Silent Movie **** (1976, Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar, Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise, Bernadette Peters) – Classic Movie Review 4,045

Great days with Mel Funn! Mel Brooks’s inventive and hilarious 1976 film Silent Movie is a joy to watch.

The 1976 American satirical silent comedy film Silent Movie is co-written, directed by and stars Mel Brooks. The ensemble cast includes Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Bernadette Peters and Sid Caesar, with cameos as themselves by Anne Bancroft, Liza Minnelli, Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Marcel Marceau and Paul Newman, and other cameos by Harry Ritz of the Ritz Brothers, actor comedian Charlie Callas, and comedian musician Henny Youngman. 

Mel Brooks’s film is an affectionate parody of slapstick comedies and satire of the movie industry, showing it in an unflattering light in the story of the once-great Hollywood film director Mel Funn trying to obtain the backing of Big Picture Studios (slogan Ars Est Pecunia, Art is Money) to make a silent film in the 1970s just when the studio is facing a takeover by New York conglomerate Engulf & Devour (a parody of Gulf and Western that had taken over Paramount Pictures).

Great days with Mel Funn! Co-writer/ director Mel Brooks’s inventive and hilarious 1976 film Silent Movie is a pleasure to watch. It cleverly revives the long-lost art of silent comedy, with Brooks directing himself in a funny turn as the flop movie director Mel Funn aiming at a revival himself under the Big Picture studio boss (Sid Caesar). Funn convinces him he can get Hollywood’s biggest stars to be in the film, and it could save the studio from the takeover.

Entirely written as intertitles instead of spoken dialogue, the slapstick knockabout gags are, as usual with Brooks, scatter-gun hit-and-miss, but there are some really big laughs. The soundtrack consists almost entirely of orchestral accompaniment and sound effects.

The deliciously droll and amusing performances from Sid Caesar (as Studio Chief), Marty Feldman and Dom DeLuise (as aspiring film-makers Marty Eggs and Dom Bell) and Bernadette Peters (as Vilma Kaplan) greatly add to the fun, as do guest stars Anne Bancroft, Paul Newman, Burt Reynolds, James Caan and Liza Minnelli, also including mime artist Marcel Marceau, who inevitably but satisfyingly utters the movie’s only word.

Barry Levinson, Ron Clark and Rudy De Luca helped Brooks on the screenplay, as they do on the 1977 Mel Brooks film High Anxiety.

Also in the cast are Harold Gould, Fritz Feld, Ron Carey, Carol Arthur, Liam Dunn, Harry Ritz, Henny Youngman, Patrick Campbell, Rudy De Luca, Barry Levinson and Howard Hesseman.

Release date: June 17, 1976.

Runtime: 87 minutes.

it earned $36.1 million at the box office, against a budget of $4 million.

So, very good reviews and great box office.

The cast

The cast are Mel Brooks as Mel Funn, Marty Feldman as Marty Eggs, Dom DeLuise as Dom Bell, Bernadette Peters as Vilma Kaplan, Sid Caesar as Studio Chief, Burt Reynolds as himself, James Caan as himself, Liza Minnelli as herself, Anne Bancroft as herself, Marcel Marceau as himself, Paul Newman as himself, Harold Gould as Engulf, Ron Carey as Devour, Carol Arthur as Pregnant Lady, Liam Dunn as Newsvendor, Fritz Feld as Maitre d’, Chuck McCann as Studio Gate Guard, Valerie Curtin as Intensive Care Nurse, Yvonne Wilder as Studio Chief’s Secretary, Arnold Soboloff as Acupuncture Man, Patrick Campbell as Motel Bellhop, Harry Ritz as Man at Tailor Shop, Charlie Callas as Blind Man, Henny Youngman as Fly-in-soup Man, Eddie Ryder as British Officer, Al Hopson as Executive, Rudy De Luca as Executive, Barry Levinson as Executive, Lee Delano as Executive, Jack Riley as Executive, Inga Neilsen as Beautiful Blonde No. 1, Erica Hagen as Beautiful Blonde No. 2, Robert Lussier as Projectionist, Phil Leeds as Rio Bomba Waiter.

Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky on June 28, 1926) 

Mel Brooks turned 100 on June 28, 2026.

 He is one of 28 entertainers to win the EGOT, an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,045

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