Mel Brooks Collection

Fox DVD

Blu Ray Collection (US Format)

The Mel Brooks collection is a superbly presented boxed set which includes nine major Mel Brooks’ films: Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, History Of The World Part 1, Robin Hood Men In Tights, Silent Movie, To Be Or Not To Be and Twelve Chairs. It includes a large full colour hardback book which documents each film and slides into the box and each film is remastered and presented in the best possible format with all sorts of nice extras.

The choice of films is a little strange, Brooks has made some eleven films so Fox seem to have chosen nine which they have available. Some are significant comedies such as Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, while others such as Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights are of marginal interest. Rather than going through film by film I will simply comment on a few that piqued my interest.

Blazing Saddles stands out in my mind as one of his most superb comedies and is considered by many one of the most important of all parody films. It is such a send-up of the great “American” western, turning what was a macho film genre tradition into a politically incorrect onslaught. Brooks packed in every possible gag, sexual subtext and constant double-entendres to make a film which still stands out as a great work of cinematic subversion.

Young Frankenstein is another Brooks’ success story and is really a fairly faithful adaptation of the Son of Frankenstein (1939) adding in elements from other classic Frankenstein films. It is probably the most narrative of Brooks’ films following a very traditional plot and works exceptionally well. In my mind it stands against some of his later films such as Spaceballs which are dismal mainstream comedies filled with fluff but little plot.

History of the World, Part I is really the Brooks extravaganza, he wrote, directed and produced it and also created the lyrics for many of the songs and appeared in five roles. This process was a bit of “over-reach” and while it is a marvellously funny comedy is rather uneven. It is really more like a TV show with a series of sketches of episodes than a coherent movie. It was not that well received, but did make a profit becoming a much loved cult comedy over time. The film is divided into five main segments: "The Dawn of Man," "The Old Testament," "The Roman Empire," "The Spanish Inquisition," and "The French Revolution." The Roman section is a major focus and rather successful (I love Dom Deluise). “The Spanish Inquisition”, taking some inspiration from Monty Python I suggest, offers one of the most unusual song and dance numbers ever seen on screen.

To Be or Not To Be is quite a surprise. I did not especially warm to it the first time but watching it again it has a surprising level of heart matched with the comedy. It mixes musical numbers with a quirky if not biting sense of humour and its ability to ridicule fascists and racists within a comedy setting works well.

There are nine films in all and as a collection, it offers an interesting selection of Brooks’ comedies including many of his best and some rather mediocre titles, but it is good to have them in one set.

The Blu Ray picture quality is excellent and while these films were clearly made pre high definition a good job has been done to get the most from older film stock. The sound remixes vary greatly, I am never really that sure about trying to reprocess older mono movies into DD5.1, it seems artificial and forced. Certainly a reasonable job has been done with the mixing but with the earlier titles such as Blazing Saddles I enjoyed the sound as it was originally created.

These are six new featurettes featuring interviews with Brooks and many others and as well as added material such as a tribute to Ann Bancroft, the book is comprehensive including lots of press photographs and rare memorabilia.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.2 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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