And now Gene Wilder has gone, one of the best comedy actors in the history of movie-making. Will there be no end to the bad news?
There will be plenty of tributes and obituaries in the days to come so I will leave it to the experts to provide the definitive versions. All I can say is Wilder appeared in three of my favourite movies of all time and all of them were written or directed by Mel Brooks. The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.
The Producers in 1968 was so utterly outrageous that many of the top companies wouldn’t touch it. Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom (Wilder) set about making the least successful musical of all time but by selling 27,000% of the profits aim to make a financial killing from the failure and disappear to Rio with the proceeds. But the musical, Springtime for Hitler, is an unexpected success and the two producers are ruined. It is incredibly poor taste but also unbearably funny.
Blazing Saddles is the story of the town of Black Rock through which the new railroad must pass. A new sheriff, a black railroad worker Bart, who is about to be hanged, is appointed the new sheriff who it is believed will alienate the towns folk leading to chaos after which the railroad can be built. But Bart, aided by the alcoholic gunslinger Waco Kid (Wilder), save the day and the town.
And in black and white, Young Frankenstein, Wilder plays Frankenstein’s grandson, Frederick. Because of the history of the name, he insists on being referred to as “Fronkensteen” throughout. Frederick inherits the family estate in Transylvania and travels to inspect it. And there the story goes.
A brief look on IMDB will list Wilder’s other movies and there were plenty of them, many better known that the ones I cite. But none so funny.
Great is a word overused but not with Brooks and Wilder who enriched our lives with some of the finest comedy ever made. RIP Gene Wilder.
