Silent movies - Silent Movie

My sister knows more about movies than I do, so I asked her the other day if there was a silent movie she thought I should do.
She said "Silent Movie".

Oh.
I really wouldn't have thought of that myself which is rather funny for a movie whose title is literally what I'm looking for.
Mel Brooks's parodies may not be everyone's cup of tea - I haven't seen all of them, but I definitely have my favorites (Young Frankenstein at the top) while there are others that I can live without - but silly was just what I needed now.

Here's the plot (with spoilers).

Mel Funn, who was a great director once before he took to the booze, is ready for a comeback. He and his sidekicks, Marty Eggs and Dom Bell, plan to make the first silent movie in 40 years.
When the chief of Big Picture Studios rejects the idea, Funn convinces him by saying he will get the biggest stars to sign up. This could save the studio from being taken over by the conglomerate Engulf & Devour.
Funn, Eggs, and Bell set out to recruit stars. While doing that and surprisingly succeeding, they encounter different mishaps, opportunity for a lot of slapstick including Bell's fight with a soda can launching vending machine.
To stop them from making the movie and save the studio, Engulf & Devour pay nightclub singer and dancer Vilma to seduce Funn who falls in love with her. When Eggs and Bell find out about it and tell him, he goes back to boozing with a huge bottle of liquor. Vilma, however, has refused the money because she has fallen in love with him as well, and she helps finding Funn and filling him up with coffee, so he can shoot the movie after all.
On premiere day, Engulf & Devour steal the only copy, but the friends can save it just before it can get burnt while Vilma entertains the audience. During the chase back to the theater, they defend themselves by launching soda cans at the attacking executives.
The movie is a big hit and is celebrated frenetically by the audience.

When talking about "Silent Movie", let's keep in mind that it's almost 50 years old.
Some of the jokes haven't aged well and maybe they wouldn't be included in a remake of today.

On the other hand, this is very much a Mel Brooks movie, completely with visual jokes, ba-dum-tsss jokes, potty jokes and parody of things that I may not always get, especially if they refer to the film industry of those times.
For example, I was not aware that Engulf & Devour hinted at a real-life conglomerate buying up entertainment companies at the time.

There are also some slapstick jokes that would have been funnier if they hadn't been dragged out, like the one when the three are in armor to get access to Liza Minnelli and keep falling over.
And there are scenes that bow to the old silent films and their kind of humor and are very funny, maybe more so now that I got a feeling for it.
For me, the music and sound effects were a bit much sometimes, but they worked really well in other scenes.

Of course, we can't forget the stars who are a parody of themselves in the movie, Burt Reynolds, Paul Newman, Liza Minnelli, Anne Bancroft, Marcel Marceau, and James Caan.

All in all, it was a fun and easy watch and I wasn't bored or tempted to stop in between.
You really need to like a bit of slapstick, though. If Mel Brooks movies are not your thing, this one will definitely not be.

I can't end this post without the biggest spoiler - the movie isn't completely silent.
There is a brilliant scene with world famous mime Marcel Marceau. While all the other stars agree to be in the movie, he's the one who declines the offer - with a loud "Non!" 😆


Sources:

1. Roger Ebert: Silent Movie. On: RogerEbert.com, January 1, 1976
2. Steve Pulaski: Silent Movie (1976) review. On: The Official Steve Pulaski Website, June 14, 2022
3. Fritzi Kramer: Silent Movie (1976) Review. On: Movies Silently, October 27, 2013
4. Alex Dueben: Review: Silent Movie. On: Alex Dueben, February 1, 2021