Silent Movie
Silent Movie is a 1976 American satirical silent comedy film co-written, directed by and starring Mel Brooks, released by 20th Century Fox in summer 1976. The ensemble cast includes Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Bernadette Peters, and Sid Caesar, with cameos by Anne Bancroft, Liza Minnelli, Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Marcel Marceau, and Paul Newman as themselves, and character cameos by Harry Ritz of the Ritz Brothers, Charlie Callas, and Henny Youngman. The film was produced in the manner of an early-20th-century silent film, with intertitles instead of spoken dialogue; the soundtrack consists almost entirely of orchestral accompaniment and sound effects. It is an affectionate parody of slapstick comedies, including those of Charlie Chaplin, Mack Sennett, and Buster Keaton. The film satirizes the film industry, presenting the story of a film producer trying to obtain studio support to make a silent film in the 1970s.
Plot
Mel Funn, a once-great Hollywood film director, is now recovering from a drinking problem and down on his luck. He and his sidekicks, Marty Eggs and Dom Bell, want to make the first silent movie in 40 years, and Funn pitches the idea to the chief of Big Picture Studios. The chief rejects the idea at first, but Funn convinces him that if he can get Hollywood's biggest stars to be in the film, it could save the studio from a takeover by New York conglomerate Engulf & Devour.
Awards
More details
| author | Barry Levinson Mel Brooks |
|---|---|
| award | National Board of Review: Top Ten Films |
| contentLocation | Los Angeles |
| director | Mel Brooks |
| editor | Andrew Horvitch John C. Howard Stanford C. Allen |
| events | filmmaking |
| genre | comedy |
| keywords | cinema of the united states coca-cola down on his luck dressing room drink film film director flamenco hollywood id nightclub act project a seeing-eye dog silent movie spoken word surround vending machine |
| musicBy | John Morris |
| producer | Michael Hertzberg |
| productionCompany | Crossbow Productions |
| publisher | 20th Century Fox |
| theme | filmmaking parody satirical silent slapstick |