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Blazing
Saddles (1974)
In Mel Brooks' western spoof:
- in the scene of a town meeting in Rock Ridge's church,
Reverend Johnson's warning: ("Well, I don't have to tell you
good folks what has been happening here in our beloved town. Sheriff
murdered, crops burned, stores looted, people stampeded and cattle
raped! Now the time has come to act. And act fast! I'm leaving");
he was interrupted by a grizzly mountaineer named Gabby Johnson
(Jack Starrett), who argued unintelligibly in a speech composed
of "frontier gibberish" about remaining steadfastly in
town: ("You get back here, you old pious, candy-ass sidewinder!
There ain't no way that nobody is gonna leave this town! Hell,
I was born here, and I was raised here and dadgum it, I'm gonna
die here! And no sidewinder, bushwhacking, hornswoggling, cracker
croaker, is gonna ruin me biscuit-cutter!")
- the scene of near-sighted and dim-witted Governor
Le Petomane's (Mel Brooks) (in his underwear) nuzzling into bosomy
secretary Miss Stein's (Robyn Hilton) cleavage while addressing her
full breasts: "Hello boys. Have a good night's rest? I missed
you", and being advised at the same time by villainous and scheming
attorney general Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) to take over 200,000
acres of Indian land in exchange for a box of paddle-board toys,
and to convert a hospital (for the insane) into a gambling casino
(for the insane)
- the scene in which Hedley was recruiting men to assault
the town (Hedley Lamarr: "Qualifications?" Applicant: "Rape,
murder, arson, and rape." Hedley Lamarr: "You said rape
twice." Applicant: "I like rape.")
- the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder) pretended to capture
and hold up Black Bart (Cleavon Little) as bait: ("Oh, boys! Lookee
what I got hereuh") for two Ku Klux Klan members so that they
could steal their white robes - with Bart's mock-dumb (racially-stereotyped)
taunt: "Hey! Where are the white women at?"
- the scene of the new Sheriff Black Bart's warning
to the townsfolk as he reached down into the front of his pants for
his acceptance speech: "Excuse me while I whip this out" -
to the sound of their gaspings
- the infamous gas-passing, bean-eating scene around
the campfire by flatulent cowboys
Unique Western Characters
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The Waco Kid (Gene Wilder) and Black Bart (Cleavon
Little)
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Taggart (Slim Pickens) and AG Hedley Lamarr (Harvey
Korman)
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Mongo
(Alex Karras)
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- Hedley's request of cowpoke Taggart (Slim Pickens):
("I want you to round up every vicious criminal and gunslinger
in the west. Take this down....I want rustlers, cutthroats, murderers,
bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, half-wits,
dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits,
muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves,
bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers
and Methodists") - with Taggart's dumbfounded response: "Could
you repeat that, sir?"
- the scene in which infamous thug Mongo (Alex Karras)
entered Rock Ridge riding an ox, then later punched out a horse with
a bare, single-fisted punch
- saloon singer Lili Von Shtupp's (Madeline Kahn) exquisite
parody of Marlene Dietrich's "Frenchy" from Destry Rides
Again (1939), when on stage at the Rock Ridge Saloon, she performed
an off-key version of I'm Tired, parodying Marlene Dietrich's Falling
in Love Again with a world-weary Germanic, monotoned accent and
a lisp; in the lyrics, she asked one of the drooling cowboys: "Hello,
handsome, is that a ten-gallon hat - or are you just enjoying the
show?" (a variation of one of Mae West's most infamous pronouncements)
- after Lili's performance, her seduction scene with
sheriff Black Bart when she parodied Jean Harlow in Hell's Angels
(1930): ("Won't you excuse me for a moment while I slip
into something a little bit more comfortable?"); after the lights
were turned out, she asked Bart if black men were "gifted," and
went to investigate his physical endowments in the dark - she was
memorably impressed: "Tell me, schatzie [affectionate German
nickname meaning sweetheart, little treasure or little dear one],
is it twue what they say about the way you people are gifted? (A
loud zipper noise signaled that his fly was opened.) Oh, it's twue.
It's twue. It's twue. It's twue..."
- the film ended with an absurd brawl between the good
guys and the bad guys - when the camera pulled back to show that
the film was being shot on a present-day Hollywood set in the middle
of Los Angeles
- the climactic production of a pseudo-Busby Berkeley
musical number ("The French Mistake") in an adjoining set
with an all-gay cast of men in black tuxedos and top hats, directed
by effeminate choreographer Buddy Bizarre (Dom DeLuise); the choreographer
criticized the dancers and demanded that they watch his own flawed
demonstration: "Just watch me. It's so simple, you sissy Marys!
Give me the playback! And watch me, faggots" - the chorus sang
as he stumbled around: "Throw out your hands Stick out your
tush Hands on your hips Give 'em a push You'll be surprised You're
doing the French Mistake! Voila!"
- the chaotic fighting from the Blazing
Saddles set burst through the wall, bringing two conflicting
film genres together, and degenerating into a major fight; in the
studio's commissary where bikini clad actresses, a Hitler-look-alike
(Ralph Manza), and others were eating, the Adolph Hitler character
responded to a question about how many days he has left: "They
lose me right after the bunker scene," as the place erupted
into a 'great pie fight'
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Rev. Johnson and Gabby Johnson
Gov. Le Petomane and Miss Stein
Black Bart: "Excuse me while I whip this out"
Bean-Eating Campfire Scene
Lili Von Shtupp
(Madeline Kahn)
Buddy Bizarre
(Dom DeLuise)
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