A sort of centerpiece to this collection is the documentary Mel And His Movies, which is split into five parts, one part per disc. This documentary features interviews with Mel Brooks in which he talks about his films in chronological order. In the first part, he talks about Get Smart, The Producers (first titled Springtime For Hitler), and The Twelve Chairs. The second part is about Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. Mel talks about hiring Gene Wilder. This part also features a interviews with Harvey Korman (from 2004) and Cloris Leachman. In the third part, Mel Brooks discusses about Silent Movie and High Anxiety. He talks about meeting Alfred Hitchcock, and about the phone booth sequence. There is also a bit of an interview with Cloris Leachman. The fifth part is about History Of The World Part I, To Be Or Not To Be and Spaceballs. Regarding History Of The World, Mel talks about Orson Welles narrating the film. He hired Welles for five days, four hours a day, and he finished it all in one day. In the final part, Mel Brooks talks about Life Stinks, Robin Hood: Men In Tights and Dracula: Dead And Loving It. Mel talks about what led him to want to tell the story of Life Stinks, and jokes about now having to give money to every homeless guy who comes up to him. He talks about the running theme present in his more serious films - about how love and friendship are more important than money.
This box set includes a book. Actually, the whole thing is presented as a hardcover book, with lots of photos and several essays. The discs are in sleeves at the end. I usually don't like sleeves for DVDs (as I fear I'm going to scratch the discs while taking them out or putting them back in), but this packaging is well thought-out.
There is so much in this collection, and it's a wide range of material, so it's probably best to go through it disc by disc.
Disc 1
The first disc opens with some Hitler humor, which of course is just perfect. Titled Hitler Rap, this bit is seriously funny. It features Mel Brooks as Hitler, with sexy backing vocalists. (At one point, one of the girls sports the Hitler moustache.) The disc includes the option of playing it with an introduction by Mel Books.
Mel Brooks And Dick Cavett Together Again is an hour-long show with Mel and Dick seated in front of an audience, joking, reminiscing, telling anecdotes. Of course they talk about The 2,000 Year Old Man. (Carl is in audience and talks about the beginning of that sketch, and they do a bit of it, which is bloody great.) Dick Cavett tells a short Alfred Hitchcock anecdote. When Mel mentions High Anxiety, there is some applause in the audience. He turns to them and says, "Please, either a lot or nothing." They take questions from the audience too. There is also twelve and a half minutes of bonus footage from this special on the DVD, and some of that stuff is absolutely wonderful.
The first disc also includes a funny sketch from The Tracey Ullman Show, in which Mel Brooks plays a film director who needs a hit and has a meeting with a big star. And there are bits from appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. You also have the option of playing these with an introduction by Mel Brooks.
Disc 2
The second disc begins with Peeping Times, a sketch I'd never seen before in which Mel Brooks plays Hitler in a supposed Hitler home movie. Hitler just never ceases to be a great source of comedy. Mel whistles a bit of "Springtime For Hitler." There is also a Simon & Garfunkel reference, and Mel saying, "Heil me!"
Inside Danny Baker is a television pilot that Mel Brooks wrote before Get Smart. It stars Roger Mobley, and was directed by Arthur Hiller (yes, the guy that directed Love Story and Teachers). It's kind of a sweet show about two boys who want to buy a boat so they can go fishing. Whitey Ford has a cameo.
In The Beginning: The Caesar Years features an interview with Mel Brooks about meeting Sid Caesar, and how they started working together (it includes some old footage). At one point, he talks about how Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Woody Allen, and Joe Stein were all writing for Sid Caesar. Insane. This also features bits of interviews with Carl Reiner, and great footage from a panel with several of these great writers including Neil Simon and Carl Reiner.
The second disc also features an appearance by Mel Brooks on 60 Minutes, with the focus on the Broadway production of The Producers. There are bits of interviews Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane and Susan Stroman (the director of the play). Mel Brooks says that one of his life-long jobs is "to make the world laugh at Adolf Hitler." He also gives this bit of advice: "Don't tiptoe into show business. Jump into show business."
Disc 3
The third disc opens with The Critic, a funny animated short with Mel Brooks as old Jewish guy talking back to the strange images on the screen. This includes an option to play with an introduction by Mel Brooks, in which he talks about how the idea came about. This animated short won an Academy Award.
I Thought I Was Taller: A Short History Of Mel Brooks is a goofy 44-minute documentary from 1981 that features an interview with Mel Brooks, in which he tells lots of Jewish jokes, talks about The Producers, and about learning drums from Buddy Rich. I love the bit where he talks about his films being serious, that they have something to say. We see bits of some of his films, including Young Frankenstein and Silent Movie, as well as a bit of the animated version of The 2,000 Year Old Man. And Mel does another Hitler bit. Some of it is great, but the whole search for an ending is rather lame. This documentary also features interviews with Gene Wilder (who tells the chocolate bar story, which is great, because Mel tells the story elsewhere in this set), Sid Caesar (talking about Your Show Of Shows), and Alan Schwartz, Mel's lawyer.
This disc also includes Mel Brooks' 1970 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, talking about The Twelve Chairs, and his 1972 appearance, when he talks about the idea behind The Producers.
In the introduction to the commercials, Mel Brooks talks about how the first thing he directed was a Frito Lay commercial. Then we see that commercial, along with a series of six different commercials for the Bic Banana (including one with some wonderful Shakespeare silliness).
Excavating The 2000 Year Old Man is a 44-minute special on one of the most famous sketches in the history of comedy. It features Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks talking about the sketch, about how they did it at parties and about Steve Allen getting them to do the record. There are several segments from the sketch included in this special. I love how the 2000 Year Old Man criticizes Shakespeare's penmanship. There are also interviews with other comedians (including Paul Reiser, Garry Shandling, Richard Lewis and Bob Newhart) about the impact that sketch has had, and recounting memories of listening to the records.
Bonus 2000 Year Old Man Appearances is a special feature that includes three appearances by that character. The first features Mel Brooks alone, and is from an episode of Jeopardy. When Mel Brooks enters, "Springtime For Hitler" is playing. The second is on the Colgate Comedy Hour. I love the bit on the origin of applause. And the third is on The Danny Thomas Variety Show. Interestingly, this one also features the origin of applause, and yet is quite different.
Disc 4
The fourth disc opens with Mel's Television Debut. This has the option of playing it with Mel Brooks' introduction, in which he says he was writing Your Show Of Shows, got an agent from that, and that agent got him this job on the Milton Berle Show.
An Audience With Mel Brooks (44 minutes) is probably my favorite thing from this set. In this special, shot in London in 1984, Mel takes questions from famous people in the audience. I'm not sure how much of this was precisely arranged, but it's basically all funny. When asked about being a war hero, he says, "After they found me in Canada, I immediately enlisted." He performs a musical number called "Retreat," which is great. But my favorite part is when he talks about Shakespeare, referring to him as "William Cohen Shakespeare." He jokes about his penmanship, but this time he says it's perfect. Then goes on to say that he does Hamlet's most well-known soliloquy in his movie (To Be Or Not To Be). From the audience, Helen Mirren (gorgeous as always) interrupts to ask him about his qualifications for playing Hamlet, and tells him there are several Hamlets in the audience, including Alan Howard and, seated directly next to her, Jonathan Pryce. So Jonathan Pryce comes on stage and does part of the famous speech. At "to sleep/No more," Mel stops him, "No more." (Oddly, we don't see the clip of Mel Brooks doing the speech from the film. He sets it up, but we don't see it. Why not? Is it edited out?) And Ann Bancroft is so funny and adorable when Mel pulls her up on stage.
Another excellent bit on the fourth disc is Mel Brooks' appearance on Terry Wogan's show, from 1984. This might be the best appearance on a talk show that Mel has ever done. It's bloody hilarious.
This disc also includes an episode of Mad About You, in which Mel Brooks plays Paul Reiser's Uncle Phil, as well as some short animated segments from The Electric Company that Mel Brooks provides the voice for.
Disc 5
The fifth disc begins with "My Son, The Hero" Trailer, which is narrated by Mel Brooks. He should narrate every trailer from now on. In "How To Be A Jewish Son," Mel talks about his mother and demonstrates that one side of him is Fred Astaire.
This disc also features the Get Smart pilot, which you can play with an introduction by Buck Henry and Mel Brooks. You definitely want to watch the introduction, in which they talk about Don Adams, the writing and the credits. In the episode, a midget orders his cronies, "Get Smart, you fools!"
When Things Were Rotten is a show I never heard of, spoofing Robin Hood (this was quite a while before Robin Hood: Men In Tights). Mel Brooks co-created it, and it stars Dick Gautier as Robin Hood and Dick Van Patten as Friar Tuck. It's not very good, but it's kind of amusing, mostly because of Sid Caesar as the Marquis de la Salle.
One of my favorite bits on this disc is Free To Be... You And Me, in which Mel Brooks and Marlo Thomas provide voices for newborn puppets who are confused about their genders. It's totally wonderful. And then separated as each goes home from the hospital.
Disc 6: The CD
This set also contains a CD, which features several of the songs from Mel Brooks' films, including "The Inquisition" and "It's Good To Be King" (both from History Of The World Part I), "Theme From Blazing Saddles" and "I'm Tired" (from Blazing Saddles), "Springtime For Hitler," "Le Grand Frisson" (a song from the French version of High Anxiety), and "Men In Tights." The CD ends with the song "Hope For The Best, Expect The Worst" (from The Twelve Chairs), which is my favorite of the songs, at least in part because the lines, "The world's a stage/We're unrehearsed" and "So take your chances/There are no answers." I love this song.
There are several other recordings on the CD, including one from 1947 of Mel Brooks reciting a bit of Keats (interesting because it's not comedy), excerpts from Open End With David Susskind from 1964 (Mel Brooks was a guest panelist), an appearance on The Tonight Show from April 21, 1964, two of Mel's appearances on The Celebrity Game, a game show hosted by Carl Reiner (and yes, Mel does a bit of the 2000 Year Old Man), and a series of six radio commercials for Circus Nuts done by Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett - these are seriously funny.
One of my favorite tracks on the CD is a series of three audio air checks for The New Les Crane Show from 1964 featuring Mel Brooks critiquing the show. During the first one, he does a bit of the 2000 Year Old Man, talking about working at the arena during fights between the Christians and the Lions - very funny. This is kind of a tease, because it makes me want to watch the show, which is lost. The line that made me burst out laughing from the second air check is this: "It's the kind of non-objective television that we've got to keep trying until we abandon."
The Incredible Mel Brooks: An Irresistible Collection Of Unhinged Comedy is scheduled to be released on November 13, 2012 through Shout! Factory.
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