under-play of great material; can't believe Brooks did this!

Rating: 1/10 (3 August 2004)

The great material Brooks wrote was just not played up enough. Everything about this should be over-the-top! It's hard to believe Mel Brooks directed this.
The only thing I can surmise is that anything more would have been just too scandalous in 1968.
In the small screen version, most of the camera shots are too close to let the physical aspects shine. It's not just the falls that "fall" flat but the exaggerated postures and other physical elements don't work. It's just not funny for a guy to walk in the door shooting a gun when the camera is right on top of two grown men wrestling around on the floor and couch. The close camera work was successful in "Young Frankenstein" only because the facial expressions had to be captured to go with the very important dialogue and word play.
Go see the stage production!