Today’s quick review: Silent Movie. Hollywood director Mel Funn (Mel Brooks), attempting to rebound from a slump in his career, pitches his new movie idea to the chief of Big Picture Studios (Sid Caesar): the first silent movie in 40 years. The chief, in desperate need of a hit, agrees on one condition: the film must be filled with stars. Together with his friends Marty Eggs (Marty Feldman) and Dom Bell (Dom DeLuise), Funn sets about recruiting the celebrities needed to make the film a hit.
Silent Movie is a comedy from Mel Brooks done in the style of an old silent film. The only sounds in the film are its soundtrack and a few comical sound effects. The humor focuses on slapstick, including Mel Brooks’ takes on several classic slapstick routines. The visual humor is supplemented with jokes about the medium and a few of Mel Brooks’ more typical jokes that do not need proper dialogue.
The plot and script are deliberately light, reminiscent of early 20th-century comedies. Funn, Eggs, and Bell roam around Hollywood in search of celebrities to recruit for their movie, including Burt Reynolds, James Caan, and Liza Minnelli. These comedy sequences form the bread and butter of the movie, but they have very little plot importance; the loss of any of these scenes would not hurt the story substantially.
As such, Silent Movie is a comedy with a pleasant flavor and very little substance, more a series of connected shorts than a cohesive whole. Watch it if you are in the mood for a breezy, experimental comedy with a healthy dose of slapstick. But Silent Movie offers little to those who are not fans of its particular brand of comedy; skip it unless the concept of a loving tribute to the silent films of old appeals to you.
6.7 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.5 to 7.0 for amusing comedy and a creative premise that somewhat constrains its story potential.