Blazing Saddles.
Blazing Saddles is a 1974 comedy film.
Cast[]
Singing roles[]
- Cleavon Little - Bart
- Madeline Kahn - Lili Von Schtupp
- Frankie Laine - Singer
Non-singing roles[]
- Gene Wilder - Jim, The Waco Kid
- Harvey Korman - Hedley Lamarr
- Mel Brooks - Governor William J. LePetomane/Indian Chief
- Slim Pickens - Taggart
- Burton Gilliam - Lyle
Film[]
In the American Old West of 1874, construction on a new railroad led by Lyle runs into quicksand. The route has to be changed, which will require it to go through Rock Ridge, a frontier town where everyone's last name is Johnson (including "Howard Johnson", "Dr. Samuel Johnson", "Van Johnson" and "Olson N. Johnson"). The conniving State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr – who constantly has to correct people who call him "Hedy"– wants to buy the land along the new railroad route cheaply by driving out the townspeople. He sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky assistant Taggart, to scare them away, prompting the townsfolk to demand that Governor William J. Le Petomane appoint a new sheriff. Lamarr persuades the dim-witted Le Petomane to select Bart, a black railroad worker who was about to be hanged, as he believes a black lawman will so offend the townspeople that they will either abandon Rock Ridge or lynch the new sheriff, with either result paving the way for him to take over the town.
With his quick wits and the assistance of drunken gunslinger Jim, also known as "The Waco Kid" ("I must have killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille"), Bart works to overcome the townsfolk's hostile reception. He subdues and befriends Mongo, an immensely strong, slow-thinking (but surprisingly philosophical) henchman sent by Taggart and Lyle to kill him, and then beats German seductress-for-hire Lili von Shtupp at her own game. Lamarr, furious that his schemes have backfired, hatches a larger plan involving a recruited army of thugs, including common criminals, Ku Klux Klansmen, and Nazi soldiers.
Bart gathers the townspeople and the railroad workers three miles east of Rock Ridge to build a fake town as a diversion. They labor all night to build a perfect replica of their town; but with no people in it, Bart realizes it won't fool Lamarr's villains. While the townspeople construct replicas of themselves, Bart, Jim, and Mongo buy time by constructing the "William J. Le Petomane Memorial Tollbooth", forcing the raiding party to turn back for "a shitload of dimes" to pay the toll. Once through the tollbooth, Lamarr's villains attack the fake town populated with dummies, which is boobytrapped with dynamite bombs. After Jim detonates the bombs with his sharpshooting, launching bad guys and horses skyward, the Rock Ridgers storm the villains.
The resulting brawl between the townsfolk and Lamarr's thugs breaks the fourth wall—literally—spilling into a neighboring set where director Buddy Bizarre is directing a Busby Berkeley-style top-hat-and-tails musical number with an effeminately gay cast; then into the studio commissary for a food fight; and then out of the Warner Bros. film lot into the streets of Burbank. Lamarr, realizing he has been beaten again, hails a taxi and orders the driver to "get me out of this picture". He ducks into Grauman's Chinese Theatre, which is playing the premiere of Blazing Saddles. As he settles into his seat, he sees Bart arriving on horseback outside the theatre. Bart blocks Lamarr's escape, then kills him in a spoof of a classic cinematic gunfight, shooting him in the groin. Bart and Jim then go into Grauman's to watch the end of the film, in which Bart announces to the townspeople that he is moving on, for his work is done (and he is bored). Riding out of town, he finds Jim (finishing his popcorn), and invites him along to "nowhere special". The two friends ride off into the sunset—in a chauffeured stretch limousine.
Musical numbers[]
- "Blazing Saddles" - Singer
- "I Get a Kick Out of You" - Bart
- "The Ballad of Rock Ridge" - Chorus
- "I'm Tired" - Lili and Soldiers
- "The French Mistake" - Dancers