1976 - Silent Movie

0:08 No, Hello everybody, and welcome back to nineteen seventy six. It's a limited series from a film by podcast where we are taking a look at the iconic films from the year nineteen seventy six. We'll share some behind the scenes information, talk about some of our favorite underrated moments, words that matter, And today I am joined by mister Scott Hoffman. Hello Scott, Hello Jeff.

0:52 Okay, yeah, I know what you're I know what you're doing. Yeah, this would be this would be a very short episode if we if we knocked that like that exactly. Scott recently had the privilege of having you co host a film buy. We covered Malice. Yep. That was a good time, and I did my homework. I did finally watch Vision Quest, So if anybody out there's upset sorright, I finally thought we're gonna have to hear Scott's thoughts on Vision Quest at another time, because today we are waxing intellectual about mel Brooks silent movie. Yeah as advertised, Yeah, he's coming off of back to back box office success with Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein in nineteen seventy four, and next he decides to spoof the silent movie era, while paying tribute to his early days writing for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows in the early fifties. You know, back then that was he was writing pantomime vignettes and parodies of silent films. And at the time, you know, in the seventies, thinking back, you've got some some hit shows that are that are using a lot of the kind of the lapstick nature of silent movies. You've got things like the Carol Burnett Show, the Tim Conway Show, things like that were very big. And it seems like it's odd that it's, what, forty years after the last silent movie was made, with modern times, and he has this idea to bring it back. It seems like kind of an odd thing to do, but it's actually probably the perfect time for it. He's co writing this with several people, right,

2:23 Yeah, it was actually Ron Clark that came up with the idea and came to Mel with it, and Mel thought he was crazy. He you know, it's forty years since and you want to make a silent movie. But the more they talked about it, the more the idea kind of grew. And those names behind a lot of those shows that I was talking about you've got Ruddy de Luca and you've got Barry Levinson that are big names behind some of that. There's big shows in the seventies. Yeah, so Ron Clark. He co writes High Anxiety, which we just covered with Amber Lewis of the Docking Bay seventy seven podcast. Yep, I think he did a Revenge of the Pink Panther was his other his other big one. Rudy de Luca, another co writer on High Anxiety, wrote Transylvania six five thousand, and I know you and I talked about that one before off off episode. Obviously, he played Braces. He played the serial killer in High Anxiety. Really yeah, the guy that punches through the phone booth and interesting. Yeah, and I'll tell you what you have. You have seen him and loved him in another mel Brooks movie. It's gonna blow your mind when I tell you who else he's played, though, hit me with it. Rudy de Luca also played Vinny, the right hand man of Pizza the Hut in Spaceball Boss You're Delicious. Yeah, oh god, I was just watching his Spaceballs the other day. Pizza the Hut played by Dom DeLuise. Yeah, the Gang's all here, right. You mentioned you also mentioned Barry Levitson as a co

3:54 writer Amber and I on the High Anxiety episode. We had a fun chat about his seen you know, the whole Psycho homage. And obviously his name has a lot of clout in Hollywood. He's you know, directed hits like Good Morning Vietnam and rain Man. So, yeah, you mentioned Don DeLuise. Let's talk about this cast. So first off, mel brooks playing the role I don't know, not much of a stretch for him, but he's playing the character named mel Fun, a play on his actual name. His actually his given name is Melvin. This is his first lead role, you know, this is the first time he's stepping into the spotlight and being the leading man, which is kind of interesting in a movie that that's semi autobiographical, people might be wondering. So, aside from the obvious, what is Silent Movie about? Tell Us Scott. Silent Movie is a bold movie about the making of itself. So set in present day in nineteen seventy six, it's the story of a director named mel and two of his crazy friends with an even crazier idea to make the first silent movie. In forty years.

4:49 This is a make or break moment for mel when his Hollywood legacy will either be divined by controversy or comedic brilliance. It's also a crossroads for one of this for the one studio willing to take him on, which will either stand as an artistic independent or be swallowed up by a major New York conglomerate. And Gulf and Devour, determined to succeed, Mel's trio, quietly takes over Hollywood by gathering a cast of the biggest stars and delivering a surprise hit without saying a word except for one unlikely source. So it may not be mel Brooks's most revered movie, but it stands out as one of the boldest ideas in cinematic history. And like I said before, it's it's not even a movie that he thought would work. He was just like, well, what do we do for the title cards? What do we do for the humor?

5:31 And they really looked at it from the lens of if Buster Keaton wasn't making a movie in present day, what would he do? And using a lot of the you know, it's not going back to black and white. It's not trained to make exactly a silent movie, but it's it's this kind of a high concept of saying, you know, can we make a movie without really using any words and relying a lot on sight gags, pratfalls, noises, things like that to get it across. And you know, in the early stages of the movie they kind of play with a little bit of of dialogue. You see them used usual title cards and things like that, but clearly the words that they're kind of saying, you can read their lips and see if they're like, you know, cursing up a storm. Then they say, well how do you do in the title card talking about his crazy friends. Because this is this is basically art imitating life. Let's talk about Marty Felban First, Yeah, Sky, he accidentally terrified me for years as a kid, and I'm probably one of the few kids who is actually scared of young Frankenstein growing up because of his eyes, because of his the giant bulging eyes, which is it's it's a it's a condition, it's graves op the mouth. I'm not even going to try to say that it's a conditions he had for a while where his eyes were protruded and become misaligned and

7:05 you know, you can you can picture of the scenes in Young Frankenstein when he pains to the camera and he's got that crazy look. But he also I mean, he leaned right into that and said, I don't want to be another Robert Redford, right, I don't want to get my appearance fixed. I don't want to be you know, just like any other actor. I want to be myself. And he goes so far into the physical humor with this. He's practically a stunt man, right. He's doing all these flips and he's doing a lot of the you know, the most acrobatic part of the movie. So you know, the eyes are just a fraction of what he what he brings to the role. I'll give you a quick hot take, you know, I'll probably I know I have something about this later, but hot take for you right now. A little bit of him goes a long way. And we went a long, long, long way with his his scenes in his film Dom DeLuise, though this is back you know Mel. A lot of Mel's earlier films, you know, you mentioned Spaceballs where he put he's voicing Pizza the Hut, but twelve Chairs and you know some of these other earlier mel Brooks films that a lot of people aren't aware of or maybe they haven't seen before. Don was kind of one of his go to guys. Yeah, yeah, which is interesting because when I think of Dom, I immediately go to the voice. And a lot of that's because of you know, obviously you mentioned eighty seven, Spaceballs, Pizza to

8:37 the Hut, but I always go back to, you know, Jeremy from Secret to nim Oh, yeah, an iconic voice. We've talked about his voice work and things like American Tale in eighty six he was Tiger. Oh yeah, he was Tiger. We talked about it on our eighty six series Cannonball Run. He was Captain Chaos and you know, Captain Chaos Muppet movie. Like you think of any of these Muppet movie in seventy nine, any of these movies where you know, you think of Dom, you think of the voice because it's a very expressive part of him as an actor. Very interesting to see him here without that voice, but he still he still delivers. He's still got the I mean, he's very expressive when he's kind of mouthing the words and does a good job. I think of kind of you know, stealing the scenes when it's his physical humor that that's going to be the star of the scene. So when he's like the Flamenco dancer that's you know, pounding the table into the floor, He's the guy that's making the trailer tilt in James Conn's trailer. He does a great job of capturing that physical humor. And when you've got Doma and you've got him working with directly with obviously with Mel the writer of this, but you've got him working with Marty Feldman, and you've got writers that we're working on the Marty Feldman comedy machine. Around the same time, you've got a great mix of physical actors that know how to draw out the comedy in those kind of scenes. You can't talk comedy without someone as legendary as Sid Caesar. He's got a small

10:11 but prominent role in this film. He plays the studio chief. You mentioned they're trying, you know, Mel fun is trying to save this this movie studio because he's he's one one box office bomb away from losing the studio, right right, I don't know, I get you know, Sids, you gotta you gotta factor Sid's age into into his performance. But yeah, yeah, again, the I understand that he comes from that vaudeville era where like you you know, the more goofy, goof the goofy or your face, you know, the silly faces you can make, the more laughs you're gonna get. Man, you know, the stick gets a little old, it does. Yeah, And I mean that That's one of the things that I think kind of works against the movie when you're watching it for a modern times, is that a lot of the faces and the star power had a certain draw in nineteen seventy six. It's not that the names aren't relevant today, but they hit in a much different way when you're watching him in seventy six.

11:13 So Sid Caesar obviously still legendary, but at the time there were people that were still able to see reruns of his show and and know him as a as a as a big name. When you see him in this, when you see some of the other stars in this, it's just kind of like, oh, well, that's that's interesting, But it's not quite as dazzling as it might have been in the seventies. You talked about dazzling. Let's talk about Bernadette Peters. She plays vill maccaplan. Yeah, here's my question to you. This is the Bernadette Peters enigma. For me, I feel like she's always been like a Hollywood sex symbol. She's always been a glamorous actress. But I don't know anything that she's been in. It's one of those situations where you have to look at someone's filmography and go, oh, okay, yeah they were in that movie, or they were in that.

12:13 Oh I don't remember being on that TV show. I mean, obviously I remember her from the Longest Yard in seventy four with Burt Reynolds. You know, if she plays the warden secretary and she has that that Marge Simpson height like hair, you know, Birt even mentions it. But on that it's like it's like she always showed up on talk show, she always showed up on at premieres, and you just you just you knew her. She it's like she was famous for being famous? Am I am? I? Well? And when you when you look at her credits beyond filmography, beyond television, she has been on stage since fifty eight. I think she's been in countless productions. So and I would say she's pretty close to the egot So she's got the Emmy, she's got the Grammy, she's got the Tony.

13:03 Maybe this year is the year for her Oscar. Maybe it's coming up soon. She's almost shout that rounded out. You know, she's I think she's seventy five now and she actually she's in post production. She just wrapped a movie. She did, a movie with Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steinbergin called Last Train to Fortune, like a Western. So yeah, I don't let's see. Let's let's hope that she's got like a best supporting actress type of role in that film. And we talked about that earlier this week when Amber and I did High Anxiety. You know, mel mel Brooks is one of the few people that that has the egot. So Burnett Peters is close. Let's let's let's get her there. Yeah, I mean you talk about other things that she's been in. This is where I'm you know, kind of a child of the eighties and seeing seeing movies on heavy rotation. Uh, my first go to is nineteen eighty one's Heartbeats. Do you remember that at all? I don't remember that one at all, and I feel like I should remember Brendette Peters because she definitely makes a memorable performance in Silent Movie, So yep, yep, for sure, she becomes the the she turns the trio into a quartet, and I think she does a great job of having this, you know, like you said, the sex appeal and using that to her advantage and you know, getting into the physical comedy but a little bit of that with a kind of you know, gets onto the sexy end

14:33 of the spectrum with it. But yeah, nineteen eighty one's Heartbeats with Andy Kaufman where they're both robots in love. And I saw this movie. I don't know how many times. I don't know what it was about. I just remember being captivated by, like, what in God's name is this? Her and Andy Kaufman playing robots that are in love with each other? That yeah, yes, I'm sure it has rotten tomatoes. It probably has a rotten to It will score like two. But yeah, you know, or her in the Jerk, Oh yeah, that's right. She was in the Jerk definitely stands out. And then nineteen eighty two is Annie and it actually makes me want to kind of see that again. But it's been a long time. In addition to this small cast we have. We have six major cameos, and there it's kind of like the like a you know mcguffin for the movie. Mel Mel fun has to Basically he's told, you know, well, if you get stars, I don't care what it's about. You know, typical studio mentality. So we got we got six big stars here.

15:37 Scott mel claims he got every one of them to work for three hundred dollars a day. And we're talking Burt Reynolds, James Cohn, Liza Manelli, Marcel Marceau and Bancroft and Paul Newman and yeah, you know most of those people are at the height of their popularity and their star power. Do you have a favorite cameo in this one? My favorite is probably the Paul Newman chase scene. Good one, that's I gotta go with that one too. Yeah, And I mean you gotta imagine there's there's probably something something to the conversation at the time talking them into doing the movie, but but also not having to pay them very much. They didn't have to remember any lines.

16:18 Yeah, we got well, you know, you gotta think like okay, and Bancroft has got to be the easiest sell because that's his wife. You know, they had been married for like a decade at this point. Or the hardest or the hardest Okay, good, good point. Yeah, it could have been the hardest one to convinced, could have been the easiest one to convince. I'll tell you something, though, You gotta you gotta keep in mind, she's what maybe a decade past the graduate when she's doing this, and she is still bringing the heat in her scene. Yeah, I mean wow, Yeah, I mean just looks about her in Malice and it's yeah, it's fascinating to see them as the same person in Silent movie.

17:03 Very vivacious, very like, you know, absolutely takes center stage of every single scene that she's in, and that the big long evening again, and then you fast forward to Malice and she's just like barely held together kind of over a table. If anyone had told me you and I would be having back to back episode conversations about an Bancroft, yeah, I would have been like, I don't even see how that's possible. Honestly, what's the Bancroft connection. The Bancroft connection. Yeah, uh, speaking of connections, do you know, like and speaking of Ann Bancroft. Do you know this story? You know this? This movie has a running gag with Coca Cola products. They had a there's a big scene in Silent Movie right where they have the kind of the Coca colas under a giant Coca Cola sign. There's one vending machine that's sitting right there and it's like this maximum overdrive moment when they fight check with the coke machine. Right, Yeah, that's Dom DeLuise, right, yeah, exactly. Yeah, So doesn't it have to do with some kind of fun that she had. Yeah, So that's aside from that gag that you where the coke machine is kind of spitting cans, you know, aggressively at Dom DeLuise. It's like every couple of minutes Dom has got like he's got a bottle of coke, driving by coke billboards. So here's the deal. In nineteen sixty three, and Bancroft is nominated for Best

18:34 Actress for The Miracle Worker, but she's she's not there. She can't attend the services because she's doing I think she's doing a Broadway thing, so Joan Crawford. And this is weird because I wouldn't think the Academy would would allow actors and actresses to make these kinds of decisions. But but Joan Crawford convinces Bancroft to let her accept the Oscar on her behalf. And the only reason she asked for this is because she wants to upstage Betty Davis, who is also up for the award for whatever happened to Baby Jane who was her co star and they hated each other. This it's well documented. I mean they fxx even made a movie about it, right yep. So, and Bancroft is like, sure, that's fine. And the crazy thing is she never thinks and Bancroft for this for letting her do it. Meanwhile, Joan Crawford is on the board of directors for Pepsi Company. Interesting so so because she felt snubbed Melt does this giant coke placement then? Yeah, So like one feud begets another feud, begets another feud. You got you gotta love, you gotta love Hollywood. Yeah, well, I'm sure that sold plenty of coke in the theater, especially for this kind of movie. Like you're either laughing so much you've got to dry a throat or your semi uncomfortable sitting in this very silent movie and needing vs some popcorn and some coke. So I'm

20:07 sure that the theaters were very thankful for that. Well, speaking of coke, let's take a quick break for our sponsors, and when we get back, we will talk about some editing suggestions, an underrated you know, underrated moments and words that matter or word that matters. We'll be back. We'll be back in a minute. Girls in the streets got so much to choose. I wouldn't let anyone stand in my shoes. You know, when you stop and think about it, We've got more things to do in this country than any other country in the world, and a lot of them are close to your own backyard. Not only we got more things to do, we've got the best drink to go with, the special drink with the taste that won over the whole world, the drink with the bright little sparkle that says, look up America, coke. Scott. Let's talk editing suggestions because I

21:37 have some for this film. Okay, we've both we've we both I feel like we've both kind of danced around the issue that this being a silent movie strung together by sight gags and pratfalls and pantomiming. I feel like it goes a little long. Yeah, and and you and and I say that, knowing that this movie is only eighty three minutes long, it felt longer, it did, right, Yeah, when I saw Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer is three hours and fifteen minutes, And aside from my bladder letting me know it was running long, I did not feel like it was running long. Yeah.

22:21 At eighty three minutes, silent movie feels really long. Yeah. Yeah. And I think there's there's something to be said for you know, there's the I guess I'll say, like the novelty of the concept. Right after a while, you know, you kind of get used to the idea, You kind of get used to what's been happening. And I think we're so used to seeing movies with active dialogue that it just felt like you're still kind of in that silent moment. I know, it's it's a little bit different for us today because I'm sure in the theaters it was a slightly different experience because you're you're in a crowd, You've got people that are, you know, laughing at the screen when I'm watching this. It's just me watching it, and it's dead silent in the house, aside from the noises that they could have put into the soundtrack and whatever. But going that long without dialogue got a little hard to take, and it kind of got like there are a couple of dance sequences, a couple of dance numbers where I think it started to feel like it started to kind of drag. I know that when I was watching the chase scene when they're chasing down Marty Feldman, he's wrapped up in the film reel they're trying to get it back from gulf and devour, I was just kind of like, all right, are we almost done with this? Is this almost over? It just felt like it was running a bit, a bit heavy on the site gags, and I think I was ready for it to be done. Yeah, you will. I think a

23:55 lot of it, I mean, I think a lot of it was was reminiscent of like Binny Hill type gags where we're watching something but we're watching it sped up, but somehow it seems so much longer than when it should be. I got some cuts here for you, Scott. I'm gonna give you let's let's say you're in the editing uh booth. Yep, you're Let's say you're in the editing room. So first off, we don't need six cameos, we need five. I say, cut the entire Liza Minelli scene. Yeah it's it's stupid. Yeah yeah, like that's do we need five minutes of them like they're they they're they're trying to sneak into it, like uh, you know, the commissary. She's obviously doing some kind of medieval movie, you know, supposedly, and they are in disguise as like the knights and shining Armor, and they tried. It's like five minutes of them trying to sit down at her table and they can't fit and they can't bend, and they you know, and they're breaking chairs and they're making messes. I don't know, I got bored with that almost immediately. Well, and that's the thing, like I think at the time her name had a certain amount of draw there's probably a certain amount of people that are you know, falling over themselves trying to get you know, a man of her attention, right, which works into the whole thing about the being the shining Armor costumes and

25:27 you know, trying to make it seem like they're part of her movie or part of her cast and falling all over themselves. But there wasn't enough kind of context to make it mean anything more than hey, look it's Liza Minelli. You know. It's like James Kahn had a little bit of an extra element and Bancroft had an extra element. Paul Newman had that extra obviously, Marcel had a big scene. It just seemed like Liza was there for the purpose of being Liza. And I didn't really it didn't really do much for me. No, I'll tell you what doesn't do much for me. We kind of mentioned Marty Feldman, a little goes a long way, how about this one? Cut his elevator pinball gag because it went way too long.

26:11 Yeah, and I just felt it was it was dumb, like the whole movie, like we've got this running joke with his character where he falls behind because he gets cut off by a closing door or a herd of people or whatever. Yeah, we don't need to see it over and over again. And watching the elevator pinball thing where he's again, we're sped up. He's trying to get into an elevator and he, for reasons we don't understand, he's like kind of ricocheting off of him. Yeah, Yeah, it's just yeah, cut that one, Scott, Yeah, I've got a cut for you. Okay, what do you got? The credits on both ends of this, I'm sorry the credit sequence is. I was kind of surprised that they were just I mean, the veron that I saw at least, and I assume it's the same one, but it's just this very flat flood of reds and blues and greens. It's just a very normal text over top of it. It seemed like a missed opportunity to maybe use kind of stylized title cards or something that would just make it a little bit more interesting. It just felt so flat. And then when they do the yeah, and then they kind of go to the same place at the end credits. But then we've got those cameo mentos moments where you've got you know, you see Paul Newman's profile and he hams at the camera and then goes back to looking to the side, and it was just kind of like, what is this?

27:42 What are we watching? I don't know, Because the Blu ray has the exact same title sequences, and it's one of those where I'm kind of already looking at my watch like, yeah, yeah, let's get to it. Let's get to it, all right, I got one more cut for you, Scott. I'm gonna say, let's cut most, not all, but most of Bernadette Peter's scenes, and specifically I'm talking about the carousel and the wedding cake scenes. They can go leave her, leave her good parts. So I think you're right. I think with some editing, they could have made it a little bit more. You know, we have all these like running through the parks and all the time it's been on the carousel with the pooping wooden horse and all this other kind of stuff probably would have hit better if they had been super condensed to kind of illustrate how quickly mel is falling in love with her character. Right, Ye, But since each of them are these kind of longer drawn out sequences to make for more opportunities for sight gags, Yeah, it's just kind of that that drawn out, and it also seems to kind of interfere the pace, Like in the middle of the movie, you have a love story kind of hatching. It did seem kind of like odd placement. It seems like they could have add a different comedy beat if they had done a little bit of uh something different with with that whole sequence. Well yeah, and they you know what if they would have introduced her character early on as this this uh this sex symbol, you know,

29:18 because you know, in Golf, he's trying to wreck this whole idea of this movie getting made, and we could have seen her somehow, I don't, I don't know, but they could have even made kind of a running gag to say that every time he sees her, he goes through this mini montage of them, you know, getting married, growing old, having but do like several of those, but make them super super short, so it's just easy to see that he's you know, quick to fall in love. Let's talk about an underrated moment, Scott. We're not talking about the favorite scene. We're not talking about the you know, it's not the trailer for the movie, but without it, the film is a lot less.

29:59 You have something like that in mind, because I got something if if you don't mind me going first, yeah, you go ahead, all right. I want to talk about the first boardroom scene at in Golf and devour odd odd name for a company, yep, but it has a has a meaning to it, right, tell me so. At the time, apparently, Gulf and Western, so you've got a giant gas conglomerate is swallowing up a lot of companies between sixty five and seventy. Nineteen sixty five and nineteen seventy, they swallowed up about eighty different companies, including Paramount in nineteen sixty six.

30:45 I've always wondered every time you see like that classic logo the mountain blue and you're at the bottom it's Golf and Western, wondering what Western was? Okay exactly? Yeah, well it exist a little bit of that. Yeah. This scene, though, I think is excusing the pun paramount to the movie's development, because you got you got a boardroom full of execs. They're basically pleading ignorance and discussing their lack of profits. More relevant now with the strikes that are going on than ever before. Yeah, that's true. I think it's Warner like, Like just the other day, Warner Brothers Discovery announced losses for this year up to five hundred million dollars due to the impact of the strikes. Wow, that's that blows my mind. Man, Yeah, Scott, this company, this is the company that Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman call home. Do you know which? Do you know which hero saved them this year financially? The flush you were wrong, sir Barbie with its one point three billion dollar box office out of nowhere. Yeah, I find it. I find it ironic that maybe ironic may be sad that this is nineteen seventy six, but even today, you know, studio execs are still yes men, they're still clueless, and these these these big companies are just

32:16 hemorrhaging money and no one's doing anything about it. Yeah. Yeah, But he capitalizes on that really well in that scene because he has you know, like you said, when they're reporting the the the profits and they don't give any kind of context whatsoever. It's just no, no, no, nothing, nothing, nothing. And then as soon as they're done reporting, heads will roll right getting up and smacking the heck out of them. So yeah, that that kind of that kind of attitude is definitely something that's going to hurt that artistic ability and artistic vision, and it's something that he captures pretty well on this one. You gotta you gotta underrated moment for yourself. So for me, it's really the one that circles around the true silent start of the movie. Marcel Marcel. Okay, no, okay, well do I mean to say that for words that matter? No, No, we're doing.

33:21 We're doing. I thought you really says you're doing I'm not doing a bit. Just no, I'm just right, you said, Marcel Marcel. And I'm like, all right, Scott, Okay, Look, I'm gonna be careful here because I know you are a major advocate for the creative form, be it you know, writing, uh, special effects, puppetry, so I know you. I know you can appreciate creative talent in all its many forms. Pantomiming mimes, I think it's just annoying, Like when I see a mime, my my all. I all I'm thinking about is like how much I'd like to punch him in the face. And I gotta admit, that's that's not one in my wheelhouse. It's not like I you know, know all the famous mind world and at the time, you know, even in the seventies, there was a lot of you know, mocking mimes, like them just being so obnoxious. Because you've had a lot of you know, people that are performing on the street and kind of you know, kind of getting in your way if you're trying to, you know, walk along and somebody you know has an invisible wall in front of him. But it's it's a clever pull here, because you've got Marcel was definitely a big name at the time and probably still the most famous name of mimes in that

34:54 in that whole world. But you know, he's got that display the physical humor that really define the comedy in silent movies. Marty Feldman has said that Buster Keaton is one of his heroes, and I think works like Buster Keaton definitely fall into that realm of, you know, a mind working with effects and circumstances that aren't really there, but turning it into something that's a use of physical comedy. I don't know if he's ever spoken a word in performance ever, but he has the only spoken word in the entire movie, which again it's something that probably hit a lot funnier in the seventies. Here, you know, people not might not know. It's just, you know, there's a mind that comes on and says the only spoken word. But I thought it was kind of a clever use of Marcel's fame and kind of given him the spotlight. I did think it was kind of interesting when I was looking into Marcel Marceau. Apparently when he was five years old, his mom took him to see a Charlie Chaplin movie that led him to be to want to become a mime. So you've got that other that additional connection between silent movies and this movie. But apparently the first time he used mime was after Frances invaded and to keep Jewish children quiet while he helped them escape to Switzerland, he would use my performance to keep them entertained, which was influenced by

36:30 Charlie Chaplin. So there's an interesting bit of depth that goes into to him as an artist, and I think giving him the spotlight in this movie is a is a great touch, you know, hearing that that background. I I appreciate what he what he did, Yeah, and I feel I feel guilty for saying that I'd want to punch him in the face now, So now now I'm just I'm just bothered by you for bringing it up, and because then now I want to punch you in the face instead. So I think I think a lot of them minds out there are probably keenly aware of how much they're just ridiculed and hated. And you know, I don't see them much outside of you know, sea world kind of things, but you know, it's it's definitely an interesting art form. Watching this, as I was getting quickly annoyed with his his mind, his his you know, the winds blowing and he can't get to the phone, right stuff, I had the thought like, why do people do this? Like there's no future, there's no money in this, and I just curiously I googled what what a mime makes? Like there's their salary. According to zip recruiter a mime, most mimes on average can make up to fifty three dollars an hour, which puts them at six figures a year. There's there's no there's no way I'm calling bullshit on that. There's there's just no way. You'll get it.

38:04 You'll get emails from mimes after this. Oh gosh, yeah, Lord Lord help us. If a lot of our listeners are are in the mime business, where I'm gonna I'm gonna be apologizing quite quite profusely. That's right. Words that matter, Scott. This is one of my This is always one of my favorite moments when we do nineteen seventy six, because we had to share one of our favorite, uh favorite quotes, our lines of dialogue, and you pointed it out. There is one single three letter word uttered in this entire movie. It's by Marcel Marceau when he shouts in French non, which is you know, no, no works for you know, it's a fun gag because you know, the you know, studio chief sit sizers like what do you say? And meles like, I don't understand French, so right, so they just they just assumed that they've got him, right, Yep. I'm actually surprised there wasn't more of a use of kind of playing up the title cards because that pretty you mean, in this scene or in the just thought the film just throughout the film, like we're talking about words that matter and kind of the use of words and something that's it's a silent movie, but the words are still used, right, like the title cards and things like that. Pretty early in the movie, I could see that,

39:34 you know, they're they're in the car, they're driving along and Mel's character goes through this rant where you can read his lips and you can see that he's going on this filthy diet tribe. Oh yeah, and then just a you know, a plane and simple that makes me angry kind of title card. Yeah, Like, I didn't get a laugh that that that that made me chuckle. I was going to it did kind of surprise me. They didn't continue that kind of an idea or a thread, Like they could have gotten some of the filthy comics of the time, given them some on screen dialogue where you can read their lips and you can pretty easily see what they were going to say, and turn that into something tame in the title card. Now, that would have been good because I like, I said that that's might that might be one of the funniest moments in this movie when he is, you know, he's he's letting it rip, and then you get to the title card it says that makes me angry. Right, Okay, Yeah, they could have think of all the things they could have got away with, the dirty things, the provocative things they could have said, right, and then just glossed over with a title card like, oh, that would have been great. Man, You're you got something there, all right. So prequel sequel remake Scott Your pitch to the studio. If you were malfun, You're you're walking in to see the studio chief, What do you think best serves this film? What are you gonna do with it?

40:57 So, what I think is kind of interesting is if we look at this as semi autobiographical and it's it's not. Again, it's not trying to tell Mel Brooks's life. It's trying to sell it's telling a movie, a silent movie about making a silent movie. But when you notice they're going to the theater and they're going to see silent movie. I noticed there were a lot of posters in the lobby, and it's a clever way of mel continuing to promote Young Frankenstein. But in that universe, what if it was actually Mel fund that made Young Frankenstein and before he went on the alcoholic bender that ruined his career. It's actually his film that they're seeing in the in the lobby.

41:37 Now that probably doesn't play because he went on some kind of a bender and then you know, didn't become a success. And obviously Young Frankenstein was. But what if you turned that into getting a look at the story behind turning a universal monster into a black and white comedy. You could still have Dom Bell as the monster. Okay, possibly you could have Marty Eggs as Igor pretty obviously, but I don't know. It seems like there's there's so many You look at the outtakes, you look at the good time they have on making any mel Brooks movie, but especially with young Frankenstein, it seems like there could be kind of a story behind the story there. What I don't know is, you know, do you make it in seventy six, like I was saying, I'm like, you know, Don DeLuise and Marty Felman, or is it something that's modern day and you make it with something somebody like Bill Hayter in Gene Wilder's role. I asked you if you wanted to make a prequel, sequel or remake, and in classic Scott Hoffman fashion, you ignore the options and you go with spinoffs, prequel, sequel.

42:52 Wait, oh okay, so I'm listening. I'm like, this is something Frankenstein comes before Silent movie, and if it's already in the theater, then that's a prequel. Alright, Well played, Scott. Here's what I'm gonna give you, ye, I'm gonna give you a sequel. Okay, but I want you to consider this. It's a sequel as a TV special. Interesting, all right, Well, mel Brooks is currently writing and producing Young Frankenstein Live. All right. We know that he did what was it Life of Brian Part two or his History I'm sorry, yeah, thank you, History of the World part two. He did that for Hulu. Yeah.

43:40 So here's what I'm gonna throughout you. Let's see mel Brooks do Silent Movie two as a TV special, having round up all his friends as well as current Hollywood stars, you know, and the whole plot, the whole plot device being mel fund. You know, in this movie he saves the studio. Now he has to save Hollywood from post pandemic climate at home streaming platforms and union strikes. And I get it. You know, Mel's ninety seven, so I don't think he's gonna be running around as the lead. But he could be like the studio head type, you know. Put him in the studio head roll and then get all these things about all these classic actors and actresses that are you know, we still have access to have them.

44:24 Let's let there's let's let's have a marriage between like old Hollywood New Hollywood, and I even as as much as a disdain as I have for the the Marcel Marcel moment. Scott, I'm gonna make you happy. I'm gonna make everybody happy. Let's be honest. Let's get Kevin Smith to do one of the cameos as Silent Bob, and he'll have the walk. He'll be the only person that talks in the whole TV special a TV a TV special where no there's no talking, you know though, on the score though, on the sound effects, that is my idea to use. Scott, What do you think? I dig it all right? Scott? What do you have for mel Brooks Silent Movie? Out of a possible four stars? What are you? What are you giving this? M I hate to say, I'm probably gonna say it too. It's right about halfway for me. I mean, it's it's revered for me because of mel Brooks, because of the cast, because of you know, the boldness of the concept. Is it one that I'm going to keep coming back to and see over and over again?

45:28 Probably not? And I mean I I don't see myself being able to sit down and kind of convince somebody else, like you've got to see this watch this. It's it's absolutely hilarious. It's interesting. But I would say, you know, it goes about halfway for me. What about you I mentioned earlier, Uh, you know, watching watching my blue ray of this, you would think that I'm a big fan. I will echo your rating. I'm gonna say two stars. I'll give you one star because it's mel Brooks. I'll give you one star because it's a very high risk concept. Yeah, but other than that, it's dated, does not does not hit the way it should nowadays. And yeah, I own the Blue ray, but it's because it's part of a the mel Brooks collection, you know nine, you know, nine of his eleven movies or in this thing. You know you're not gonna not buy it because of Silent Movie and for the mel Brooks completest. I would say anyone that is a fan of mel Brooks should at least watch it once just to appreciate what he does in it, because it's not like you're grimacing the whole time. There's like we like we said, we've talked about some fun moments in it. There's some cool stuff in it.

46:35 So I would say, yeah, for me, it's like I'll you know, whether or not, whether whether or not I'll watch it again ever, I don't know, but I do know this, Scott. I would like to thank you for joining me once again. Well, actually this is your first time joining me. On nineteen seventy six. You had that great episode with Brad Cozo where you did all the President's Men. But hopefully you will you will come back to nineteen seventy six. Asked for next week, You're beaming aboard the uss Sritos. Correct. Yeah, yeah, very excited. Lower Decks is coming back. Uh. There's a there's a big Star Trek animated uh celebration that that kicks off with that two part premier. So I'm going to be joined by Wayne Wedded on that series. We're gonna start talking about Lower Decks every week. So tune if you're a Star Trek or an animation fan, or if you're just looking for something new. I loved what you guys did with David Burns on Strange New Wednesdays talking about the Strange New Worlds. Can't wait to hear what you guys are gonna talk about with Lower Decks. I actually I recently just started watching it. I'm in the second season now. Yeah, I it was I never would have expected this from from a Star Trek show. It is animated, it's adult animated comedy, and you know, I cry laughing most every episode, and and great performances by the voice actors. Yeah. Yeah, it's a great time to get back into Star Trek. And yet we're going to be joined by David

48:07 Brings again as much as he's able to, and we'll have some some great conversations for you to tune into. Yeah, he's got it. He's got a lot of away missions. I understand. Comes back place he's in, he's in the transport buffer. Well, we hope, we hope you've enjoyed this episode of nineteen seventy six. We want to thank you for listening, and as always, you can let us know what you think of Silent Movie at www dot a film by podcast dot com. U recently revamped the website Scott we are now we've made a little more user friendly. We're we've we're adding in some like some fun Hollywood movie theme trivia stuff articles original articles written by the team at a Film by Podcast. So we've got a lot of fun stuff going on there. You can check us out there or on social media Facebook, Instagram, on Twitter. Please reach out to us. We always are happy to hear hear from everybody till then, thanks for lending your ears. Catch you on the flip side.