Print

Interviews

Articles

Books

Miscellaneous

Always...

Mel On-line

The Mel Brooks Webring

American Film Makers Today

by Dian G Smith

(note: the book cover is actually in full color with yellow text)

  This book tells the stories of nine filmmakers... "how they got started, their successes and failures, where they get their ideas, how they work with actors/actresses, how they express their personalities in their work, and memorable scenes from their greatest films."

  The book includes a succinct 15 page chapter on Mel Brooks that covers his childhood during the depression, working in the catskills, serving in World War II, his work with Sid Caesar, the collaboration with Carl Reiner on the 2000 year old man, Get Smart & the Crtic, before delving into the medium he is most likely famous for.... his feature films. The remaining nine pages gives bits of insight into the making, motivations and media reaction to Brook's works. here are some interesting bits:

• Mel's first work for Sid Caesar was a sketch named "Nonentities in The News"
• After the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans made a propaganda pitch to the soldiers and Brooks responded with an imitation of Al Jolson singing "Toot Toot Tootsie."
• Working with Caesar placed a lot of stress on Brooks who claims to have seen a psychoanalyst two to four times a week from 1951 to 1957
• Half of the scientific machinery in Young Frankestein came from the sets of old Frankenstein movies
• Mel only played Mel Funn in Silent Movie because Gene Wilder was not available to play the part
• Hitchcock has been Mel's favorite director since he was 5 years old

  All in all it's a good read with the only "incorrect" information being the authors assertion of an inevitable sequel to History of the World Part I. The book also includes chapters on Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Francis Coppola, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Paul Mazursky, Martin Scorsese & Steven Speilberg.

 "As long as I am on the soapbox, farts will be heard," proclaimed Mel Brooks in a flash of the sort of humor that some find hilarious and others find vulgar. And Brooks has been on the soapbox a long time. "As early as I can remember," he said, "I was expected to perform."

 Melvin Kaminsky was born on the kitchen table of a tenement in Williamsburg, a predominantly Jewish section of Brooklyn, on June 28, 1926. He never got to know his father, who died when he was two and a half. Some critics and friends see his intense need for approval and fear of death as stemming in part from this loss, which he still mourns. Gene Wilder once described his mental image of Brooks: "I see him standing bare-chested on the top of a mountain, shouting 'Look at me!' and 'Dont let me die!'"

 Brooks grew up during the depression. For many years his mother worked long hours in the garment district and then brought more work home at night. But when Melvin was born his three older brothers were all working so that she could stay home with her beautiful blue-eyed baby. Brooks remembers a delightfully happy childhood, reveling in the adoration of his family. "I was always being tossed in the air, kissed, adored, and pinched." His mother, he said, " had this exuberant joy of living, and she infected me with that... She really was responsible for the growth of my imagination."

 ...In the immediate future, a sequel to History of the World seems inevitable. The film even ends with "Coming Attractions" (including "Jews in Space"). It is also likely that, having laid out his territory of wild, low comedy, Brooks will not abandon it or his huge audience. "It's one of the great joys of my life," he has said, "to walk down the aisle toward the screen, spin around and slowly walk back up while the audience is laughing at my work."

Blandford Press
LC : PN1993.5.U6
ISBN : 0 7137 1520 (paperback) 0 7137 1519 7 (hardback)

Please click here for corrections.