 Arthur 1981  PG, 97 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Steve Gordon
Cast: Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, Stephen Elliott, John Gielgud, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jill Eikenberry, Ted Ross, Barney Martin, Paul Gleason, Anne DeSalvo
A billionaire alcoholic (Dudley Moore) falls in love with a poor waitress (Liza Minnelli) with a heart of gold and stands to lose a fortune for not marrying the girl his family has planned for him. The best part of this film, however, is John Gielgud's Oscar-winning performance as Arthur's long-suffering valet. An Oscar was also awarded for Best Song: "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)." Dudley Moore was nominated for Best Actor.
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Charly 1968  N/R, 106 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Ralph Nelson
Cast: Cliff Robertson, Claire Bloom, Lilia Skala, Leon Janney, Dick Van Patten, William Dwyer, Barney Martin, Ruth White, Edward McNally, Dan Morgan
Cliff Robertson won the Oscar for his portrayal of Charly, a mentally retarded man who becomes a genius after undergoing a new surgical technique. Claire Bloom plays the teacher and friend who helps him adjust to his new situation.
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 The Producers 1968  N/R, 88 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Dick Shawn, Lee Meredith, Christopher Hewett, Estelle Winwood, Renee Taylor, Frank Campanella, Andreas Voutsinas, David Patch, William Hickey, Barney Martin, Shimen Ruskin, Josip Elic
Mel Brooks won the Oscar for Best Screenplay in this film about two characters, Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) and Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder), who con people into investing in a non-existent Broadway show: "Springtime for Hitler." Wilder received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. 2 User Reviews
| User Reviews |
| | Parts of this are the funniest movie ever made | 1fatts 03/27/2007 | Mel Brooks is a cannon on the loose. It is his strength and his weakness. The 2000-year-old man sketches with Carl Reiner are classic for Brooks' unpredictable leaps from political humor to burlesque inuendo to bizarre non-sequitur. At his best, he can take your breath away. At his worst, he is a runaway train.
Stand-up comedy benefits most from this kind of wildness; movies suffer most. Movies need plot and structure and discipline.
Brooks' best film, as a work of cinema, is probably Young Frankenstein because Gene Wilder shared writing credit and imposed some order which Mel Brooks simply cannot supply -- see all the shotgun "sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn't" humor of "Robin Hood - Men in Tights", "Spaceballs", et al.
But even in a movie that is all over the map (they pretty much run out of central joke and plot in The Producers after the play is a hit), there are a half a dozen scenes that are perhaps the funniest stuff every put on film. Brooks' writing is certainly a major factor, and the other is the casting. Only Zero Mostel was Zero Mostel. He was a life force, a stampede, a landslide. He defined this role . . . and Tevye in Fiddler . . . and Pseudolus in "Funny Thing Happened. . . " Other people may have played his roles, but they were never near the standared. His Max Biolystock is incomparable. His teaming with the young, intensely neurotic Leo Bloom (Wilder), the outrageous Hold Me Touch Me (Estelle Winwood), Kenneth Mars' Nazi, Christopher Hewitt's gay director ("Max, he's wearing a dress."), etc. are the best scenes Brooks has every directed, the funniest filmwork he has ever done.
The first twenty minutes of the film are incomparable. I forgive Brooks all the dead ends and ramblings that may go on elsewhere. I take it as the price we have to pay to be allowed into the near-perfection of the scenes that work.
You can't call youself knowledgeable in comic film if you haven't studied The Producers. |
| | Outstanding | Googleeyes 03/01/2007 | | One of Mel Brooks finest achievements, maybe the best of his achievements. |
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| 1. Arthur (1981)
2. Charly (1968)
3. For Love or Money (1984)
4. The Producers (1968)
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