The first Mel Brooks movie everybody should watch, according to Mel Brooks
Few names have left an impact on Hollywood comedy quite like Mel Brooks, which makes it a challenge for the uninitiated to dive into his work when there are so many classics to choose from across stage and screen.
One of the select few entertainers, creatives, and performers in history to have won the coveted EGOT, Brooks has received an Academy Award, a Bafta, four Primetime Emmys, three Grammys, a trio of Tony Awards, and plenty more accolades besides during a career that’s stretched more than 70 years and continued being the gift that’s kept on giving for fans of his signature comic hijinks.
From the massive success he experienced on Broadway to the adulation and enduring appeal of his big screen efforts, Brooks became synonymous with balancing frenetic slapstick stylings with cutting social commentary, all while confronting societal and social prejudices head-on through the lens of buffoonery, a balancing act that’s a lot harder to pull off than it looks.
He’s the brains behind the influential Blazing Saddles, the riotous Young Frankenstein, the top-tier spoof Spaceballs, the farcically ambitious Silent Movie, and the winning parody Robin Hood: Men in Tights, to name just a few of his most memorable productions. However, for the man himself, there’s only one place for newcomers to start if they want to get the full package in the space of two hours or less.
“I think maybe The Producers, my first movie, is the best way to start,” he said to Collider of the first Brooks movie anybody should watch if they want a crash course in everything that secured his legacy. “It shows that I have never been afraid to tackle difficult subjects with humour, including Hitler and the Third Reich.”
Brooks’ feature-length directorial debut also won him the Oscar for ‘Best Original Screenplay’, following Zero Mostel’s fallen stage producer Max Bialystock seeking his ticket back to the top, which comes when Gene Wilder’s accountant Leo Bloom suggests that if he could secure the money for a new show that intentionally bombed, he could keep all of the extra cash for himself.
The end result is Springtime for Hitler, the fictional show-within-a-show that seeks to paint the Nazi leader in a light more flattering than history has ever been accustomed to. Needless to say, there was plenty of controversy to be found, given the subject matter The Producers was using as the basis of its storyline, but time has been nothing but kind to the film’s standing in the annals of Hollywood comedy.
In fact, it proved so popular that it was adapted into a musical, with the musical subsequently being adapted into a movie. It laid down a marker for everything Brooks wanted to bring to the table, and more than half a century after its release, the writer and director doesn’t think there’s anywhere better to start getting acquainted with his back catalogue.
