Monday, October 20, 2014

Quote of the Day (Mel Brooks, on the ‘Exciting’ Campfire Scene in ‘Blazing Saddles’)


“I had a rough cut, and maybe I had 16 farts. Things didn’t get exciting until the fourth or fifth one, and the laughter began to diminish around the 12th fart, so I said, ‘Okay, cut it off at 12.’ I did it kind of systematically. I do a lot of homework.”—Writer-director-actor Mel Brooks, recalling the making of the bean-filled campfire scene in his 1974 film Blazing Saddles, quoted in Jeff Labrecque, “Still Blazing After 40 Years,” Entertainment Weekly, May 9, 2014

(This is for my friend Jayne, a great fan of Blazing Saddles, a film celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bittersweet post for me - it got me thinking of the wonderful amazing Madeline Kahn. She did quite a few comedies with Brooks. Who could forget her hitting that high note in Young Frankenstein? or the the Louis Vitton outfit in High Anxiety? Her last film was Judy Berlin - did you see it?