Behind the Scenes: Blazing Saddles (Brooks, 1974) with Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little

Behind the Scenes: Blazing Saddles (Brooks, 1974) with Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little

Blazing Saddles uh was for me was a film that that  that truly broke ground. Uh it also broke wind. Uh   and maybe that’s why it broke ground, but there  were a lot of uh there were there were a lot of   avanguard uh conceptions in that movie. I wrote a  script, first draft, 1971. That’s where it began.  

and Warner Brothers, lo and behold, bought it,  much to my amazement. Um, and they hired Alan Arin   to direct it and James Jones to play the Black  Sheriff. And for some reason that fell apart.   So they said, “How about Mel Brooks?” I said,  “Mel Brooks asking me he’s one of my heroes.”   They sent the script to Mel and he he read it,  liked it.

 We talked a little bit about it and   uh Warner Brothers gave him Cart Crush. What in  the hell do you think you’re doing here? This   is a closed set. Piss on you. I’m working for Mel  Brooks. Not in the face. So Mel decided he wanted   to direct it, but he wanted to rewrite it and he  wanted to make it. He called me up, said, “I want   to make this a parody of every western you’ve  ever seen.

” Usually you throw out the original   uh writer always. You just get him off the set.  You get rid of him because he’s trouble. He’s a   lot of trouble. I like Bergman. I like what he his  his uh his concept was very basic. His concept was   play 1874 in 1974. I said, “Okay, great. We can do  that.” It’s 1974 in 1874 is what it is.

 You know,   you have a black we have Eldidge Cleaver riding  into town on a pony and you don’t even you don’t   even you you make the joke with the Gucci bags and  and that he’s hip and that’s it. You just you take   it for granted. You don’t you don’t examine it.

 I  wanted Richard Prior to play the lead, but I said,   “Wait a minute. Richard’s smart. maybe we’ll  make Richard. He was only a nightclub comic then.   Nobody knew him. So I I called Richard and I said,  “Richard, come write with us.” He said, “Okay.”   The writing process was insane.

 Um when there were  five of us writing, which which was about 8 weeks   of of a first draft. It was like writing the  show of shows again. It was all being in a room   competing with each other. It was really hilarious  between I mean Mel and Richie. It was a really   funny room. People had different specialties. For  instance, instead of writing the black sheriff,   Richard Prior concentrated on [ __ ] the character  Alex Caris play, he wrote most of the [ __ ]   stuff.

 I mean, he he loved [ __ ] He came up with  crazy stuff like [ __ ] Only Porn, and Game of   Life. I mean, just insane, wonderful, brilliant  stuff. What would happen is it was be like a game   of telephone. The joke was like nobody can really  remember whose joke was what anymore because it   would start one way and go around the room and  come back in another form. Uh, and it was really   exciting. It was really, really funny because we  knew nobody’s going to go see this movie.

 So, we   threw in everything but the but the kitchen sink.  It’s it’s a pretty dumb movie, you know, when you   think of the plot. But, uh, we just use it as  as as a uh a basis to to make fun of people in   life. Everybody everybody gets, you know, slammed.  Well, I think he’s making the absurdity the whole   absurdities of what prejudices are about until we  laugh at ourselves.

 One of the first things on my   desk when we came out from New York was from their  censored department or the TV department actually   was four or five pages uh singularly spaced. One  word on the left side said delete and then every   curse word that’s in the picture. You know,  I couldn’t believe that somebody could do a   memo like that.

 Now, of course, if we did that,  you have a 9-minute movie and there’s no sense   making it. The engine that drove Blazing Saddles  was hatred of the black. It was race prejudice.   Without that, the movie would not have had nearly  the significance, the force, the dynamism and and   and the stakes that that that were contained in  the film.

 Well, I wasn’t there at the inception in   the writing stage, but that was one of the things  that made me want to do the film because I said   he he’s done something they’ve done something the  writers remarkable in that they’ve they’ve smashed   racism in the face and the nose is bleeding, but  they’re doing it while you laugh.

 And that’s what   I thought was one of the most brilliant things  about the movie. I was having a lot of problems   calling people what I was having to call them in  the thing. And I had a lot of problems. Stev was   great. When we were doing uh the scene out there  on the desert, he said, “If I thought you would   say those words to me in any other situation, you  know, we’d probably have we’d go to Fifth City.  

But this somebody wrote these words. This is all  fun. You say anything you want to say and if you   want to say it differently and even add stuff to  it, go right ahead. Mel will go along with that.   People say we can’t use those words. Those are  bad words. But you can use any words you want and   should. You couldn’t break Cleon Little’s heart  unless that little old lady said up yours.

 So,   you know, Gene Wilder puts his arm around him. You  know, so it was it was a perfect wonderful joke.   For a lot of reasons, you couldn’t make this movie  today because you couldn’t you couldn’t say in a   movie stage even in a comic way.

 I mean, Richie  Prior was like the last person who could do it in   a standup and he won’t do it anymore. It’s been  in a lot of movies, uh, a lot of serious films,   uh, tackled by very serious filmmakers. Uh, this  seemed to be a way to really hit hard at it and   call it what it was and what people are and still  laugh about it. We were celebrating the triumph of of humanity over its inherent hatreds and  prejudices. It was a total risk.

 I mean,   which you know, the movies that seem to attract  people, the ones of the most risk, and that’s   what’s gone today. You know, there’s no risk. It’s  too many stock options to risk anything. I went to   Warner Brothers and said, “Richard Prior is Black  Bart. He’s the guy. He’s brilliant.

 He’s going to   be a big star. Richie in those days was uh was  phenomenal and uh a little bit unreliable here   and there. I remember once we uh we were writing  and we were there and um Richie didn’t show up.   Phone rings. Richie, where are you? Detroit. What  are you doing in Detroit? Well, I met a couple of   girls tonight be last night. I’m in Detroit and  I need $200 to come back.

 So we sent him to Thorn   Box and he came back. Warner Brothers was afraid  to take a chance on Richard and so they decided   not to cast him in it. They wanted us to go with  um Skip uh Flip Wilson and uh it would have been   a different picture. And then fortunately they  found Cleon Little who was wonderful in the park.   I was very lucky to find Cleon Little who who was  a bit of a genius himself and sweetest guy that   ever lived and very talented, very sharp, very  handsome. Wanted Richard Brier, couldn’t get him.  

Got Cleon Little, very happy. Wanted the Waco Kid.  Wrote to uh a place in Hawaii where Dan Daly was   staying. Originally, the person that was hired for  it was Dan Dailyaly, the dancer and comedian. He’s   got a leathery old face. He’s a wonderful actor.  Uh he could play that old ale.

 He could play he   could play the old drunk. He he got cold feet.  He couldn’t. He said, “I can’t say words like   that.” So near the 11th hour, we were left with  with trying to find a uh a drunk. So we thought   we thought we thought who else could play the Waco  kid? I wanted a leatheryfaced guy, an older tala,   and um a guy who uh maybe had at one point in his  life an affair with the bottle, you know, uh an   old ale would be perfect for.

 We flirted a little  bit with Gig Young and Gig was going through a few   problems at that at that moment. So Mel turned to  Gan who had done the producers with him and Jean   basically did us a favor. First of all, Mel and  I were talking about uh Young Frankenstein at the   very earliest stage and he showed me a script uh  called Black Bart.

 Wasn’t called Blazing Saddles,   it was called Blackbart. And uh he had given it  to me and and uh asked me to read it and he said,   “How would you like to play?” And Headedley Lamar  and this was before Harvey Corman or anyone was in   it. And I said to Hedley Lamar, “No, I I’m all  wrong for that. Why don’t you uh why don’t you   think of me for the Waco Kid for Jim?” “No,  no, no, no. That’s what my wife says.

” Oh,   that’s her favorite part. No, no. I need an  older guy in Ali. Uh Down and Out. And then,   no, no. I said, “Well, I’m not right for Hedley  Lamar. It’s a wonderful part, but I’m not right.”   I wanted an old AL. I got a young Jew from from  New York to to play this western, you know, and   he was he was magnificent.

 And that’s how I got  the part of the Waco Kid, which I told him about   the first time he mentioned it. He says, “No, no,  you’re all wrong.” Harvey Corman is undeniably   uh one of the great comic geniuses of all time,  film geniuses. He could do anything. I had heard   that he had asked Carl Reiner. I know I wasn’t  the first choice. I’m never the first choice on   anybody’s list. I’m way down the list. You get  this guy. No, he’s caught too much.

 Get this   guy. No, he’s busy doing something else. Then they  get down to Corman. Way down to Corman. He’s the   ultimate sketch actor. And playing Hedley Demar,  he heightened all the rest of the stuff because   he is he can come up with stuff. And especially  in the scenes with Mel.

 My one regret is that the   first day of shooting uh was a scene where I’m in  the office and he’s signing I’m trying to get him   to sign something and there’s a whole thing with  a paddle and I was working too that was the first   day and I felt like I had to work too hard like  I had to prove myself that I was really going to   be okay in this part and I did a little too much  and I improvised a little too much and I made some   lines that were kept which I wasn’t that happy or  that proud of. I wish I could have taken the first  

day over again and just sort of eased into it.  He loved working with me so much that he laughed   on every take. So it was very difficult to get  to get them. Normally he doesn’t laugh. He can   he could hold it in. It was such great fun. It  was a fun set. Mel Mel insists that there is a   fun set.

 You can’t do a comedy without I’ve been  in comedies where the set is stressed and people   are worried about this or there’s egos going  on and temperament and all that stuff. You   can’t have that on a on a comedy set, at least  as far as I’m concerned. So, it’s always fun.   It’s great. There’s an improvis improvisatory.  People are jumping in with ID. It’s try this.   Let’s do it. This was indeed one of those kind of  pictures. Harvey knew what was going on.

 Jean knew   what was going on and Mel knew what was going on.  That’s about it. But the rest of us, we were just   kind of saying, “What in the world is this?”  You know, we couldn’t You can read a script,   but you can’t put it all together and do it in in  pieces and and think it’s going to be anything.   We just we thought this is crazy.

 If you get  together and everybody likes each other and helps   each other and is comfortable with each other and  wants to support each other, it works. He made the   uh lieutenant governor Headley Hedley Lamar by the  way. Hed Lamar sued us and um uh they said, “What   do we do? Should we go to court?” I said, “Give  her pay her. Give her whatever she wants.

” You   know, she’s Eddie Lamar. She’s given us, you know,  she was in the Casba with Charles Boyet. I mean,   we loved her so much. Pay her some money. To this  day, people I’ll I’ll be walking around, somebody   go, “Hey.” They go, “Hley.” People still remember  that. It’s amazing.

 Slim brought such history to   the picture. I mean, it’s was a bunch of New  York Jews doing this movie. You know, Wester   and there Slim Pickins, who’s Mr. West. He such  a westerner that when we were shooting the uh the   outdoor stuff up in I think Lancaster or Palmdale,  he had his he had his uh Winnebago and his rifle,   his Winchester, and when we came into the motel  at night, he stayed out there.

 He and his dog and   his campfire, his beans and his rifle. I said,  “Slim, you’ve made a a 100,000 movies. You know,   give me some advice.” He’d say, “Whenever you  get a chance, Mel, sit down.” I said, ‘Sit down.   That’s your advice. I’m asking Horse and Wells  how you make citizen K. He says, sit down. But   but he was right because you can become exhausted.  You know, Slim did not have words of wisdom.

 Yeah,   they were wise. But but they were not words of uh  uh how to act, how to hold your head, how to hold   your hands, where to look. They were his words  were do what feels natural to you. Say it the way   you want to say it.

 If they if they’re going to  buy you just like they’re going to buy me, that’d   be slim talk. Just like going to buy they’re going  to buy it the way we talk. And and boy, it worked   for him. It worked for me. We were eating eating  lunch uh in Warner Brothers commissary. And John   Wayne was sitting next to us and I mean it’s John  Wayne.

 I mean this is So John Wayne looks over to   me. He says, “I hear you doing a western with say  blow it out your ass.” Mel says, ‘Yeah, that’s   right, John. And Mel says, ‘ And I’d like you to  be in it. He says, ‘Oh, I can’t be in a western   like that, but I’ll be the first one to see it.

 I  did a lot of dirty, crazy things and got them into   the movie. The one thing Warner Brothers would not  let me put in was a very good joke. Really a good   joke. A little dirty, a little risque, but but but  really a good joke. Uh, they’re in the dark. Cleon   Little and Maline Khan Blackbart and Lily von  Stuper in the dark and they’re obviously making   love.

 Oh, and then you hear Cleon Little say, “I  hate to disappoint you, ma’am, but you’re sucking   on my arm.” So good. The crew loved it. You know,  it was one of the big we saw dailies. I mean,   it was one of the biggest laughs in the picture,  but Warner Brothers said, “You know, that’s that’s   over the limit, you So Meline, God bless her,  was the most talented, craziest, most inventive   person on that picture. I mean, she had a a a fit  just looking at herself in that costume.

 She was   she was all over the place. But when you turn that  camera on, she was phenomenal. Just phenomenal. I   mean, the two of us would stand next to the camera  biting into our hands watching her because she was   so right on. I mean, she really nailed it.

 She’s  she was one of our great actresses and it’s it’s a   shame she died at such a young age. You know, she  was up for an Academy Award for that, which is was   practically unheard of. Certainly very unusual in  those days. Even today for an Academy Award for an   for a comedy performance. She was truly brilliant  in that.

 I think I would say that Maline Khan was   the most talented actress I’ve ever worked with.  Uh she was she was she was tops and taps. You you   couldn’t beat Maline Khan. My favorite scene is  is the bean scene, the campfire scene. Uh and I   think it’s a lot of people’s favorite scene. And  I got to start it. Bel Brook said, “I’m going to   make you famous today.” I said, “Why?” And he  said, “Well, you read the script.

 you’re gonna   be the first one and you’re you are going to be  the first person in major motion picture history   to do that. I said, “Oh my gosh, they they won’t  let me go back to the fire department if I do   that.” Because I didn’t know if this was going to  work, you know. Uh and he said, “Because of this,   you won’t have to go back to the fire department.”  And he was right.

 Cowboys swill black coffee and   eat unconscionable amounts of of beans on these  tin plates. Ever since I was four years old,   that’s all they do. They sit around a campfire.  They eat a lot of beans and they drink a lot of   black coffee. Well, we figured out you eat that  many beans and you have a lot of black coffee,   you’re not going to be good company in about 20  minutes, you know, an hour later, that place is   going to be unlivable, you know.

 So, we just threw  it right into the movie, you It was it was part   of our, you know, discovering the west, the true  west. Meloy says when he mixed the scene, the the   campfire scene, they kept saying, “You can’t do  it that loud.” And he said, “No, no, no. Trust me,   it’s got to be that loud.

” And it was true because  after the first guy breaks wind, you don’t hear   anything anyhow in in in in an audience. All you  heard were people screaming because they it was   the surp of it that anybody had the audacity  to do that in a movie. You should see it on   television where they have to take all the sound  out. It looks like a a choreographed ballet of   cowboys getting up from where they were sitting  at a campfire and sitting down again.

 There will   never ever be another Blazing Saddles ever. And  uh and when I say it, I’m s I get chills talking   about that because there is nobody that I have  ever met who has ever seen Blazing Saddles and is   a Blazing Saddles fan that can that that picture  can can be topped by any other picture. None. This   is the finest comedy ever done. Bill Brooks, you  did a good job.

 If it came out today, I think it   would be the same. I don’t pe I don’t think people  would say, “Oh, it’s cute, an oldfashioned film.”   I don’t think they’d say that at all. It’s still a  modern film, and I think it always will be, which   makes it a classic. I think it will live forever.  It was uh outrageous.

 I think it paved the way for   other more outrageous pictures to come along. Sort  of gave courage to a lot of filmmakers to go, hey,   anything goes. Saddles is one of the few comedies  that is not only longlasting for audiences,   but it keeps throwing off money to the people  who made it in the first place. And I tell   everybody that I’m living in the house that Farts  built. Blazing Saddles was one of a kind.

 I mean,   it’ll it’ll be it’ll stand for all times  as as as a monumental American film comedy.