drqshadow

7/10

Like the dialogue-free relics it so admires, Mel Brooks’s _Silent Movie_ follows a simple formula: outline an extra-loose plot structure, pursue it without much urgency, then allow performances to fill the vacancy. Here, playing a lead for the very first time, Brooks is joined by a pair of dimwitted cohorts (Marty Feldman and Dom DeLuise, who fit their roles like a set of discolored underpants) in an effort to revive the quiet medium. Mel’s character is a faded star, a once-famous director spoiled by alcohol, and he knows this is his last shot at redemption. After procuring hesitant support from a major Hollywood studio, he energetically ambushes a string of big-name actors in a madcap recruiting effort to ensure the film gets made and finds popular appeal. For Brooks, the lack of narrative constraint is liberating. Finally, he’s free to chase all the one-note sight gags he can muster! No need to tie everything together with a neat little bow: if the hapless trio happens to cruise past a vending machine in their belching, banana-colored convertible, well, we’re going to riff on vending machines for a little while. As usual, the puns and cracks are tasteless and relentless, about a 50/50 on the hit/whiff meter, but it’s hard not to admire their hustle and the good bits are actually, really, genuinely hilarious. Some of Brooks’s best, honestly, with their concepts boiled down to a pure essence of grinning, head-shaking stupidity. If anything, I think the storytelling in _Silent Movie_ could’ve been even leaner. There are about twice as many title cards as we really need, what with the cast grandly over-pronouncing each important word. Still, always the clever one, Brooks uses this to his advantage later on, reducing one obviously profanity-laden tirade to a shorter, friendlier summary. “You bad boy.” There’s such persistent visual joy in this cast. Everybody seems tickled to be a part of such a quaint production, celebrating and impersonating the silent stars that fell out of fashion before they were born. Bug-eyed Marty Feldman is a delight, with his screwy body language and twisted, peculiar visage (there’s a reason he was cast as Igor in _Young Frankenstein_ - no need for prosthetics) serving as tangible assets for this type of show-but-don't-tell picture. Burt Reynolds is the best of the “big stars,” constantly poking fun at his own vanity, but they’re all, clearly, having a wonderful time, smiling with their eyes as well as their professionally-trained lips. And why didn’t Bernadette Peters participate in more Brooks films? They’re perfect together. _Silent Movie_ runs into some of the same snags that hurt Mel’s previous efforts. Like _The Producers_, much of its sizzle is in the setup, with the climax all jammed together into a frenzied last-minute sprint that feels more like an obligation than an earned conclusion. It has labored sections, jokes that overstay their welcome and off-color punchlines that have aged like milk. I actually found those uproariously funny, if only for their sheer audacity, but non-offbeats will almost surely see them in a different light. In the end, it's another example of Brooks putting the pieces together, of showing off his glow but struggling to manage a finished picture in the end. He’s getting incrementally closer, though, and demonstrates a knack for pulling the most from his talented, expansive list of actors.