7 Best Mel Brooks Movies, Ranked

Mel Brooks is one of the most notable auteurs in American cinema, known for doing whatever it takes to entertain and make his audience laugh. But before Brooks made some of the funniest movies in cinema, he was a pivotal comedy writer in the early days of television.

He collaborated with lifelong friend Carl Reiner to create incredible works, including The 2,000-Year-Old Man. Not to mention the man co-created Get Smart, the spy spoof sitcom.

However, Brooks, who is set to turn 100 this coming June, is most beloved for his hilarious movies. Almost all of his movies are parodies of our favorite movie genres, from silent films to monster movies to comedy Westerns.

Let’s skim through Mel Brooks’ seven best movies.

7 Must-See Mel Brooks Classics

1. Young Frankenstein (1974)

Young Frankenstein is Mel Brooks’ most disciplined and visually inventive film. It follows the grandson of Victor Frankenstein (Gene Wilder), who returns to his grandfather’s castle in Transylvania and discovers a book titled How I Did It, by Frederick Frankenstein. He begins his elder’s work, which happens to be nothing less than the creation of a monster (Peter Boyle).

Since both Wilder and Brooks wrote the script, the film lacked Brooks’ broad, bawdy jokes but had plenty of gags throughout. However, like all Brooks’ comedies, there’s a classic Hollywood-style musical number near the end.

2. Blazing Saddles (1974)

Blazing Saddles is Brooks' comedy Western. Corrupt attorney general Hedley Lamarr wants to run a railroad through Rock Ridge and needs to drive the townspeople out. He plans to appoint a Black sheriff, reasoning that the racist townsfolk will revolt and abandon the place.

Instead, Sheriff Bart (Cleavon Little) outsmarts everyone, including Jim, the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder), an alcoholic gunslinger he recruits as his deputy. The two form an unlikely partnership that saves the town.

The film's dialogue is endlessly quotable, and Brooks uses the genre to take direct aim at the racism embedded in classic Westerns and American mythology.

3. The Producers (1968)

The Producers stars Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder as Max Bialystock, a failing Broadway producer, and Leo Bloom, a meek accountant. Together, they plan to become rich by making a production that’s guaranteed to fail. Their recipe for failure has a name, “Springtime for Hitler,” with a dance line of jackbooted SS girls and lyrics like, “Don’t be stupid, be a smarty! Come and join the Nazi Party!”

To produce a musical based on the dictator was, of course, in the worst possible taste for an audience seeking to escape the reality of the outside world. And in the movie, both the desperate men are counting on the audience’s reaction.

The Producers is living proof that Brooks could get away with anything with his humor and storytelling. Mostel was a serious actor, but his performance here is a masterpiece of low comedy.

4. High Anxiety (1977)

Brooks’ High Anxiety is a pastiche homage to the films of the Master of Suspense, Hitchcock.

In the movie, Dr. Richard Thorndyke (Brooks), a Harvard professor, has just become the director of an institution for the Very, Very Nervous. As he observes a series of mysterious occurrences inside the building and raises doubts about a criminal extortion scheme, he is accused of murder by his colleagues, forcing the doctor to prove his innocence. And, as with most Hitchcock homages, there’s a climactic altercation at a great height waiting at the end.

Hollywood legend has it that Hitchcock once sent Brooks six bottles of 1961 Château Haut-Brion to express his appreciation for the engaging parody of his body of work.

5. Silent Movie (1976)

Mel Brooks can go to great lengths for a laugh, and it works for him triumphantly. Silent Movie is set in contemporary Hollywood, when Big Picture Studios teeters on the edge of bankruptcy. It follows Mel Funn (Brooks), a once-talented director who cut his career short through alcoholism, who vows to save the studio by convincing the biggest stars to make a silent movie.

Silent Movie is filled with great classic moments: the battle with the Coke machine, the nightclub scene, the photo fiasco involving sexpot Vilma Kaplan, the Pong game in the intensive-care unit, and many more. Silent Movie is indeed a very funny film.

6. Spaceballs (1987)

Spaceballs is a Star Wars parody: a planet that is run by a Darth Vader spoof (Rick Moranis) plans to steal another planet’s air supply to replenish its own. So, a Han Solo-type character (Bill Pullman) tries to stop them.

Though we don’t see many great parodies today, there was a huge market for them back in 1987.

7. History of the World, Part I (1981)

Mel Brooks’ History of the World, Part I is a farce told in five historical vignettes centered on the Stone Age, the Old Testament, the Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition, and the French Revolution. The film features Mel Brooks’ face in almost all the scenes, as well as some fine performances from the supporting cast, including Gregory Hines, Cloris Leachman, and Madeline Kahn.

Summing It Up

Do you have a favorite Mel Brooks movie that didn’t make the list?

Let us know in the comments.