tommi Fairbanks)
Hendrik Wynands	....	construction coordinator (as Hank Wynands)

Sound Department
Don Hall	....	sound editor
Don MacDougall	....	sound re-recording mixer
Richard Portman	....	sound re-recording mixer

Special Effects by
Ira Anderson Jr.	....	special effects

Stunts
Max Kleven	....	stunt coordinator
Roydon Clark	....	stunts (uncredited)
Paula Dell	....	stunts (uncredited)
James M. Halty	....	stunts (uncredited)
Orwin C. Harvey	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Herron	....	stunts (uncredited)
Harvey Parry	....	stunts (uncredited)
Greg Walker	....	stunts (uncredited)
Dick Warlock	....	utility stunts (uncredited)
Jesse Wayne	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Edmond L. Koons	....	camera operator (as Ed Koons)
J. Michael Marlett	....	gaffer (as Michael Marlett)
Tom Prophet Jr.	....	key grip

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jay Caplan	....	wardrobe: men
Wally Harton	....	wardrobe: men
Nancy Martinelli	....	wardrobe: ladies

Editorial Department
David Blangsted	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Billy Byers	....	orchestrator (as Bill Byers)
Kevin F. Cleary	....	music recordist (as Kevin Cleary)
John Morris	....	orchestrator
Lionel Newman	....	conductor
Jack Lesberg	....	musician: bass (uncredited)

Transportation Department
William Hogue	....	driver (uncredited)

Other crew
Ron Clark	....	production consultant
Anthony Goldschmidt	....	title designer: Pacific Title
Robert Iscove	....	choreographer (as Rob Iscove)
Ray Quiroz	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Crossbow Productions

Distributors

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (1976) (USA) (theatrical)
• Key Video (video)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (19??) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Pacific Title  titles

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-3 (cinema release) (1976) | Portugal:M/6 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Netherlands:AL | Canada:G (video rating) | Sweden:Btl | Brazil:Livre | Australia:PG | Finland:S | Iceland:L | Norway:7 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:6 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

University of California, Irvine, California, USA

Company:

Crossbow Productions

Trivia:

At the sneak preview of the silent movie, several posters for Young Frankenstein (1974) are visible in theater lobby.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Mel's car is lowered when the pregnant lady steps off, a small set of wheels can be seen below the car. These small wheels raise and low the front wheels of the car.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[last lines]
Marcel Marceau: [the only line heard] No!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Gilmore Girls: Lost and Found (#2.15)" (2002)

Soundtrack:

I Left My Heart In San Fransisco

Irony and Self-Reference

Mel Brooks plays a has-been director named Mel Funn in this spoof of Hollywood and silent movies. The film is set in some alternate universe era that is an amalgamation of 1930s through 1970s Hollywood. In the film's world, it's the age of the "talkies", which have apparently been around for some time. Funn's latest script, what he's banking on as his comeback, is retro--he's written a silent movie. Naturally, he's having problems selling his script. Shortly after the film begins, Funn, who is making the rounds with his two questionable companions, Marty Eggs (Marty Feldman) and Dom Bell (Dom DeLuise), shops his script to one last big studio head, played by Sid Caesar. Caesar's studio is about to go under if they can't produce a blockbuster. He initially tries to throw Funn out, but when Funn promises he can get big stars for his film, Caesar gives him a chance. If he can get the stars, he's got a deal. Silent Movie is primarily the story of Funn, Eggs and Bell trying to get stars to do their film.

Of course the irony of Silent Movie is that it's a silent movie about how silent movies would be ridiculous to produce in a later age in Hollywood. The Mel Brooks film itself is ridiculous film in many ways, not the least of which is that it is silent. Brooks also embraces another fading convention--humor based on slapstick and vaudeville.

To a large extent, Silent Movie exists to enable a series of gags, mostly centered on various extended cameos. Often the gags are like a classic comedy compilation--we get Sid Caesar doing his "facial tick schtick", Charlie Callas doing some "blind man" slapstick, Henny Youngman with a fly in his soup, and so on. Marty Feldman's "Eggs" might cause us to ask where the ham is--these classic routines are it.

There are also longer scenes with potential "stars" of the film. These include Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Bernadette Peters, Liza Minelli, Paul Newman, Anne Bancroft, and Marcel Marceau. Sometimes they spoof themselves, sometimes they play roles in new gags, and sometimes they come pretty close to their actual public personae.

Maybe Twentieth Century Fox told Brooks in reality that if he wanted to do a silent film spoof, they'd only bankroll it if he had a lot of stars attached. So he got them, working them into the film without really working them into the fabric of the film (they're present as cameos, not as stars). But there's also a conceit in Silent Movie, as a fiction, that we're not watching the actual film but a film about getting ready to make a film, maybe echoing what happened in "real life" in preparing to make the film. If you want complex self-referential layers, focused on blurring the distinctions between art and reality, Silent Movie definitely provides that. In many respects, the layering is similar to the more recent Incident at Loch Ness (2004).

Maybe such depth is surprising given that the surface aim of Silent Movie is to provide absurdities so you can laugh. The contrast to those easier to decipher surface qualities underscores interesting facts both about the public perception of Mel Brooks and the history of his career. Brooks has often been perceived as aiming for a kind of modernization of the Three Stooges. While his films have qualities that allow for that comparison, it is far from telling the whole story.

Brooks' films (as director) at least through 1981's History of the World, Part I all have a strong postmodernism beneath the veneer. He's not just making us laugh through slapstick and clever, pun-filled dialogue, he's also saying a lot of very intelligent things about the medium of film, as well as the relationship between films and reality, and between films and the audience. A lot of his humor rests on toying with the typical filmic or narrative conventions. For example, he routinely breaks through the "fourth wall" and he routinely breaks the implicit genre contracts he makes. It's just as intellectual as anything Monty Python did--at least until 1987's Spaceballs, which can be seen as the turning point from Brooks' earlier works of genius to a much more straightforward way of storytelling. It's not that Spaceballs and what followed weren't good, but they do not have the same sense of postmodernist play to them as is present in Silent Movie.

In addition to all of the fiction/reality layering, the film breaks the "genre" contracts of silent films in that once in awhile a character says something and we hear their voice on the soundtrack. The music is also frequently synced to the action (this wasn't possible with actual silent films--the technical "solution" that allowed synced music also allowed synced dialogue), and occasionally there is foley (sound effects that are supposed to be the sound of character actions, like walking) synced on the audio track as well. It underscores that this is a faux silent movie, despite the many other apparent cues of authenticity. This is a relatively minor example of postmodernism in the film, perhaps, but nevertheless illustrative of Brooks' goals and interesting to note while watching.

As interesting as all of that is, Silent Movie isn't a complete success. Sometimes it's just a bit too hokey or uneventful for its own good. But it's still an important entry in Brooks' early oeuvre, which is his most significant period in my view.