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Blazing Saddles....TCM tonight at 9pm

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Al Czervik

Al Czervik 1229

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

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Young Al’s parents took him to the theater to see this back in the day, this line still resonates, because young and older Al is half Irish.  The parental Czervik’s still feel like they failed as parents by doing this.  I feel they excelled as parents because of this.   

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Not a cat

Not a cat 5657

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, Al Czervik said:

Young Al’s parents took him to the theater to see this back in the day, this line still resonates, because young and older Al is half Irish.  The parental Czervik’s still feel like they failed as parents by doing this.  I feel they excelled as parents because of this.   

My parents took me to see this when I was 4.  Papa notacat was nothing if not thrifty and I assume a kids ticket was cheaper than a babysitter.

The only things I appreciated were the farts around the campfire and mongo knocking out a horse.  It wasn't until many years later I watched again and appreciated its true genius.

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Francisco 2.0

Francisco 2.0 32394

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I've said it here before, but it bears repeating:  Mel had an absolutely monster 1974, with both Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein released.

 

Edit.  Some of the production trivia from Wikipedia is still astounding:

 

Spoiler

The idea for the film came from a story outline written by Andrew Bergman that he originally intended to develop and produce himself. "I wrote a first draft called Tex-X" (a play on Malcolm X's name), he said. "Alan Arkin was hired to direct and James Earl Jones was going to play the sheriff. That fell apart, as things often do."[9] Brooks was taken with the story, which he described as "hip talk—1974 talk and expressions—happening in 1874 in the Old West", and purchased the film rights from Bergman. Though he had not worked with a writing team since Your Show of Shows, he hired a group of writers (including Bergman) to expand the outline, and posted a large sign: "Please do not write a polite script."[10] Brooks described the writing process as chaotic: "Blazing Saddles was more or less written in the middle of a drunken fistfight. There were five of us all yelling loudly for our ideas to be put into the movie. Not only was I the loudest, but luckily I also had the right as director to decide what was in or out."[11] Bergman remembers the room being just as chaotic, telling Creative Screenwriting, "In the beginning, we had five people. One guy left after a couple of weeks. Then, it was basically me, Mel, Richie Pryor and Norman Steinberg. Richie left after the first draft and then Norman, Mel and I wrote the next three or four drafts. It was a riot. It was a rioter’s room!"[9]

The original title, Tex X, was rejected to avoid it being mistaken for an X-rated film,[2] as were Black Bart – a reference to Black Bart, a white highwayman of the 19th century[2] – and Purple Sage. Brooks said he finally conceived Blazing Saddles one morning while taking a shower.[12]

Casting was problematic. Richard Pryor was Brooks' original choice to play Sheriff Bart, but the studio, claiming his history of drug arrests made him uninsurable, refused to approve financing with Pryor as the star.[12] Cleavon Little was cast in the role, and Pryor remained as a writer. Brooks offered the other leading role, the Waco Kid, to John Wayne; he declined, deeming the film "too blue" for his family-oriented image, but assured Brooks that "he would be the first one in line to see it."[13] Gig Young was cast, but he collapsed during his first scene from what was later determined to be alcohol withdrawal syndrome, and Gene Wilder was flown in to replace him.[14][15] Johnny Carson and Wilder both turned down the Hedley Lamarr role before Harvey Korman was cast.[16] Madeline Kahn objected when Brooks asked to see her legs during her audition. "She said, 'So it's THAT kind of an audition?'" Brooks recalled. "I explained that I was a happily married man and that I needed someone who could straddle a chair with her legs like Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again. So she lifted her skirt and said, 'No touching.'"[17]

Brooks had numerous conflicts over content with Warner Bros. executives, including frequent use of the word "nigger", Lili Von Shtupp's seduction scene, the cacophony of flatulence around the campfire, and Mongo punching out a horse. Brooks, whose contract gave him final content control, declined to make any substantive changes, with the exception of cutting Bart's final line during Lili's seduction: "I hate to disappoint you, ma'am, but you're sucking my arm."[18] When asked later about the many "nigger" references, Brooks said he received consistent support from Pryor and Little. He added, "If they did a remake of Blazing Saddles today [2012], they would leave out the N-word. And then, you've got no movie."[19] Brooks said he received many letters of complaint after the film's release.[20]

The film was almost not released. "When we screened it for executives, there were few laughs", said Brooks. "The head of distribution said, 'Let's dump it and take a loss.' But [studio president John] Calley insisted they open it in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago as a test. It became the studio's top moneymaker that summer."[17] The world premiere took place on February 7, 1974, at the Pickwick Drive-In Theater in Burbank; 250 invited guests—including Little and Wilder—watched the film on horseback.[21]

 

Edited by Francisco 2.0
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Not a cat

Not a cat 5657

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7 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

The universe worked its magic to make sure the right people made this movie with the right actors. 

True.  Even as appealing as it seems to have Richard Pryor playing Bart, I think the role needed to be played mostly straight.  Just a kind of "can you believe this shit" look that Cleavon pulled off beautifully.  I doubt Pryor plays Bart that way.

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High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter 11049

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We got my young daughter the No Stress Chess game for Christmas. (For those that don't know, it teaches you chess by drawing cards that tell you what piece to move, and how they move.)

No one in my family will play with me because every time I draw a Pawn Card, I say "Mongo pawn in game of life."

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NWBuck

NWBuck 8568

Posted
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7 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

We got my young daughter the No Stress Chess game for Christmas. (For those that don't know, it teaches you chess by drawing cards that tell you what piece to move, and how they move.)

No one in my family will play with me because every time I draw a Pawn Card, I say "Mongo only pawn in game of life."

Given that my job description seems to change hourly over the past 11 months, I've gone to alternating between that and "I'm your huckleberry" when people ask me to "pivot" yet another time.

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RPM

RPM 26321

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Just now, MNLonghornFUKM said:


Also zero commercials..at least I noticed on Saturday night

No commercial breaks on TCM. They have promos and shorts between movies. It's the last castle of classic film. It may eventually go the way of AMC, which was bad and good for different reasons, but it's loss would be devastating.

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