MEL AS MENTOR Part One

THE ADVENTURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES' SMARTER BROTHER (1975: Dir. Gene Wilder)

Melvin James Kaminsky a.k.a. Mel Brooks has a lot to answer for. Almost single-handedly he changed the face of American comedy with a series of taboo breaking comedies that still have the power to shock with their non-p.c. humour and juvenile vulgarity. His influence would extend to generations of imitators and acolytes, but the first film to really channel Mel's unique brand of tomfoolery, was this hilarious Sherlock Holmes pastiche. By gathering together talent from previous Brooks productions, director-screenwriter Gene Wilder, star of The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein (co-written with Brooks), created an almost perfect copy of a Mel Brooks film without Mel's name appearing anywhere in the credits. From Madeline Kahn doing a Brit music hall version of her Lili Von Schtupp character from Blazing Saddles ( 1974), to Marty Feldman reprising his guileless sidekick from Young Frankenstein (1974), and finally Dom DeLuise hamming it up as a blackmailing Italian opera singer in the same larger-than-life style as his Russian orthodox priest from The Twelve Chairs (1970), Wilder successfully revisited the same style of endearingly zany comedy that had resulted from his unique partnership with Brooks. As a smart screenwriter he also knew how to exploit himself as leading man, particularly in featuring the championship fencing skills this young Anglophile had acquired during his student days at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Casting in a Conan Doyle interpretation is crucial and like other successful parodies, this film contains such a high calibre of British thespians in all of the featured roles that they could well have performed in a dramatic version of  the same story, including Roy Kinnear, Wilder's previous co-star from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), and Douglas Wilmer, nimbly lampooning his BBC TV Sherlock Holmes role from the Sixties. One of a small group of films that never fail to make me laugh out loud, The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother  is a worthy successor to the movie madness of Mel Brooks. A goofy, naughty, romantic romp that begins with a profane Queen Victoria and ends with the three stars hopping around like kangaroos in a public park. DVD & BLU-RAY