Word: brookes
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Blazing Saddles is full of inspired concepts, but Brook's insipid direction dilutes their strength. His acting is no better: Instead of comedic precision or subtlety, Brooks offers the sort of mugging and clowning found in bad summer camp skits...
Gene Wilder, who appears late in the film as a drunk ex-gunslinger, adds some lustre to the cast. He is a veteran of Brook's The Producers (1968) and The Twelve Chairs (1970), both of which--like Blazing Saddles--were blessed in potential and mangled in execution. Considerations of loyalty and ability should have motivated Brooks to write a bigger part for Wilder, who is one of the most accomplished young comedians in American movies...
...fifth period and plead with me to see the light and be saved. He was just sure that I had Christ in me. (I would have been flattered, but he said that to all the Jewish girls). Charlie didn's stop at anything to bring Christ into Mountain Brook. He used to speak once a week at Morning Watch (a daily prayer gathering of students and teachers) and warn that all non-believers would burn in Hell unless they saw THE WAY. But the crowd was usually mixed, half Jewish and atheist hecklers and the other half holy-rolling believers...
...filled to capacity. Dr. Patterson, the principal, walked out on to the stage. He called Charlie to come stand beside him. So gawking, hillybilly-ish 6 ft. 5 in. Charlie moseyed down there. Dr. Patterson started talking about what an inspiration Charlie had been since his arrival at Mountain Brook--not only as an athlete but as a person. Poor, humble Charlie didn't know what was going on. Finally Dr. P.--"D.P." we used to call him behind his back--got to the point. The faculty had decided to retire Charlie's basketball jersey--they figured that...
...imagine what's going on at Mountain Brook High School this very minute--plans to unretire Charlie's jersey or some other fitting gesture to purge our souls of his influence...