In honor of his milestone birthday, we're blazing ahead and playing favorites
Mel Brooks turns 100 on June 28, and, frankly, it’s about time. The co-creator of the iconic comedy routine “The 2000 Year Old Man” (in which he pretended to be the oldest living human) can brag that he’s reached 5% of that very lifespan. But honestly, he’s always seemed older than his years and a whole lot like that uncle who tells hilarious but wildly inappropriate jokes at family events … except that, you know, he’s actually a legendary actor/director/writer/producer who’s one of only 21 people ever to win the coveted EGOT of a competitive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. He has a Kennedy Center Honor, an AFI Lifetime Award and an honorary Oscar too.
The funny thing is that Brooks didn’t even turn to filmmaking until age 42. The Brooklyn native started in the business as a writer for Sid Caesar on the TV variety show Your Show of Shows back in 1950 before moving on to Caesar’s Hour and co-creating the sitcom Get Smart. In the early 1960s, he and his fellow scribe and close friend Carl Reiner (yep, the father of Rob Reiner) delivered Grammy-nominated comedy albums. Then came The Producers in 1968, in which lampooning Nazis equaled comedy gold.
Brooks continued to blaze his trail spoofing Westerns, horror flicks, silent cinema and Star Wars, and in the process, he changed the way we look at racism, antisemitism, capitalism, criticism and too many other “isms” to count. (On the dramatic side, his Brooksfilms company produced serious films like The Elephant Man and The Fly.) Plus, he’s a welcome presence on everything from Curb Your Enthusiasm to Toy Story 4. (The HBO Max documentary, Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!, features details on all the above.)
As Brooks’s Louis XVI says in History of the World, Part I, “It’s good to be the king.” So in honor of Brooks’s storied reign and milestone birthday, we’ve ranked and filed his finest films. Is it fair to pick among endlessly rewatchable funny movies like Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs and Blazing Saddles? Probably not, but we’ve summoned the Schwartz and decided to do it anyway! Here are his 10 best.
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10. Life Stinks (1991)
Actor, director, co-writer, producer
Life Stinks is a departure from traditional Brooks fare, and we love him for trying something new. In this rare non-parody, Brooks plays a self-made billionaire CEO who bets a rival developer (Jeffrey Tambor) that he can survive on the streets without a penny in his pocket for 30 days. Obviously, the endeavor proves to be more of a challenge than expected. As soon as the tycoon finds refuge against a kitchen door, it opens and sweeps him clean into a waiting dumpster. Then his cardboard shelter gets washed away. “There goes the neighborhood!” he quips.
With a plot similar to the admittedly superior Trading Places from 1982, it’s no surprise that Brooks’s take on homelessness basically lived up to its title at the box office. Still, several jokes land, and there’s a delightful waltz sequence with a homeless dancer played by the great Lesley Anne Warren. Plus, we appreciate that Brooks eschewed vulgarity to make something more reflective and warm-hearted, and it’s nice to see him stretch his acting muscles.
9. To Be or Not to Be (1983)
Actor, producer
One of the most endearing aspects of Brooks’s biography is his 41-year marriage to The Graduate actress Anne Bancroft. (She died in 2005 of cancer at age 73.) The pair teamed up in this highly entertaining—or, as the New York Times called it, “smashingly funny”—remake of the 1942 movie of the same name. They’re a Polish husband-and-wife acting duo who become entangled in a spy operation leading up to World War II. Brooks kills it as a hammy thespian whose talent doesn’t quite match his ego, while Bancroft is silly and sublime. It’s no wonder that in a 2014 SiriusXM Town Hall interview, Brooks boasted that this project was a favorite because “there’s no greater joy than singing with my wife ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’ in Polish. It was really thrilling.”
8. History of the World, Part I (1981)
Actor, director, writer, producer
We’re in epic territory! There’s no real overarching plot to History of the World, Part I, as Brooks packs in as many gags as possible during segments that explore the Stone Age, the Old Testament, the Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition and the French Revolution. (Fun fact: Actor and Citizen Kane director Orson Welles does all the narration.) Though not every vignette works, several moments—like Brooks’s Moses accidentally breaking the stone tablet marked with Commandments 11–15 and the Torquemada Spanish Inquisition number—are a riot.
As for the rest of the history lesson? Already done! History of the World Part II, an eight-episode TV sketch series starring Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes, Nick Kroll, Josh Gad and Brooks himself (playing Welles!), premiered on Hulu in 2023.
7. Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
Actor, director, co-writer, producer
Though Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was a bona fide blockbuster during the summer of 1991, star Kevin Costner was taken to the woodshed over his attempt to portray a swashbuckling British hero. Cut to this chuckle-heavy send-up. Here, Cary Elwes is the famed outlaw battling the evil king (Richard Lewis) and the Sheriff of Rottingham (Roger Rees). Robin assembles a merry band of criminals, including Brooks as Rabbi Tuckman, “Shaft” singer Isaac Hayes as Asneeze and a young Dave Chappelle—in his big-screen debut!—as his son, Ahchoo. (Get it?)
This one has developed a well-deserved cult following in recent years thanks to its zippy wisecracks and totally game performances. Bonus to Elwes for supplying the perfect line: “Unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent.”
6. Silent Movie (1976)
Actor, director, co-writer, producer
Leave it to Brooks to go meta and craft (and star in) a silent feature film about a washed-up director trying to revive a failing studio by crafting the first silent film in decades. The result is both a winning celebration of the slapstick classics of the era and a pointed jab at modern Hollywood. The clever concept—framed by interstitials like “He is truly the Lord of the Winos!” instead of dialogue—allows for the biggest movie stars of the time (Paul Newman, James Caan and Burt Reynolds) to play exaggerated versions of themselves. And the most memorable cameo of all? Legendary French mime Marcel Marceau, who utters the film’s only spoken line, which is too good to ruin here.
5. High Anxiety (1977)
Actor, director, writer, producer
“Alfred Hitchcock was the very best director who ever directed film,” Brooks told NPR in 2013. Hence, he created this Golden Globe–nominated homage to the master himself. In High Anxiety, Brooks is the newly arrived (and very acrophobic) Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke, head of the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous. After he’s framed for murder, he must confront his own fear of heights to find the real killer.
Hitchcock fans will recognize many of the auteur’s greatest hits, from the shower scene in Psycho (Brooks gets attacked by a newspaper in a shower) to the tower-climbing in Vertigo to the flying villains in The Birds (beware the pigeons!). He also nails Hitchcock’s distinctive camera and editing techniques: In one visual gag, the camera forgets to look where it’s going and crashes into a window.
4. Spaceballs (1987)
Actor, director, writer, producer
All right, everyone—let’s take this list up to ludicrous speed. Released a decade after the original Star Wars, this spoof has become one of Brooks’s most accessible (and quotable) movies. It also holds up remarkably well now that we get a prequel, sequel and reboot set in a galaxy far, far away seemingly every five minutes. Bill Pullman is Lone Starr, who—along with his half-man, half-dog sidekick, Barf (John Candy)—must save a beautiful, spoiled princess (Daphne Zuniga) from Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis).
Brooks shows up both as sinister President Skroob (“Brooks” spelled backward!) and the wise old Yogurt. And just as that sage predicted on screen, we will indeed meet again in Spaceballs 2. The sequel, once again featuring Pullman, Zuniga, Moranis and Brooks as Yogurt—as well as Josh Gad (a co-writer) and Pullman’s son Lewis—is coming in 2027.
3. The Producers (1968)
Director, writer
The truth is, there wouldn’t be South Park, The Book of Mormon or a single Naked Gun movie without this outrageously un-PC musical. Not only did The Producers launch Brooks’s career (and earn him Oscar gold for Best Original Screenplay)—it also spawned a mega-successful 2001 Broadway extravaganza that won a record-breaking 12 Tony awards (and led to an updated 2005 movie).
Zero Mostel is Max Bialystock, a flailing producer who convinces his mild-mannered accountant, Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder), to engage in fraud and help him mount a surefire bomb so they can take the money and skedaddle. The title? Springtime for Hitler. But the big plan ultimately goes amazingly awry. Oy. Almost 60 years later, the jokes remain fresh and side-splittingly funny.
2. Young Frankenstein (1974)
Director, co-writer
Director Guillermo del Toro delivered the soul in the latest adaptation of the classic Mary Shelley tale, but Brooks delivered the hysterics in this ’70s spoof. Co-writer Wilder plays Frederick Frankenstein (“It’s pronounced ‘Frankensteen'”), the mad scientist who brings a dead body back to life. But this monster (Peter Boyle) just wants to be loved! Even in black and white (used to mimic the feel of those classic 1930s Universal monster movies), the elaborate set pieces are excellent, capped by Wilder and Boyle soft-shoeing it to “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” The rest of the cast is also electric. It includes Teri Garr as the beguiling love interest, Madeline Kahn as the lovelorn fiancé turned passionate Bride, and Gene Hackman (!) as a blind hermit.
Brooks also gave his project major heart. You can’t help but love when the newly verbal monster praises the doctor for giving him “a calmer brain and a somewhat more sophisticated way of expressing myself.”
1. Blazing Saddles (1974)
Actor, director, co-writer
And now, the brashest, boldest, funniest and certainly the most flatulent movie ever made about race relations. A Western satire set on the American Frontier in 1874, Blazing Saddles is the story of a corrupt politician (Harvey Korman) who attempts to ruin a small town by appointing a new Black sheriff (Cleavon Little). An ever-game Wilder is his drunken pal, Jim the Waco Kid, and Kahn, as saloon singer Lili von Shtupp, steals the show performing “I’m Tired.” Brooks pops up as the governor and a Yiddish-speaking Native American. Beyond the humor, this iconic movie takes two familiar film genres—Westerns and slapstick—to disarm audiences and address a hot-button issue that remains relevant today.
So could this unabashedly rude and crude comedy be released today? Definitely not if you consider the frequent use of bigoted slurs and insults. However, it’s worth noting that the offensive language is uttered by the ignorant and close-minded local townsfolk. Or, as The Kid famously describes them: “Simple farmers. People of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know … morons.” And, well, cowboys eating beans and passing gas around the campfire will always be hilarious.
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Sources:
- New York Times: “Mel Brooks isn’t done punching up the history of the world”
- The Times: “Mel Brooks at 99: ‘I don’t care about immortality — I just try to live'”
