One of the advantages/disadvantages to instant streaming movies is that it radically lowers the standards of what I will watch. If I have to drive to the rental store and then drive back later to return a movie, odds are I'm going to take my time, peruse the selection, and really figure out I really want to watch. With Netflix it's easier, but there's still decisions to be made online, and then you have to wait a few days. When I can turn on the TV and boom, watch whatever I want, right now, I'm much more open. I'd heard less than flattering things about Mel Brook's Silent Movie, but it seemed right for the moment, and I usually enjoy his stuff. My low expectations were exceeded, I have to say.
I think Mel should have really been a silent movie director. Mom was commenting that his humor is so obvious, it would have worked out well. The concept is pretty clever- Mel plays himself with buddies Dom Deluise and Marty Feldman (Igor, from Young Frankenstein) and they are trying to make a silent movie. They pitch it to the studio head who says (in a placard) "A silent movie?! In this day and age?! Doesn't he know slapstick is dead?". Then he sits down and his chair slides out under the desk with him in it and they crash into the far wall.
Marty Feldman is great to watch. In Young Frankenstein he had to hunchbackedly limp everywhere, but here he's wearing an all-black jumpsuit with white trim, big white tennis shoes and he's got great physical humor in how he moves, walks, and runs.
The plot is pretty simple, after they get the studio to agree to the picture, they have to get some A-list stars to agree to be in it, so they go after Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minnelli, and Paul Newman among others. Each star presents a different opportunity for hijinks. There's shades of Chaplin, and Buster Keaton silent movies. It's pretty ridiculous, but a lot of fun. There's a great scene where Mel, Marty, and Dom have a high speed chase after Paul Newman on motorized wheelchairs at the hospital, and he finally breaks free of the hospital grounds via a Great Escape ramp jump. In another scene, the studio head asks Mel to invite the famous mime Marcel Marceau to be in the film. The scene cuts to a phone in a Paris apartment with the curtains billowing in the light breeze in the background. Marcel Marceau struggles to enter the room against the wind and fights his way across in an imaginable manner. The big joke- how is the mime going to have a phone conversation? Mel asks Marcel to be in the movie. Marcel says "No," and hangs up.
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