For Gene Wilder, who died 29 August from Alzheimer's, aged 83. ("Are we black?... Then we're awake.') He had a nice face and though he doesn't appear in Brooks' anarchic take on Westerns (a sort of seventies Marx Brothers film with the new cool black sensibility) until 30 minutes in, his presence as the Waco Kid enriches the film. He was a character who you just loved. It's Cleavon Little's show, though, but Harvey Korman (as 'Hedley Lamarr') and Madeline Khan as the Dietrich character (Oscar nominated again after
Paper Moon) are both exuberant. (Mel: 'They [these four] infused me with great joy and energy'.)
A host of writers was needed ('Quick, bring me more writers, I need more gags') means the pace, though patchy, doesn't sag often. Joseph Biroc shot it, score steals from
The Big Country or something.
A welcome figure in my formative years of move-going, with this,
Young Frankenstein and
Silver Streak, Gene will never be missed because he is always here.
The ending, in which the film bursts out onto the film studios, and the stars end up attending its own premiere, is inspired lunacy.
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