Blazing Saddles

Comedy, Family, Western

Richard Collier
Carol DeLuise
Dom DeLuise
Liam Dunn	Reverend Johnson
George Furth
Mel Brooks	Gov. William J. LePetomaine / Indian chief
Madeline Kahn	Lili von Shtupp
Alex Karras	Mongo
Harvey Korman	Hedley Lamarr
Cleavon Little	Bart
Slim Pickens	Taggart
Gene Wilder	Jim
David Huddleston	Olson Johnson
John Hillerman	Howard Johnson

Director	Mel Brooks
Producer	Michael Hertzberg
Writer	Mel Brooks; Andrew Bergman
Cinematography	Joseph F. Biroc
Musician	John Morris

Mel Brooks scored his first commercial hit with this raucous Western spoof starring the late Cleavon Little as the newly hired (and conspicuously black) sheriff of Rock Ridge. Sheriff Bart teams up with deputy Jim (Gene Wilder) to foil the railroad-building scheme of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The simple plot is just an excuse for a steady stream of gags, many of them unabashedly tasteless, that Brooks and his wacky cast pull off with side-splitting success. The humor is so juvenile and crude that you just have to surrender to it; highlights abound, from the lunkheaded Alex Karras as the ox-riding Mongo to Madeline Kahn's uproarious send-up of Marlene Dietrich as saloon songstress Lili Von Shtupp. Adding to the comedic excess is the infamous campfire scene involving a bunch of hungry cowboys, heaping servings of baked beans and, well, you get the idea. --Jeff Shannon