{"id":933932,"date":"2026-05-03T00:20:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T00:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/933932\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T00:20:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T00:20:19","slug":"the-1970-movie-mel-brooks-called-his-most-overlooked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/933932\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1970 movie Mel Brooks called his most overlooked"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Every<\/p>\n

Every Mel Brooks movie ranked from worst to best \u2013 Far Out Magazine (Credis: Far Out \/ Columbia Pictures \/ 20th Century Fox \/ Columbia TriStar Film…<\/p>\n

Mel Brooks<\/a>\u00a0has enjoyed unprecedented success in the film industry as a director and comedian.\u00a0He started working in show business at the\u00a0ripe old\u00a0age of 14,\u00a0and made it to Hollywood in his early 20s to write for radio. <\/p>\n

There, he met Carl Reiner, who would become one of his greatest collaborators. With sketches like\u00a0The\u00a02,000 Year\u00a0Old Man, Brooks and Reiner made a name for themselves, and they began\u00a0to devise\u00a0more expansive projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead of continuing to work as a writer and comedian, Brooks decided to start directing his own screenplays. His feature debut, The Producers, is still a comedy classic, starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel as a duo trying to make the worst Broadway play of all time. For the next three decades, Brooks continued to produce comedy classics, including Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights.<\/p>\n

He is not, in short, an underrated filmmaker. However, even the most revered directors have movies that fall through the cracks, and Brooks is no exception. Speaking to Consequence<\/a> in 2020, the director reminisced about his 1970 period satire The Twelve Chairs. Adapted from Ilia Ilf and Evgenii Petrov\u2019s 1928 novel of the same name, the film is set in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and follows three men from very different backgrounds who set out to find jewels hidden in one of 12 chairs that went missing during the revolution. <\/p>\n

Sandwiched between\u00a0The Producers\u00a0and\u00a0Blazing Saddles<\/a>,\u00a0The Twelve Chairs\u00a0was met warmly by critics but ignored by audiences. Even now, when Brooks is a beloved icon and EGOT winner, it remains an overlooked gem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Mel<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ TCM<\/p>\n

That muted reception left the film in an unusual position within Brooks\u2019 catalogue. While it carried the same sharp wit and attention to character as his more famous works, it lacked the immediate, broad appeal that helped his other comedies become cultural staples. As a result, it quietly slipped past the mainstream despite strong critical support.<\/p>\n

Over time, however, its reputation has shifted. Rather than being seen as a misstep, The Twelve Chairs has gained appreciation as a more nuanced and heartfelt entry in Brooks\u2019 filmography, one that reveals a different side to his comedic instincts and rewards those willing to seek it out.<\/p>\n

According to its director, the movie was more of an \u201cart film\u201d than a broad, crowd-pleasing comedy. As a result, it had a very limited distribution and only played in cities that had arthouse cinemas. Still, he got letters from people for years who discovered it in television reruns. \u201cAnd they\u2019re always these wonderful, emotional letters of how much they loved it,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s all very nice. Of all the movies I\u2019ve made, it\u2019s one of my top favourites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps if the film had been released after Brooks had scored more than one hit, it might have fared better at the box office, but he didn\u2019t yet have the legions of fans who would reliably show up to the cinema no matter what he was offering. <\/p>\n

The fact that it still hasn\u2019t earned the audience it deserves is the strangest thing, especially considering its cast. Blazing Saddles actor Dom DeLuise plays a priest, and Frank Langella makes his debut as a down-and-out con artist. \u201cIt is an extraordinarily sweet memory,\u201d Langella told<\/a> the Los Angeles Times in 1997. \u201cI think it has the most heart of any film Mel has ever made. It has tremendous warmth and sweetness.\u201d<\/p>\n

For whatever reason, The Twelve Chairs remains under the radar, but it is still widely available for people to watch, which will come as great news for Brooks fans who have worn out their copies of The Producers and Blazing Saddles.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every Mel Brooks movie ranked from worst to best \u2013 Far Out Magazine (Credis: Far Out \/ Columbia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,10621,3943,16,15],"class_list":["post-933932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-mel-brooks","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116507786274081053","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}