Want to know the best Mel Brooks movies? How about the worst Mel Brooks movies? Curious about Mel Brooks box office grosses or which Mel Brooks movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Mel Brooks movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Mel Brooks (1926-) is an American Oscar®-winning writer, actor, comedian, filmmaker, composer and songwriter. His IMDb page shows over 50 acting credits since 1961. This page will rank Mel Brooks movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television roles, cameos, shorts and straight to DVD movies were not included in the rankings. Overall Mel Brooks has over 350 IMDb credits…the earliest was in 1949.
Drivel Part Of The Page: The other day I was reading the tributes to the late Garry Marshall who passed away on Tuesday. One of the condolence celebrity tweets I read was from Mel Brooks. That got me to think about three things: (1) Wow…..Mel Brooks is on Twitter! (2) I hope when I am 90 I am on top of the latest technological advancements like he is and (3) I should do a UMR page on Mel Brooks. So I decided to listen to myself….and here is a Mel Brooks UMR page.
Mel Brooks Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews, and awards.
Mel Brooks Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Mel Brooks movies by his co-stars
- Sort Mel Brooks movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Mel Brooks movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Mel Brooks movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Mel Brooks movie received.
- Sort Mel Brooks movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Mel Brooks
1. Melvin James Kaminsky was born on June 28, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York. After regularly getting being confused with the Borscht Belt trumpet player Max Kaminsky….he took the name “Mel Brooks” as his stage name. His mother’s maiden was Brookman.
2. Mel Brooks was a corporal in the United States Army during World War II. He defused land mines.
3. Mel Brooks big break was being hired by Sid Caesar as a writer for the television show, Your Show Of Shows. Neil Simon and Carl Reiner were also on that writing staff.
4. Two of Mel Brooks’ movies are still listed in the Top 125 Biggest Box Office Hits (Adjusted) of All-Time: 1974’s Blazing Saddles is 51st and 1974’s Young Frankenstein is 124th. Now that is a good year.
5. Mel Brooks has been nominated for 3 Oscars®. He won a Best Screenplay Oscar® for 1967’s The Producers. He received two Golden Globe® acting nominations: 1976’s Silent Movie and 1977’s High Anxiety.
6. Mel Brooks’ favorite two movies are 1937’s La Grande Illusion and 1948’s Bicycle Thieves.
7. In 1982’s My Favorite Year the character of Benjamin Stone was based on Mel Brooks, while Alan Swann was based on Errol Flynn. Peter O’Toole got a much deserved Oscar® nomination for playing Swann in that movie.
8. Mel Brooks was married twice. He had three children with his first wife. His second marriage was to Oscar® winning actress, Anne Bancroft from 1964 until her death in 2005. They had one son…Emmy® winner Max Brooks.
9. Mel Brooks was considered for the role of Dr. Sam Loomis in 1978’s Halloween.
10. Best friends with Carl Reiner. Both of them widowers, they hang out and watch movies together every night. I bet there are stories shared in that room.
Check out Mel Brooks’ career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
Good subject for a article. I have always found him hit and miss with more misses than hits. Still Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, The Producers and Spaceballs are comedy classics. 90 years old? Then again he served in World War II but had to be a young man. Lots of information here.
Hey Helakoski…..thanks for checking out my latest page. I agree with you that those 4 movies are indeed comedy classics. I actually did not like Spaceballs on my first viewing…..but it has gotten better with time. Actually now that I have done this page…I have to admit…I am getting the urge to re-view Spaceballs again. 90 and he is still going strong.
1 it always struck me that like Woody Allen Mel Brooks evoked contrasting emotions in that people either loved or loathed their movies. Certainly those who love Mel are vast in their numbers as witnessed by the massive box office success of Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles.
2 Bruce tells us that Mel’s favourite films were La Grande Illusion and Bicycle Thieves and accordingly in my opinion Mel showed greater taste in his liking of other people’s movies than he at times displayed in his own.
3 Indeed I saw an interview with him in which he conceded that many observers had dubbed him “No Taste Brooks” He didn’t sound as if he agreed with them though ! In that interview I found him funnier than I had ever regarded any of his films and he came across as very likeable.
LOOSELY ASSOCIATED TRIVIA
4 I saw an interview with Viittorio De Sica in which he discussed the Bicycle Thieves beloved by Mel Brooks and De Sica claimed that he had been “offered” Hollywood’s own Cary Grant for the role of the unemployed father who hunts down the thief in the film. However he felt that as Grant [whom he described as “a great actor” ] was also a massive star his presence might have upset the balance of the film so De Sica opted for a relatively unknown Italian actor for the lead.
5 For those who feel that Grant would have been unsuited to such a downbeat part perhaps a viewing of None but the Lonely Heart would change minds. It is true that as the chart above shows that film not being the usual Grant feelgood movie did poorly at the box office; but critics praised the acting in the movie with Grant being nominated for an Academy Award and Ethel Barrymore as his sick mother winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
BOB
I was turning off the computer when I saw this comment that I missed…..I will do this one first thing in the morning.
Hey Bruce,
A De Sica’s page might be a good idea. He was a very big star in Italy. May be the biggest, before Mastroianni. An international star and one of the biggest italian director. At least, the biggest at the Italian box office.
Hey Laurent….I will add De Sica to the the request list….at this point I nothing about him. And I thought I was a movie buff….lol. I am currently working on my latest classic page…..one of the stats I found was that she (yep an actress) had the highest grossing movie in France in 1944 with 5,438,665 tickets sold in France. any guesses who is coming?
Hello Bruce, I just saw your comment. So, the actress was Esther Williams. It’s easy now lol. But I can say 713 spectators more saw Bathing Beauty (since it is this film ) in theatres last year.
Hey Laurent….yeah….now the question seems pretty easy…lol. I did give you a shout out in the Esther Williams page.
Hey Bob.
1. I think you are right….there seems to be no middle ground. Spaceballs is the best example of that…if you mention that movie to some….a smile comes out quickly and they start quoting the movie…..while others groan and say how bad that one was.
2. I actually sent a tweet to Mel Brooks asking what would make up the rest of his Top 5…..not surprisingly I did not get a response. WoC had a dream…and it was about doing pages on people’s Top 5 movies….in her dream there was a good response. In the dream it was a mix of actors and fans…..she in the past her dreams have offered up some good suggestions.
3. Mmmmmm No Taste Brooks….funny. Glad his interview was enjoyable. Last week the girls were watching Hotel Translyvania….and somehow the ended up listening to the DVD commentary…and the director was talking about Brooks and how awesome he was to work with….probably another reason why Brooks made our radar.
4. I can see De Sica’s point…not thinking Grant would have been able to make that movie better…..and probably much worse….which pains me to say…because I am a huge Grant fan.
5. Being a huge Grant fan….I did not like None But The Lonely Heart at all….I watch Grant movies over and over…..and yes he gives a good performance in the movie….it is just too depressing. So over the last 30 or so years…Lonely Heart has only gotten 2 viewings compared to Charade and Father Goose and others which get yearly viewings.. that is almost nothing. Ethel Barrymore is indeed awesome in the role…and deserved her Oscar for sure.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Mel Brooks.
Wow…I had just told Laurent on the previous comment…that I was unaware of who De Sica was…..then I read your mention of Bicycle Thieves ….and I realize I should probably look up De Sica see what he made.
HI BRUCE
1 I agree with you that None but the Lonely Heart was depressing but so was Bicycle Thieves and I was trying to illustrated that Cay Grant was more than a screwball comedy
actor and could ‘do depressed’ effectively as a serious actor.
2 Not only was De Sica an acclaimed director but he had an acting career spanning 60 years from the silent days commencing in 1917. I doubt though if even you would make much headway in tracking down reliable grosses for them as the were almost invariably Italian/European productions and I can recall only one truly Hollywood mainstream film that he appeared in – A Farewell to Arms (1957). However his stature within the film industry was such that he got star billing in that movie along with Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones.
Hey Bob.
1. Good point about None But The Lonely Heart. I agree with you that Grant was more than a screwball comedy actor….but I offer up Only Angels Have Weeks, Suspicion, Notorious and Holiday as examples of his serious acting.
2. For years Steve has been trying to get me to do pages without the box office grosses….I guess I am an old dog….because I do not want to give up that bone….lol. Maybe De Sica has some information out there….I remember when I did my DeMille page…and I was convinced it would be impossible to do……but one visit to the William and Mary library and I found a book with almost all of his box office grosses….I have faith there is a De Sica book just waiting for me…..lol. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it…lol.
BRUCE
1 I agree with you about Suspicion, Notorious etc and would even add North by Northwest but there was still the element of the dashing Grant in some of these roles serious though they were.
2 Bicycle Thieves would have been a different kettle of fish with the character being as unglamourous as the Fonda character in Grapes of Wrath and I think that None but the Lonely Heart would have been nearer to it. I don’t give up bones too easily either !!!
BOB
Hey Bob.
1. Got it….I now understand your point. In some ways he is like Bruce Willis….he branched out in different types of movies but it was the screwball comedies everybody remembers. Willis has done lots of other movies besides action yet it is only the action movies people remember.
2. De Sica sounds like a page that will require a serious amount of time. An actor and a director…goodness I am almost afraid to look up how many IMDb credits he has….lol. I have seen the Cooper version of Farewell but not the Hudson version….plus I saw the Bullock version too.
Thanks for the further explanations.
For exemple, De Sica played in Pane, Amore e Fantasia, the movie who made Gina Lollobrigida a star, and he directed La Ciociara, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow, Marriage Italian Style
Hey Laurent….thanks for information on De Sica….it sounds like a tough challenge….but sometimes I like the challenge to be tough.
Excellent website, and I love the Brooks page. One of the world’s great comedy treasures.
I’ve seen 14 of those movies in his list.
Hey Hunsecker…..thanks for sharing the amount of movies you have watched….and thanks for visiting the site and commenting….all are greatly appreciated. At 90 and he is still going strong. I hope he is following the blue print of George Burns, Kirk Douglas and Olivia de Havilland…and that in 10 years we will be talking about him celebrating his 100th birthday. We do a tally callout here…your 14 is currently in 3rd place. Cogerson 17, Steve 15, you 14 and Laurent 9. The really cool thing the tallies come from around the entire world.
All quiet on the western front? Good. Mel Brooks, one of my favorite comedy directors, hmm he might actually be my favorite I can’t think of any others. Ivan Reitman? he’s okay, screwed up the Ghostbusters franchise though. Paul Feig? Nah. Woody Allen? Is he still funny? I liked John Landis but he seems to have disappeared.
So, what was this page about again? [pans up] Oh yes Mel Brooks. I saw two of his films at the cinema during the 70s – Blazing Saddles (which I saw on various double bills in 76,77 and 79 according to my files) and Young Frankenstein, which was released in 1975 here in the UK. In those days we had to wait months for a US film to reach these shores.
Blazing Frankenstein and Young Saddles are my two favorite Mel Brooks comedies. I’ve seen 16 of the 19 films listed, the three I haven’t seen are – Little Rascals, The Producers (2005) and The Muppet Movie (I’ve never watched a muppet movie, he shamefully admitted).
Other favorites include – History of the World P.1, High Anxiety and Spaceballs.
Good to see Young Frankenstein topping the charts here, it’s arguably Mel Brooks masterpiece and quite probably the greatest movie spoof of all time.
Well that’s it Bruce, to quote Hedley Lamarr my mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention. 🙂
A nice tribute to a comedy legend Bruce. Voted Up.
Hey Steve.
1. Glad we picked one of your favorites (sorry one of your favourites). He is one of the better comedy directors for sure. I think Woody Allen during the 1970s was close….but Woody got serious.
2. Mel Brooks’ 1974/75 was awesome. I imagine after the back to back successes of Young Saddles he was offered the world by studios.
3. How times change…now you get the movies before us….or right with us.
4. Tally count: Cogerson 17, Steve 15, Hunsecker 14 and you 9…..a gold for me…proud day…it has been awhile…I have not seen Little Rascals or his Dracula movie…..but I have the rest covered.
5. I remember having high hopes for High Anxiety….I was disappointed in that one….over the years it has reached “it is ok” status…..but I am glad you liked it. Probably the Hitchcock in your.
6. Stop the presses….Steve agrees Young Frankenstein is the top movie….confetti falling from the ceiling…my eyes are watering up….proud day…..I tell ya proud day.
7. Are you prejudiced against Muppets? Not one watched? Orson Welles is in the movie with Brooks….even Orson can’t get you to watch a Muppet movie….sadly you do not know what you are missing….lol.
Hello Bruce,
I’ve seen 9 movies of this list. My favorite is Young Frankenstein (big success at the french box office). My favorite reply is “I killed more people than Cecil B. DeMille” in Blazing Saddles (little success in France).
Hey Laurent….as always thanks for stopping by. Wow…Young Frankenstein was big in France…yet Blazing Saddles was not….that is amazing especially since they came out the same year. I imagine being a western is what hurt the movie in France. 9 is good. Let’s see Cogerson 17, Steve 15, Hunsecker 14 and you 9. Thanks for the viewpoint from France. Are you ready for some more stats?
Yes, I’m always ready for stats lol. I’ve already sent you 1936 and 1937. You’ve receipt them ?
Hey Laurent….yep got them…..just Debbie has not downloaded them…..when it comes to input tables like that…I let the computer expert do that…..the amount code she has in the program is mind boggling….and I could easily ruin it…lol. I will send you the rest of the 1930s tomorrow morning.