Puttin' on the Ritz

Young Frankenstein

(1974)

The one Mel Brooks film that always works for me (yeah, yeah: I suppose I do need to give Blazing Saddles another chance [literally could not watch more than about a half-hour last time], but I'm afraid I'm never going to take to The Producers; I don't know why).

As to why this one does work for me, I think it's because it doesn't try so damned hard all the time. Maybe it's the influence of Gene Wilder on the script. I dunno--can't explain comedy.

Here's a Cheeseblabbery bonus, to help you win a bar bet: if the question comes up which two 1974 films have both Gene Hackman and Teri Garr in the cast, this one's the hard part of the answer. As for the easy part, well, it's easy, so I'm not gonna tell you. Discuss it amongst yourselves, and I'm sure the title will come up in conversation.