History of the World - Part I

20th Century-Fox. Dir Mel Brooks; Producer Mel Brooks; Screenplay Mel Brooks; Camera Woody Omens, Paul Wilson; Editor John Howard; Music John Morris Art Dir Harold Michelson, Stuart Craig

Mel Brooks
Dom DeLuise
Madeline Kahn
Cloris Leachman
Gregory Hines
Sid Caesar

Boisterous cinematic vaudeville show is comprised of five distinct sections: the 2001 parody Dawn of Man, The Stone Age, featuring Brooks' acid comment on the role of the art critic, and a brief 'Old Testament' bit, which together run 10 minutes; The Roman Empire, the best-sustained and, at 43 minutes, longest episode; The Spanish Inquisition, a splashy nine-minute production number; The French Revolution, a rather feeble 24-minute sketch; and Coming Attractions which, with end credits, runs six minutes and at least punches up the finale with the hilarious Jews in Space inter-galactic musical action number.

Although Monty Python's Life of Brian went well beyond Brooks in the blasphemy department, many of the pic's most successful gags poke holes in religious pieties. When Brooks as Moses comes down from the mountain, he's carrying three tablets. Frightened by a lightning blast, he drops one of them and quickly switches to 10 commandments instead of 15.

The one interlude which really brings down the house has Brooks working as a waiter at the Last Supper and asking the assembled group. 'Are you all together or is it separate checks?'

As the old ad line said, there's something here to offend everybody, particularly the devout of all persuasions and homosexuals.

(Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1981. Running time: 92 MIN.

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