Mel Brooks’ favourite movie scenes of all time
A true genius in the field of comedic cinema, Mel Brooks has led a universally lauded career spanning over seven decades, more than many get in a lifetime. The 97-year-old Holywood veteran set out in the late 1940s as a comedy writer following a brief stint working for the military at the end of World War II.
But Brooks first turned heads in the ’50s when he wrote for Sid Caesar’s variety show Your Show of Shows alongside Woody Allen, Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart. Following this crucial stepping stone, Brooks began to create his own movies, taking the reins in both hands as a director, producer and occasional actor.
Known as the godfather of spoof movies, Brooks frequently exercised his eye for satire, creating classic parodies, such as Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Through the years, he endeared himself to several returning cast members, none more prominent than the late comedy legend Gene Wilder.
In 2013, Brooks wrote a feature for The Daily Beast listing his 11 favourite movie scenes of all time. Naturally, he showed his discerning eye for comedy with some side-splitting moments, but the sections were by no means constrained to his associative genre.
After running through some Hollywood classics, including the famously soundtracked murder scene from Psycho, and a few musical highlights, including Swing Time, which he called “one of my favourites,” Brooks picked out one of his own scenes.
“Let me give you one of my movies that I love. I’m really proud for sure of this insane comedy I made called Dracula: Dead and Loving It,” Brooks wrote of his 1995 comedy horror starring Leslie Nielsen. “Steven Weber is driving a stake through Lysette Anthony’s heart. I [Brooks portraying Van Helsing] say to him, ‘Drive the stake through her heart! Hit her hard.’ So he drives the stake through her heart.”
“There’s an incredible gush, an incredible fountain of blood that sprays him. He just gets covered in blood. I say, ‘Hit her again.’ There’s an even bigger, 20-foot fountain of blood all over him that comes out of her. And then he’s standing there drenched, the blood dripping from him. He can’t believe it. I say to him, ‘She’s not dead yet. Hit her again!’ He looks at me and says, ‘She’s dead enough.’ It was a great scene. It was irresistible for laughs for the audience. It’s one of the biggest laughs I’ve ever gotten in any movie.”
Elsewhere, Brooks selected the tiger scene from Todd Phillips’ 2009 hit comedy The Hangover as the only movie on the list from the 21st century. “I liked The Hangover so much!” Brooks wrote emphatically. “The discovery of the tiger in the bathroom, it was hysterical. Oh my God! There’s a tiger in the bathroom that they stole from the heavyweight champion of the world. It’s an amazingly funny concept.”
Below, we have listed the 11 scenes that Mel Brooks listed as his all-time favourites.
Mel Brooks’ favourite movie scenes:
- Swing Time – Fred Astaire’s Big Dance Scene
- Psycho – The Shower Scene
- Singin’ in the Rain – “Good Morning”
- Treasure of the Sierra Madre – Walter Huston’s Crazy Dance
- Some Like It Hot – “Nobody’s Perfect”
- A Streetcar Named Desire – “Stella!”
- City Lights – Flower Pot Scene
- Citizen Kane – “Rosebud”
- Dracula: Dead and Loving It – The Vampire Stake Scene
- The Bicycle Thief – Stealing the Bicycle
- The Hangover – Tiger in the Bathroom
