The daring humor of Blazing Saddles is an acquired taste but a treat for those who love
it.
The American Film Institute ranked it #6 on their list of the 100 Funniest Movies of All
Time.
Mel Brooks has a history of laugh-out-loud projects such as The Producers and Young Frankenstein,
but Blazing Saddles may be his favorite.
He thinks it could even be “the funniest motion picture ever made.”
There was no line it wouldn’t cross.
That made it significant enough for preservation by the National Film Registry.
Keep watching to learn the secrets the Blazing Saddles producers kept hidden from the public.
Poor Screenings It took convincing to even let the studio
release Blazing Saddles.
No one laughed when it was first shown to them.
Warner Bros. executive Ted Ashley wasn’t pleased by the first screening.
He came with a long list of notes of scenes that needed cut and elements that needed to
be removed.
Mel Brooks said he’d comply but threw all of Ted’s notes out instead.
It was kept the way it was and screened for blue-collar Warner Bros. employees instead.
President John Calley convinced them to lease in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.
It faired much better in the public sphere and became a blockbuster.
Guests Came to the Premiere In True Cowboy Fashion
Blazing Saddles premiered at the now-defunct Pickwick Drive-In Theater in Burbank, California.
Instead of an A-list event with limos and fancy dresses, they took a different approach.
Guests rode in on horseback.
It fit the movie’s Western theme and subversive style.
The Potential for a Franchise The desire to spin a successful film into
a multimedia franchise has increased in the 2020s, but that’s not where it began.
It was still very much alive in the 70s.
There was almost a Blazing Saddles spinoff TV show called Black Bart.
The pilot aired on April 4, 1975, but never reached the public.
There were also talks of bringing Blazing Saddles to the Broadway stage like other Mel
Brooks hits such as The Producers.
He said he had a few ideas but felt that the story was too vulgar to “get away with”
today, especially with the racial slurs it contains.
An Unwanted Resemblance Hedy Lamarr was the antagonist of Blazing
Saddles.
The problem was that the name had an uncanny resemblance to one Hedly Lamarr, a successful
actress of Old Hollywood.
Harvey Korman, who played the character, joked that she might sue.
His off-handed comment turned out to be right.
The issue was settled out of court, and the name went unchanged.
The Horse Punchout It’s difficult to pin down one scene in
Blazing Saddles as “the most offensive,” but the horse punch is a convincing candidate.
Mongo parks his horse in a no-parking zone.
Another rider confronts him, and he punches him and his horse to the ground.
Mel allegedly based the event off of a story he heard from his former boss Sid Caesar who
wrote about it in his 1982 biography Where Have I Been?
The scene was played for comedy, but not everyone appreciated it.
Animal rights activists sent angry letters about how the horse was treated.
The truth was that no animals were harmed in the making of the scene.
They used two horses that were trained to fall on command.
The Title The original title of the film was Tex X,
a reference to Malcolm X.
That was changed to Black Bart.
It still didn’t feel right to the writers who considered switching it to The Purple
Sage.
Showers always seem to bring the best ideas, and that was where Mel Brooks was when he
came up with Blazing Saddles as the title.
His wife loved it, and that was enough to convince him that they’d finally hit the
nail on the head.
Getting the Last Laugh Mel compares the writing of Blazing Saddles
to a “drunken fistfight.”
The team of five all wanted to have their ideas put in the movie and weren’t afraid
to let it be known.
Most of his ideas were the ones that made it through.
He was not only the loudest but had more creative rights as the director.
That doesn’t mean that everything was planned.
The scene where Waco Kid consoles Bart by telling him to remember that the townsfolk
are just “you know…morons” was ad-libbed.
Cleavon cracked up and the line became iconic.
Mel’s Son Arrived While the Movie Was Being Written
The script for Blazing Saddles took so long to write that Mel’s son Max was born during
the process.
He wanted to make a great film but knew he had to finish fast to get money to support
his family.
It seems fitting then that Max would grow up to be a writer.
He primarily works on zombie films such as World War Z.
A Stranger Comes to Town Many of the best scenes in movies are made
by embarrassing happy accidents.
That was true of a classic moment near the end of Blazing Saddles.
Sheriff Bart and the Waco Kid go through the backlot of the Warner Bros. Studio and run
through the gates in one of the biggest fourth-wall-breaks in cinema.
Everyone turns to the right except for one man.
He was a random pedestrian who happened to have wandered onto the set.
Mel knew it would make the scene even funnier, so he brought up the paperwork to let him
stay.
Choosing the Cast Mel wanted Richard Pryor to play Sheriff Bart,
saying he was “the most blessed with talent.”
These blessings came with personal demons and substance abuse issues, so the studio
suggested Cleavon Little instead.
His perfect line delivery got him the part.
Gene Wilder was not the first choice for the Waco Kid.
The role was offered to Johnny Carson who turned it down and Gig Young who had problems
with drinking off-set.
Gene got it next and gave an iconic performance.
Madeline Kahn was Mel’s first pick for Lili von Shtupp ever since he saw her in Paper
Moon.
She was slated to appear in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Mame before filming
on Blazing Saddles began.
She was so excited that her costar Lucille Ball claimed she purposefully got fired from
that movie so she could give all her attention to Blazing Saddles.
Her dedication wasn’t the only reason she got the part.
Mel allegedly asked her to pull up her skirt so he could see her legs.
The character was a spoof of Marlene Dietrich and had to have nice legs.
Madeline didn’t mind but was nervous and told him not to touch them.
Alex Karras was a successful football in the NFL for 12 seasons.
He went to the All-pro team nine times, joined the NFL’s All-Decade team in the 60’s,
and was a four-time Pro Bowler.
He left it all behind after leaving the Detroit Lions to pursue acting, starting his career
with a part in the sitcom Webster.
Fabulous Friendships It’s well-known that Mel Brooks and Gene
Wilder work well together.
They’ve done other films such as Young Frankenstein.
That’s not the only friendship related to Blazing Saddles.
Mel met Richard Pryor in New York.
He talked to him after seeing his stand-up routine at The Vanguard.
They became friends, and Richard allegedly did most of the writing for the character
of Mongo in Blazing Saddles.
The film also began an unlikely friendship between two iconic directors.
Alfred Hitchcock was a fan who praised Mel for his work on it.
One Cut Scene A film like Blazing Saddles needs a lot of
editing, but there’s only one scene that Mel admits he cut at the studio’s request.
It was perhaps the most risque one of all.
Bart and Lili are in her dressing room.
She blows out the candles and starts putting on the charm.
She asks him “is it true what they say about you people” and he responds “I hate to
disillusion you, ma’am, but you’re sucking on my arm.”
A Nod From The Duke Mel wanted to include well-known Western actors
in his parody of the genre.
Few were ever bigger than The Duke, John Wayne.
He got an opportunity when they met on the Warner Bros. lot.
John said he’d heard about the movie, and Mel threw him a few lines.
He politely declined but said that he’d be “first in line to see it.”
I’ll Take That Deal Even friends have to negotiate a deal from
time to time.
Gene wanted a little something in exchange for his work on Blazing Saddles.
What he needed was a bit of time for his friend to look over his latest screenplay and help
him make it a film.
It was for Young Frankenstein, which came out less than a year later in December of
1974.
It was also a major hit, so the deal turned out to be a win-win.
A Musical White Lie Deals weren’t the only way that Mel got
what he wanted for Blazing Saddles.
There was at least one time when he had to tell a white lie.
Composer Frankie Laine was a singer and songwriter for 75 years.
He was used to dramatic projects, and that’s what Mel told him he was working on.
He was worried that he’d lose the musical expert if he told the truth.
Dramatic music served the film better anyway, helping to parody the way Westerns typically
sound.
Whoever Smelt It…
Blazing Saddles was, more than anything, a comedy.
It had plenty of slapstick, and it wasn’t above juvenile humor, including flatulence.
It was the first film to include audible fart sounds.
They were made by using soap and the classic childhood method of putting your hand under
your armpit.
The sounds play during a scene while the cowboys are eating baked beans and drinking coffee
around a campfire.
Mel purposely made them as loud as possible to be heard over the audience's laughter,
but the TV release muted them.
That wasn’t where the fart gags ended.
The character of Governor Le Petomane was named after the stage name of an actual “flatulence
artist,” Joseph Pujol.
The name was a combination of peter, the word for far, and mane, for maniac.
Yes, that made him a fart maniac.
The performer used his strong abdominal muscles to pass gas on command.
He could allegedly even blow out a candle two feet away.
Did You Catch That?
Many directors like to hide something from one of their works in another.
For example, there’s a scene near the end of Blazing Saddles when Hedley and his men
ride into a fake town set up by the Sheriff and Waco Kid.
The camera suddenly cuts to Lily surrounded by German soldiers.
They all sing a drinking song, and it’s the same one from The Producers.
Mel’s also hidden other secret references in Blazing Saddles.
Take the scene where Mongo rides into town and a Mexican man says, “Mongo!
Santa Maria!”
It’s a nod to the famous Cuban jazz musician Mongo Santamaria.
Chocolate Helped Gene Wilder More Than Once Gene is best known for his expert turn as
Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
That wouldn’t be the last time chocolate would help his career.
A product placement deal with Raisenettes helped get Blazing Saddles off the ground.
They’re shown in a scene where Harvey Korman stops to buy a few at the movie theater at
the end of the film.
Mel said that it also helped increase the sales of Raisenetes, and he got 12 dozen of
them every month.
What’s your favorite Mel Brooks film?
Let us know in the comments below.
Description What’s your favorite Mel Brooks film?
Are you a fan of his willingness to push the boundaries of what’s acceptable in comedy?
His most daring project was Blazing Saddles.
It was a strange parody of the Western genre with racial slurs, outlandish scenes, and
plenty of physical comedy.
It was even the first to include fart sounds.
What else could you expect from cowboys who ate beans all day?
There was even a character inspired by a flatulence performer.
Getting a movie like Blazing Saddles off the ground wasn’t easy.
The writers argued over what and what not to include, and the studio heads thought it
was too vulgar.
At least one suggestive scene had to be cut out.
Other things were added in by happy accidents, such as random extras wandering in and ad-libbed
additions to lines.
It took positive outside showings to prove it was worthwhile.
They fittingly arrived on horseback to see the future hit.
Finding the right cast was key to its success.
Cleavon Little delivered his lines as Sherrif Bart perfectly.
Gene Wilder added another iconic role to his resume as the Waco Kid.
Madeline Kahn got to show off her talent and her legs as Lili von Shtupp.
Alex Karras the football player got to pursue a new dream.
There was also a bit of negotiating behind the scenes.
Gene agreed to sign on if Mel would help get Young Frankenstein off the ground.
The composer was never told they were writing for a comedy.
A product placement deal with Raisenettes provided the necessary finances as well as
packs and packs of candy.
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Watch our video to learn about more Blazing Saddles secrets producers kept hidden from
the public.