03 April 2013

Blazing Saddles... in 1965?

Esquire, 1965


Blazing Saddles- The French Mistake by smartwatermelon

Inspiration... it can come from the darndest places.  Having said that, I reckon we're all products of our culture and times.  Mel Brooks, who is featured in the new issue of M, might well have seen this cartoon by Rowland Wilson in a 1965 Esquire.  Only a year after marrying Anne Bancroft... I like to think Anne pointed it out to him.

Brooks breaks the fourth wall in 1974's Blazing Sadlles with a final fight scene kicked off by a Busby Berkeley musical number called the 'French Mistake.' I assume you know what the French Mistake is but I also assume you've seen Blazing Saddles.  I could easily be wrong on both counts.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It’s very close to the varsity rag from a June Allyson Peter Lawford movie “good news” from 1947