The two neglected movies Mel Brooks calls the “hidden beauties” of his career
Anyone who created The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein deserves a place in the comedy hall of fame. Thanks to his remarkable longevity, Mel Brooks has acquired more lifetime achievement awards than most, but he still thinks his two most neglected movies deserve their flowers.
With a career dating back to 1950, the EGOT-winning icon has probably forgotten more about making people laugh than most will ever know. He’s thrived in a shifting landscape that’s seen him segue from the stage and television into film, and with Spaceballs 2 in the works, he shows no signs of slowing down.
Everyone remembers Brooks’ finest features because they’re stone-cold classics that boast endless rewatch value and continue to win over new converts with each passing generation. However, as the director of 11 features, the law of averages means that not all of them are treated equally.
It’s been 30 years since his last tilt behind the camera in Dracula: Dead and Loving It, but Brooks has remained active as an actor, voiceover artist, writer, and producer. He claims that all of his pictures turned a profit eventually, even if it took Solarbabies a long time to get there, although he probably wishes Life Stinks had been profitable the first time around.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the 1991 dramedy was a disaster. Although Brooks maintains that it contains his single greatest performance as an on-camera talent, the riches-to-rags tale failed to recoup even a third of its production budget at the box office and became the worst-reviewed directorial effort of his career.
Still, it has fans, and none come bigger than Brooks. In what appears to be a recurring trend, another one of his pictures that flopped in cinemas holds a special place in his heart. The Twelve Chairs was at least enthusiastically greeted by critics, unlike Life Stinks, but it was another bomb after barely being given a theatrical release to speak of.
“I think the hidden beauties in the Mel Brooks repertoire of movies are The Twelve Chairs and Life Stinks,” he declared to AV Club. As for why they failed? He thinks it’s because they weren’t in line with his usual fare, and the core audience who wanted to see the filmmaker trot out his signature schtick couldn’t have cared less when he tried branching out.
“They see the name Mel Brooks, and they want something really funny,” he mused. “They don’t want to be moved; they don’t want to be taught any lessons. So, Twelve Chairs, which I think is a great movie – I took a small part in it – didn’t do well financially. But, it’s right up there. It’s with my oeuvre, and people who see it send me letters.”
Continuing to tout the importance of the handwritten note, Brooks shared that “I get more letters for Twelve Chairs and Life Stinks than I get from any other movies, because people actually agree with the philosophy, or were moved, or they love the movie.” Neither of them was a hit, but the fact that they were so egregiously ignored clearly rankles with the veteran funnyman.
