Greatest Film Scenes
and Moments



Blazing Saddles (1974)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

Title Screen
Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
Screenshots

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
The Waco Kid (Gene Wilder) and Black Bart (Cleavon Little)
Taggart (Slim Pickens) and AG Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman)
Mongo
(Alex Karras)
  • 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'


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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