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:

Movie Theater | Life Support | Drunk Scene | Motorcycle Cop | Crowded Shower

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)
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:

The Silent Movie DVD contains audio tracks in three languages, plus an English subtitle track.

Goofs:

Continuity: As the car carrying Funn, Eggs and Bell approaches the gatehouse at Big Picture Studios, the windscreen of their car is flat on the hood of the car. But in the following shot from the rear of the car, the windscreen is obviously up when they crash into the lowered barrier, and the windscreen is again down as the car rolls under the barrier.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Follow the Fleet (1936)

Soundtrack:

Jalousie

This is a silent review

In the land of Mel Brooks, Blazing Saddles is often deemed king. Equal successes like Young Frankenstein and The Producers are the king's notorious sons, while Spaceballs is his court jester. And I think it's safe to say Robin Hood: Men in Tights and History of the World Part I would be the beheaded wives unable to bear him children.

But, to stretch this metaphor so thin you can see the blood running through the blue veins of its translucent skin, there's the wise old man, an adviser -- he is, in fact, the king's ailing father. Such is Silent Movie, and such is its role in the kingdom.

Making a silent film in 1976 was a gutsy move, which Brooks parodies by making the plot of Silent Movie about a director trying to make a silent picture. With only one word of dialogue -- spoken, ironically, by Marcel Marceau -- the film relies heavily on the forgotten arts of vaudeville and slapstick. Brooks is not foreign to these tricks; in fact, they have always been the primary source of laughter in all his movies. Sight gags and outrageous behavior are his fodder, and he uses them abundantly here: the Coke machine battle; the board room's reaction to Vilma Kaplan's picture; the heart monitor/Pong machine; and more.

Silent Movie is full of laughs, far more than any director has the right to expect. The reason is because Mel Brooks (who is teamed up here with the very funny duo of Dom DeLuise and Marty Feldman) will try anything for a laugh, no matter how silly. Even if we're not laughing, we're chuckling; and if we're not chuckling, we're smiling at the audacity.

To return brazenly to that thin metaphor I hatched earlier would be a kind of critical suicide. Yet I might as well. Blazing Saddles may be king, and Silent Movie may be the wise adviser. And Young Frankenstein and The Producers may be princes. But royalty usually serves a god. That god is Mel Brooks -- and with every movie of his that I see, I realize just how much I love going to his church.