The Ultimate Western Spoof. A town where everyone seems to be named Johnson is in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, Hedley Lemar, a politically connected nasty person, sends in his henchmen to make the town unlivable. After the sheriff is killed, the town demands a new sheriff from the Governor. Hedley convinces him to send the town the first Black sheriff in the west. Bart is a sophisticated urbanite who will have some difficulty winning over the townspeople.
Cast: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder
Crew: Mel Brooks (Director), Joseph F Biroc (Director of Photography), John Morris (Music Director)
Rating: A (India)
Genres: Comedy
Release Dates: 07 Feb 1974 (India)
Tagline: Never give a saga an even break!
Did you know? The scene in which Cleavon Little draws a gun upon himself to save himself from the townspeople's wrath was based on a childhood incident from Mel Brooks. Brooks said that once, to his disbelief, he stole some gum and a water pistol from a drugstore; when a store worker tried to stop him, Brooks held the worker at bay with the very water pistol he had just fingered from the store. Read More
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as Bart
as Jim
as Mongo
as Mongo
as Lyle
as Lyle
as Harriett Johnson
as Charlie
as Olson Johnson
as Olson Johnson
as Buddy Bizarre
as Van Johnson
as Hedley Lamarr
as Hedley Lamarr
as Howard Johnson
as Rev. Johnson
as Lili Von Shtupp
as Lili Von Shtupp
as Governor William J. Lepetomane
as Governor William J. Lepetomane
as Dr. Sam Johnson
as Miss Stein
as Taggart
Production
Producer
Production Company
Unit Production Manager
Writers
Screenplay Writer
Camera and Electrical
Director of Photography
Music
Music Director
Art
Production Designer
Casting
Casting Director
Choreography
Choreographer
Editorial
Editor
Makeup and Hair
Makeup Artist
Film Type:
Feature
Language:
English
Colour Info:
Color
Sound Mix:
Mono
Frame Rate:
24 fps
Aspect Ratio:
2.35:1
Stereoscopy:
No
Taglines:
Never give a saga an even break!
Filming Locations:
Santa Clarita, California
Grauman's Chinese Theater - 6925 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park - 10700 W. Escondido Canyon Rd., Agua Dulce, California
Laramie Street, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California
Stage 15, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California
Stage 28, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California
Grauman's Chinese Theater - 6925 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park - 10700 W. Escondido Canyon Rd., Agua Dulce, California
Laramie Street, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California
Stage 15, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California
Stage 28, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California
Goofs:
Audio/Video Mismatch
When Sheriff Bart is making his ride to Rock Ridge and he encounters Count Basie, Basie's band are not playing the music heard on the audio track. This is easily recognized if you watch the band's drummer, who isn't even playing his drum kit, let alone the actual drum patterns heard in the music.
Audio/Video Mismatch
While the cowboys try to get the railroad workers to sing, the cowboys sing and the banjo player plays the banjo but no sound is heard at all.
Audio/Video Mismatch
During the destruction of the Fake Rock Ridge, Taggart yells, "It's a fake! We've been suckered in!", but his mouth does not move.
Audio/Video Mismatch
No surprise that Lily is lip syncing, but it is really obvious as she emerges from behind the curtain. She is singing the word "hound", but her lips don't match that word.
Character Error
Toward the end of the film, when the fight spills onto the other set, at one point, it spills into the street. Participants in the scene are seen running out of the studio and around the street corner. As the shot pulls back to follow Hedly looking for a cab, the runners can be seen in the background, slowing to a walk, apparently thinking they are no longer visible. Once they realize they are still in the shot, they begin to run again.
Character Error
When the "bad guys" are about to shoot Bart, whom they have just learned is the new sheriff, they are all on horseback and aiming their handguns, which are all uncocked and cannot shoot.
Character Error
When Bart and the Waco Kid are playing chess, looking at the board, the game is not in checkmate.
Continuity
When the old woman brings a pie to Sheriff Bart, she places the pie on the window ledge. The camera goes to the Waco Kid and then back to the old woman as you see her put it on the ledge again.
Continuity
When Hedley re-emerges from the bathroom, we see that he has gotten hit in the face with a pie while in there and there is only a small portion of whipped cream on his face. However, when we see him hailing down a taxi in the next scene, there is a full, even layer of whipped cream on his face.
Continuity
Towards the end of the movie, Taggart kicks over a building and discovers the town is fake. Soon thereafter, the building, "Livery and Saddle Shop", is shown back upright and is then blown up.
Continuity
When Bart arrives in Rock Ridge and the "Welcome Sheriff" banner retracts, it flips once, leaving some of the writing still visible. When Bart walks over to unfurl it again, it is neatly closed with no writing visible.
Continuity
Right before, and during, the singing of "Camptown Ladies", the cowboy behind Lyle and to his left (our right) is wearing a white jacket that goes from being buttoned to un-buttoned to buttoned several times.
Continuity
When Bart first arrives in town in the desert, the wind is blowing and you can see a rubber band holding his cowboy hat in place. When he gets to town, the rubber band is gone.
Continuity
When the cowboys ride into the fake town, the buildings are simply facades. After Jim fires the gun and sets off the dynamite. The townspeople run in to "finish them off", the buildings are real.
Continuity
When Bart and Charlie exit the chain gang scene on the handcar to check out the quicksand up ahead, they are singing "Camptown Ladies" in Bb. The next shot shows them continuing to pump away on the handcar but the key has sharpened to C.
Factual Mistake
Hedy Lamarr's footprints do not appear in the concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
Miscellaneous
When Olson Johnson addresses the congregation after the attack of Taggart's men, he hails the children present there; however, there are no children present in that scene.
Miscellaneous
The movie lists Don Megowan as the gum chewer in Hedley Lamarr's line of villains. Actually, the gum chewer is _John Alderson (I)_ and Megowan was the big guy who went on stage to accost Lili Von Shtupp and got a knee in the groin. Both Alderson and Megowan were fixtures in '50s and '60s westerns.
When Sheriff Bart is making his ride to Rock Ridge and he encounters Count Basie, Basie's band are not playing the music heard on the audio track. This is easily recognized if you watch the band's drummer, who isn't even playing his drum kit, let alone the actual drum patterns heard in the music.
Audio/Video Mismatch
While the cowboys try to get the railroad workers to sing, the cowboys sing and the banjo player plays the banjo but no sound is heard at all.
Audio/Video Mismatch
During the destruction of the Fake Rock Ridge, Taggart yells, "It's a fake! We've been suckered in!", but his mouth does not move.
Audio/Video Mismatch
No surprise that Lily is lip syncing, but it is really obvious as she emerges from behind the curtain. She is singing the word "hound", but her lips don't match that word.
Character Error
Toward the end of the film, when the fight spills onto the other set, at one point, it spills into the street. Participants in the scene are seen running out of the studio and around the street corner. As the shot pulls back to follow Hedly looking for a cab, the runners can be seen in the background, slowing to a walk, apparently thinking they are no longer visible. Once they realize they are still in the shot, they begin to run again.
Character Error
When the "bad guys" are about to shoot Bart, whom they have just learned is the new sheriff, they are all on horseback and aiming their handguns, which are all uncocked and cannot shoot.
Character Error
When Bart and the Waco Kid are playing chess, looking at the board, the game is not in checkmate.
Continuity
When the old woman brings a pie to Sheriff Bart, she places the pie on the window ledge. The camera goes to the Waco Kid and then back to the old woman as you see her put it on the ledge again.
Continuity
When Hedley re-emerges from the bathroom, we see that he has gotten hit in the face with a pie while in there and there is only a small portion of whipped cream on his face. However, when we see him hailing down a taxi in the next scene, there is a full, even layer of whipped cream on his face.
Continuity
Towards the end of the movie, Taggart kicks over a building and discovers the town is fake. Soon thereafter, the building, "Livery and Saddle Shop", is shown back upright and is then blown up.
Continuity
When Bart arrives in Rock Ridge and the "Welcome Sheriff" banner retracts, it flips once, leaving some of the writing still visible. When Bart walks over to unfurl it again, it is neatly closed with no writing visible.
Continuity
Right before, and during, the singing of "Camptown Ladies", the cowboy behind Lyle and to his left (our right) is wearing a white jacket that goes from being buttoned to un-buttoned to buttoned several times.
Continuity
When Bart first arrives in town in the desert, the wind is blowing and you can see a rubber band holding his cowboy hat in place. When he gets to town, the rubber band is gone.
Continuity
When the cowboys ride into the fake town, the buildings are simply facades. After Jim fires the gun and sets off the dynamite. The townspeople run in to "finish them off", the buildings are real.
Continuity
When Bart and Charlie exit the chain gang scene on the handcar to check out the quicksand up ahead, they are singing "Camptown Ladies" in Bb. The next shot shows them continuing to pump away on the handcar but the key has sharpened to C.
Factual Mistake
Hedy Lamarr's footprints do not appear in the concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
Miscellaneous
When Olson Johnson addresses the congregation after the attack of Taggart's men, he hails the children present there; however, there are no children present in that scene.
Miscellaneous
The movie lists Don Megowan as the gum chewer in Hedley Lamarr's line of villains. Actually, the gum chewer is _John Alderson (I)_ and Megowan was the big guy who went on stage to accost Lili Von Shtupp and got a knee in the groin. Both Alderson and Megowan were fixtures in '50s and '60s westerns.
Trivia:
According to Mel Brooks' 1975 'Playboy' interview, "We mentioned Raisinets in Blazing Saddles and now the company sends me a gross of them every month. A gross of Raisinets!"
Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006.
According to Mel Brooks' audio commentary, Warner Bros released it again in the summer of 1975 because they didn't have any other big pictures to release.
Bart enters Lily's dressing room and says the German phrase: "wie gehts mein schatz", which in English means "How are you my darling."
The Indian Chief played by Mel Brooks speaks Yiddish. He says: "Blacks!" "Don't be crazy!" "Let them go!" "Have you ever seen in your life?!"
In Yiddish, to "shtupp" means to "push" or to "stuff", which is a double entendre. It has been replaced with "shhh" on some television broadcasts.
Mel Brooks also asked Johnny Carson to play the Waco Kid; he refused.
Mel Brooks wrote a song called "Bart" which would reveal that character's back-story as a pimp, but it was cut before filming began because he felt it slowed the film down and would make it less likely for audiences to sympathize with his plight.
The character of "Gabby Johnson" is a tribute to George "Gabby" Hayes. Mr Hayes appeared in nearly 200 films, nearly all westerns, including many early John Wayne films.
The scene in which Cleavon Little draws a gun upon himself to save himself from the townspeople's wrath was based on a childhood incident from Mel Brooks. Brooks said that once, to his disbelief, he stole some gum and a water pistol from a drugstore; when a store worker tried to stop him, Brooks held the worker at bay with the very water pistol he had just fingered from the store.
One day in the Warner Bros. studio commissary, Mel Brooks and the other writers were seated at a table opposite John Wayne ("the Duke"). The Duke turned and said he had heard about their Western, the one where people say stuff like "blow it out your ass". Mel handed the Duke a copy of the script and said, "Yes, and we'd like you to be in it." According to Brooks, the Duke turned down the offer the next day by saying, "Naw, I can't do a movie like that, but I'll be first in line to see it!"
At the end of the movie when the whole group is running out of the Warner Bros. studio front gates, there is a man in a sweater standing on the sidewalk, watching the action. Mel Brooks has said that the man was not part of the movie, and had simply wandered into the scene; they shooed him away and then went to film the scene -- the guy comes back into the shot and is seen standing next to a light pole as the characters stream past him down the street.
When the film was first screened for major Warner Bros. executives, almost no one in the audience laughed and the movie looked to be a disaster that the studio would not release. But Brooks quickly set up a subsequent screening for the WB studio's employees. When these regular folks laughed uproariously throughout the movie, Warner Bros. finally agreed to take a chance on releasing it.
Supposedly, this movie officially marks the first time the sound of farting has ever been used in a film (at least according to the film makers in the DVD Documentary). According to Mel Brooks, they came up with the idea after watching numerous old westerns where cowboys only consume black coffee and plates of beans, thus concluding that such a food combination would inevitably lead to farting.
During a speech awarding Mel Brooks as a Kennedy Center Honoree, President Barack Obama mentioned going to see Blazing Saddles (1974) at the age of 13. When Brooks asked how he got in with the ratings restriction, the president replied, "I think I had a fake ID," before adding, "The statute of limitations has passed."
When auditioning for the role of Lilly, Madeline Kahn was asked by Mel Brooks to pull up her skirt so he could see her legs. She was quite hesitant, being unclear of Brooks's intentions. Brooks actually just wanted to see if she had legs good enough to approximate Marlene Dietrich's famous "gams".
Mel Brooks never told Frankie Laine that the theme song "Blazing Saddles" was for a comedy. Frankie thought it was a dramatic western. Mel was worried Frankie wouldn't sing it with conviction if he knew the truth.
When Mel Brooks advertised in the show business trade papers for a "Frankie Laine-type" voice to sing the film's title song, he was hoping for a good imitator. Instead, Frankie Laine himself showed at Brooks' office two days later, ready to do the job but nobody told him the movie was a parody.
Hedy Lamarr sued Mel Brooks over the use of the name Hedley Lamarr and settled out of court. Mel said he was flattered by this attention.
According to Mel Brooks (in the commentary for Spaceballs (1987)) when Gene Wilder came on the cast for this movie, he requested that Brooks do his movie idea next. Gene Wilder's idea was Young Frankenstein (1974).
When Mongo rides into town, one Mexican says, "Mongo! Santa Maria!" Mongo Santamaría was a famous Cuban musician.
On the marquee at Graumann's Chinese Theater, the flashing title "Blazing Saddles" is a matte lay-in, covering the film's original title, "Black Bart." The final title of the movie wasn't decided until after principal photography.
Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006.
According to Mel Brooks' audio commentary, Warner Bros released it again in the summer of 1975 because they didn't have any other big pictures to release.
Bart enters Lily's dressing room and says the German phrase: "wie gehts mein schatz", which in English means "How are you my darling."
The Indian Chief played by Mel Brooks speaks Yiddish. He says: "Blacks!" "Don't be crazy!" "Let them go!" "Have you ever seen in your life?!"
In Yiddish, to "shtupp" means to "push" or to "stuff", which is a double entendre. It has been replaced with "shhh" on some television broadcasts.
Mel Brooks also asked Johnny Carson to play the Waco Kid; he refused.
Mel Brooks wrote a song called "Bart" which would reveal that character's back-story as a pimp, but it was cut before filming began because he felt it slowed the film down and would make it less likely for audiences to sympathize with his plight.
The character of "Gabby Johnson" is a tribute to George "Gabby" Hayes. Mr Hayes appeared in nearly 200 films, nearly all westerns, including many early John Wayne films.
The scene in which Cleavon Little draws a gun upon himself to save himself from the townspeople's wrath was based on a childhood incident from Mel Brooks. Brooks said that once, to his disbelief, he stole some gum and a water pistol from a drugstore; when a store worker tried to stop him, Brooks held the worker at bay with the very water pistol he had just fingered from the store.
One day in the Warner Bros. studio commissary, Mel Brooks and the other writers were seated at a table opposite John Wayne ("the Duke"). The Duke turned and said he had heard about their Western, the one where people say stuff like "blow it out your ass". Mel handed the Duke a copy of the script and said, "Yes, and we'd like you to be in it." According to Brooks, the Duke turned down the offer the next day by saying, "Naw, I can't do a movie like that, but I'll be first in line to see it!"
At the end of the movie when the whole group is running out of the Warner Bros. studio front gates, there is a man in a sweater standing on the sidewalk, watching the action. Mel Brooks has said that the man was not part of the movie, and had simply wandered into the scene; they shooed him away and then went to film the scene -- the guy comes back into the shot and is seen standing next to a light pole as the characters stream past him down the street.
When the film was first screened for major Warner Bros. executives, almost no one in the audience laughed and the movie looked to be a disaster that the studio would not release. But Brooks quickly set up a subsequent screening for the WB studio's employees. When these regular folks laughed uproariously throughout the movie, Warner Bros. finally agreed to take a chance on releasing it.
Supposedly, this movie officially marks the first time the sound of farting has ever been used in a film (at least according to the film makers in the DVD Documentary). According to Mel Brooks, they came up with the idea after watching numerous old westerns where cowboys only consume black coffee and plates of beans, thus concluding that such a food combination would inevitably lead to farting.
During a speech awarding Mel Brooks as a Kennedy Center Honoree, President Barack Obama mentioned going to see Blazing Saddles (1974) at the age of 13. When Brooks asked how he got in with the ratings restriction, the president replied, "I think I had a fake ID," before adding, "The statute of limitations has passed."
When auditioning for the role of Lilly, Madeline Kahn was asked by Mel Brooks to pull up her skirt so he could see her legs. She was quite hesitant, being unclear of Brooks's intentions. Brooks actually just wanted to see if she had legs good enough to approximate Marlene Dietrich's famous "gams".
Mel Brooks never told Frankie Laine that the theme song "Blazing Saddles" was for a comedy. Frankie thought it was a dramatic western. Mel was worried Frankie wouldn't sing it with conviction if he knew the truth.
When Mel Brooks advertised in the show business trade papers for a "Frankie Laine-type" voice to sing the film's title song, he was hoping for a good imitator. Instead, Frankie Laine himself showed at Brooks' office two days later, ready to do the job but nobody told him the movie was a parody.
Hedy Lamarr sued Mel Brooks over the use of the name Hedley Lamarr and settled out of court. Mel said he was flattered by this attention.
According to Mel Brooks (in the commentary for Spaceballs (1987)) when Gene Wilder came on the cast for this movie, he requested that Brooks do his movie idea next. Gene Wilder's idea was Young Frankenstein (1974).
When Mongo rides into town, one Mexican says, "Mongo! Santa Maria!" Mongo Santamaría was a famous Cuban musician.
On the marquee at Graumann's Chinese Theater, the flashing title "Blazing Saddles" is a matte lay-in, covering the film's original title, "Black Bart." The final title of the movie wasn't decided until after principal photography.
