Silent Movie (DVD)

SILENT MOVIE is director Mel Brooks's comic tribute to the golden days of the silent screen. A movie within a movie, SILENT MOVIE stars Brooks as Mel Funn, a filmmaker who has seen better days-for one thing, he's just come out of a bout with the bottle. When his best friends (Marty Feldman and Dom DeLuise) rescue him from despair and convince him to make another attempt at moviemaking, Mel comes up with an idea-a silent picture. Alas, this is the 1970s, and in order to get backing from wacky, frazzled studio chief Sid Caesar, the three pals have to get lots of celebrities to agree to be in their silent picture. SILENT MOVIE is, in fact, silent, and all the celebrities play themselves (or parodies of themselves). Funny, warm, and packed with sight gags galore, the film evokes the days of Chaplin, Keaton, and Pickford and Fairbanks while remaining oddly, and wondrously, contemporary. There is hardly a funnier scene than when Burt Reynolds-vainly admiring himself in the mirror while showering-is talked-up about the movie by DeLuise, Brooks, and Feldman, all in the shower together.

Starring: Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise, Bernadette Peters, Sid Caesar, Inga Neilsen, Patrick Campbell, Harold Gould, Ron Carey, Carol Arthur, Liam Dunn, Fritz Feld, Chuck McCann, Valerie Curtin, Yvonne Wilder, Arnold Soboloff, Harry Ritz, Charlie Callas, Henny Youngman, Eddie Ryder, Al Hopson, Rudy DeLuca, Barry Levinson, Howard Hesseman, Lee Delano, Jack Riley, Sivi Aberg, Erica Hagen, Robert Lussier, Marcel Marceau, Paul Newman, Anne Bancroft, Burt Reynolds, Liza Minnelli, James Caan

Director: Michael Hertzberg