Silent Movie (1976)

Silent Movie (1976)

Directed by: Mel Brooks

Starring: Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise

Not one of Mel Brooks best efforts… It’s a bit strange that he should decide to make a silent movie in the 70’s specifically for the purpose of making a wacky slapstick film… since that’s pretty much all he does anyway.

Brooks, Feldman and DeLuise are filmmakers who are trying to make a silent film to save a movie studio. Apparently the way to get this to work is to visit some of the biggest stars of the time, such as Burt Reynolds.

I think this movie actually kinda suffers from being silent. Brooks tries some of his standard gags which involve funny accents or the like, but it doesn’t work. He makes up for it with a couple cute silent film jokes, but the novelty wears off pretty quick. I mean, Marty Feldman is a great physical actor, but the three of them are no Three Stooges or whatever it is that Brooks was thinking was going on here.

I’d say skip Silent Movie and try one of the other half dozen great Mel Brooks movies.