Charade 1963  PG, 114 min.
Genre: Comedy / Mystery / Thriller / Romance
Director: Stanley Donen
Cast: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Ned Glass, Jacques Marin, Paul Bonifas, Dominique Minot, Thomas Chelimsky, Gregoire Aslan, Monte Landis
Audrey Hepburn stars as widow Regina "Reggie" Lampert fleeing from criminals and government agents who are after the $25,000 her murdered spouse supposedly pilfered during World War II. Cary Grant plays the love interest Peter Joshua who isn't who he pretends to be in this comedy/mystery.
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Double Trouble 1967  N/R, 90 min.
Genre: Musical
Director: Norman Taurog
Cast: Elvis Presley, Annette Day, John Williams, Yvonne Romain, Chips Rafferty, Michael Murphy, Norman Rossington, Monte Landis, Leon Askin, John Alderson, Stanley Adams, Helene Winston
Singer Guy Lambert (Elvis Presley) is touring Europe when he runs into trouble on two fronts: jewel thieves who hide diamonds in his luggage AND a rich teenager (Annette Day) who falls in love with him.
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The Mouse That Roared 1959 N/R, 85 min.
Genre: Comedy
Director: Jack Arnold
Cast: Peter Sellers, Jean Seberg, David Kossoff, William Hartnell, Timothy Bateson, Leo McKern, MacDonald Parke, Monte Landis, Colin Gordon, Bill Nagy
A very small and even more bankrupt country, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, decides to end its financial woes by declaring war on the United States. The intent is to lose the war and then receive U.S. aid to rebuild. There is much in this funny movie that relates to the world today. Also catch the funny sequel, "The Mouse on the Moon."
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Pee-Wee's Big Adventure 1985  PG, 96 min.
Genre: Family / Comedy / Adventure
Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Diane Salinger, Mark Holton, Judd Omen, Irving Hellman, Lou Cutell, Phil Hartman, James Brolin, Morgan Fairchild, Monte Landis, Damon Martin, Daryl Keith Roach, Starletta DuPois, Jon Harris
Pee-Wee Herman's (Paul Reubens) beloved fire-engine-red bicycle has been stolen, and a fortune teller tells him to look for it in the basement of the Alamo. Now, Pee-Wee begins his cross-country trip to the Alamo. Along the way, he meets an assortment of crazy characters–including a waitress (Diane Salinger) being tracked down by her boyfriend (Jon Harris) who catches up with them and chases Pee-Wee around a park filled with dinosaur models. An entertaining film.
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Targets 1968 PG, 90 min.
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Cast: Boris Karloff, Tim O'Kelly, Nancy Hsueh, James Brown, Peter Bogdanovich, Sandy Baron, Mary Jackson, Randy Quaid, Monte Landis, Arthur Peterson
This film is Peter Bogdanovich's first directorial offering. The tension-filled story involves a sniper (Tim O'Kelly) and an aging film star (Boris Karloff) whose appearance at a drive-in theater is the event that triggers the sniper into action. Included in the film is footage from Boris Karloff's 1931 movie "The Criminal Code."
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 Young Frankenstein 1974   PG, 105 min.
Genre: Comedy / Sci-Fi
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Gene Hackman, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn, Liam Dunn, Danny Goldman, Oscar Beregi Jr., Arthur Malet, Anne Beesley, Monte Landis
This is a great satirical look at Frankenstein as seen through the eyes of comedy when the Monster (Peter Boyle) comes across as a sympathetic creature who elicits many laughs. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) is the grandson of the infamous Frankenstein and has inherited his Transylvanian estate. He moves in and meets hunchback Igor (Marty Feldman), assistant Inga (Teri Garr), and housekeeper Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman). Frankenstein creates his Monster, but Igor has stolen the wrong brain, and problems–and humor–are a certainty. 1 User Review
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| | The Most Successful Mel Brooks Movie | 1fatts 11/08/2007 | I think the credit goes to Gene Wilder -- not as an actor, although he is very good in this, but as the co-writer. Wilder shares writing credit with Brooks on this film, and that may be where the disciplined structure comes from in the film.
The film is, of course, zany and contains the requisite number of Brooks silliness, bad puns and misfires, but, as a film, we have a tight, controlled structure. And we end up, because of it, with a true spoof and tribute to the original James Whale movies.
Wilder does a fine job. Madeline Kahn was a wonder. Kenneth Mars does another one of his truly gifted dialect roles. Gene Hackman's cameo as the blind hermit is, hands down, the funniest thing he ever did. Still, my own personal favourite here is Cloris Leachman doing a take-off of Judith Anderson's housekeeper in "Rebecca"/
I can't say it's the funniest Mel Brooks stuff on film -- that must forever go to two or three of the best scenes in The Producers (That's the original; we won't talk about the musical), but Young Frankenstein, taken as a a whole, is the best "film" Brooks ever did. |
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| 1. Charade (1963)
2. Double Trouble (1967)
3. The Mouse That Roared (1959)
4. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985)
5. Targets (1968)
6. Young Frankenstein (1974)
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