100 Years of Mel Brooks and Still Making Horror Fans Laugh!

Happy 100th Birthday, Mel Brooks!

To celebrate one of the greatest storytellers of all time, we're opening up the Horror Heals vault and sharing one of Corey's favorite interviews.

Long before Horror Heals, Corey had the chance to spend an hour with the legendary Mel Brooks. While the conversation covers Mel's remarkable career, horror fans know his impact goes far beyond comedy. From the timeless Young Frankenstein to producing David Cronenberg's The Fly through Brooksfilms, Mel helped shape horror history while reminding us that fear and laughter often go hand in hand.

Whether you've loved Mel for decades or you're discovering his work for the first time, we hope you'll enjoy this conversation with a man whose influence spans generations of filmmakers, comedians, and horror fans alike.

Happy 100th, Mel. Thanks for everything.

#MelBrooks #YoungFrankenstein #TheFly #HorrorHeals #HorrorComedy #ClassicHorror #UniversalMonsters #HorrorPodcast #MovieLegends #Brooksfilms

Thank you for listening to Horror Heals. 

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If you want to support our guests, check the show notes for links to their work, conventions, and fundraising pages.

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Horror Heals is produced by Mosaic Multimedia LLC.

Is horror good for mental wellness? Of corpse it is.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey everyone, it's Corey here, and normally we don't publish a new episode on a Saturday, but we've got a little birthday celebration going on today. Mel Brooks turned 100 today, which is just incredible. Long before Horror Heals, I had the chance to spend about an hour interviewing him, and to this day, it's my favorite interview I've ever done. I've interviewed a lot of people over the years, but getting to sit down with Mel is one of those I can't believe this is actually happening moments. I know most people think of Mel as a comedy legend, and of course he is, but horror fans owe him a huge thank you too. He gave us Young Frankenstein, which somehow manages to be hilarious while also being one of the best love letters ever made through the classic monster movies. And a lot of people forget he also produced films like The Fly. Mel's fingerprints are all over horror. So for his 100th birthday, I thought it'd be fun to dust off this interview and share it with you. I hope you enjoyed as much as I enjoyed being there.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

Hello. It's Matt Duck at my flat. We are at Clovis Studios in Los Angeles. Where are you calling from?

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Calling from the Bay Area, Oakland, California.

unknown 1:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Where you live? Right outside of Oakland. I live on Alameda Island, which is right next to Oakland. It's a Willemwood Island?

SPEAKER_03 1:10

It is? It's almost a beautiful island. I came from from a tenement in Williamsburg, which is a section of Brooklyn, near the Williamsburg Bridge, right far from the bridge. And I liked it. I went up until up until I, you know, left and through other parts of the world. I thought it was great. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

California's great too.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

Oh, Black Pony is amazing. California is is really paradise. Absolutely. You know, the oddly number of nurses and fleets and we too getting a killing old, you know, the thought and back.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

It's pretty nice apart from that, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Yeah, it's pretty nice. I'm glad I've been here since actually when did I do blazing saddles seven seventy-two and I've I've been here, you know, I moved out in 73 or so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

And I've been here ever since. You know, I guess an apartment in New York. Yeah. Just you know, just just just to be legitimate. Right. I've been back once or twice a year and and just for the right kind of I don't know, big old screen cheen excitement, and occasionally a big Broadway show like the producers of Young Frankenstein.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Something yeah, something like that might steal you away for a little while.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

Yeah, but it didn't, yeah, and it was nothing like a you know, it's nothing like it. Nothing like a live show.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Yeah. Like you're absolutely right. Well, they really put an incredible box set together, I gotta say.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

I don't know where they found, you know, looking to me the the the subject of the subject matter, I don't know where they they found things like the Whitler rap. I don't think anything that was saying, keeping time. That Barry Levinson, you know, the the the Barry Levinson is a great man. Right, right. Rudy De Luca contrived it, so they contrived I think David Frost produced it. I mean it was like thirty years ago, twenty-five years, yeah. And I did a guest shot and completely forget about it. Suddenly, you know, the shout factory, the Sherlock Holmes guys, show me this. That means I do that. Somebody crazy thing and the worst thing they found, truly the crazier, weirdest, bizarre thing that they uncovered. Well me was a guy called Food Stone, who was a pitch man commercial guy for Milton Burrell on the Texaco Star Chief Theater. And he would open his little pitch, unfolded, and then make a pitch for Texas Chief Theater. But later he'd have he'd have Death Stars who did different things. And so though I am 22 years old, I said, so you're a window washer and and you're working on the Empire State Booth. What what's your biggest fear? And I say, bitch it. You know, and that and I'm I can't believe it. I can't believe that's me. I can't believe I'm doing a crazy character. I can't believe they found it. I how you know, I think you we have a thing here in in LA called the family center. It's kind of a DNA of television broadcasting. Right. And they dove into it and they found it.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

It was just so unbelievable that they they were able to pull this together. This is I gotta say one of the highlights for me has got to be the the CD that came along with it because I love the the music, you know, that from that you did for the movies. And it's it's great to have to have this in uh you know a CD form now, which is yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:53

Oh, that's great. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I'm actually thinking that very good DVD would be the numbers. Like like the Inquisition, right? Or Madeline Cod singing, I'm tired, or you know, just all the numbers that you know from you know, sweet time Hitler, the big the big thing from the producers. Just put numbers together in a DVD, you know?

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Absolutely. That was that'd be that would that have been exciting. Yeah. Oh, some of those numbers get stuck in your head. I mean, I was the the Inquisition was playing them three hours ago. Is that true? I've seen any introverted. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

Uh true, the things get stuck in my head, right? I was just listening to anything goes, and that's the moment it was stuck in my head. Recently for a long time, I was just listening to the first recording of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Oh yeah. Well, you have a very distinct singing voice too, I think, which is, you know, it didn't.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Yeah, but but I'm always in the middle of the now. Do you still like to sing? I do want to, but I, you know, I still, you know, I'm like I have a rubber, red, a little red rubber pad, and I still practice my I have my drum, you know. That's great. I like music. I like, you know, it's it's very important. Yes, yes. I mean it's quite too life-giving that important. Music is correct. And then I'm in and it's late at night as a think of any RTS. On local section, our local section, it's K-C-E-T. And they get these art videos for nothing. And sometimes you see Gili, you can see Calusco, and there's June Carroll, who was in a show that I wrote a sketch for, called New Faces of 1952. They made a movie of New Faces of 1952. It was a review. And in the box set, Who's the sketch? The My Sketch that I wrote for Linda, Roddy Graham, and Alice Ghost, we could have a satire of Death of a Salesman. I got a nice note from Arthur Miller. It was very, very nice about it. And anyway, so in that, there was on television show in the morning. Joy Cale singing Penny Candy, a song that she wrote with Arthur Siegel for this review in 1952. And it was really, I thought it was Penny Candy from New Faces. And I'm still alive, I'm still listening to it. It was the main thing. You know, there was a guy who wrote there, Clarie, Wonderful Entertainer. He was in Little French when it came over, discovered by Eddie Cantor. And he uh he was in New Faces at 52, became a good friend of Ronnie Graham's, and Ronnie got him into the show and he was terrific. And he sang, I'm in love with was well being written by Ronnie Graham. And there it was. Wow. Another one. Two in the morning, yeah. He knew they do when they dandy videos and they get permission and they and they show them at night. Sometimes it's quickly something like Claire and Leon or so, you know, it could be a deputy thing or or a stamp song. If I go through a whole day without music, I will tune into art at at midnight and and get my film something, either opera or or some symphony or or there's an incredible memo known to me by Shostakovich. And Witz. The wits. I didn't uh never know Shostakovich wrote a walls. I was sort of some kind of block of Picasso ish music, you know, bl breaking the rules and doing some d beautiful dissonant albeit stuff. Right. Shostakovich could be one of the best ever. And there it is. Kind of a beautiful traditional waltz. So really all our teams. We shouldn't be talking about music.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

We should be talking about me. We should absolutely mean did you start singing for audiences? When I was seven or eight, I was in a a place called Camp Sussex, New Jersey.

SPEAKER_03 9:13

Listen to this. We welcome you to Custic's Camp. We're mighty glad you're here. We'll send the air reverberating with a mighty cherrhab. We'll sing you in, we'll sing you out. We'll add a lot of praises. We will shout, Hello, Hello, the gang's all here, and you're welcome to Sustic's Camp. And that was our song. And I was in, I don't know, chorus. You know, seven years old singing in the chorus, wasn't joining it, taking a barrel. It it was in New Jersey somewhere, and and it was it was remarkable. I'd never been anywhere where there simply wasn't asphalt or cement. Right. I never saw a tree. There were no trees in Brooklyn. And in my neighborhood anyway. And then they sent me into this crazy gark spot of New Jersey. There was nothing but trees, and a lot of them had crab apples, and I was sick as a dog later.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Couldn't resist.

SPEAKER_03 10:15

I'm telling you everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Well, I think my my first exposure tour work was the TV version of Blazing Saddles that they showed on CBS, and they certainly cut a lot out.

SPEAKER_03 10:26

Oh, they did. They cut out they cut out the whole body thing that had all it's an angle or something. I mean you know, you leave it up to some super prod or and they just pick up things that are that are critical to the well clear the bulk.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Absolutely, absolutely. But it was enough to get me inclined to to start seeking the rest of the work out. And they left up the N-word. Actually, on this version they did not.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

The one that I did one of the slides of the man. That's pretty good. That's pretty brave. If I did it on brother and I I've written a couple of new tunes, I don't know whether I'll do it or not. I'll think about it.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

Somebody said, well, you'd have to leave at the end, but I said, I don't be silly, I wouldn't do it about it.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Yeah, how could you do that show with me?

SPEAKER_03 11:07

I said the the arc of the black sheriff is to be lowered by these rednecks, by these townsfolk, you know. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

And they got it off by calling him N, you know. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And that would now that would be something to see. I mean, that's Yeah, well, I mean, it's Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 11:27

Somebody claim, you know, our town is turning into shit and the thousand of Rockway shit or that's called. And then and then that gorgeous Dietrich take off that Madeline Kahn did and with I'm Tired. Right. But also great stuff in it.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

So yeah, that's that's definitely right. It's it's right for the state.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

You know, always it's secret. One there was a singer who was very, very popular in the 60s. Really popular sixties and somewhat in the 70s. And his his name was Frankie Lane. And he he was and he was kind of used in very peculiar heads to sing the the same song. Right. So I w I wanted everything to be kind of authentic so I can have fun with it. Sure. I asked him to sing Blazing Saddles. He finished singing it. I thought he was saying something like, That is a great takeoff. I mean, that is the most beautiful satirical. And I realized something. He's gonna do a takeoff of something like young Frankenstein. Yeah. You better stick close to the James Will classic version. And not tend to do much, right? Or it becomes silly. And it doesn't it doesn't have the beauty or the stature that draw the that led you to the original, you know, that m that made you excited about it. Right. Absolutely. You get it that close, close to the good stuff, you know. Now then did you when did you ever stop and and who's being asked for?

SPEAKER_01 13:00

The shout factory asked you to listen to it? To look for it. Yeah, I I heard about it and reached out and I reached out to Shout Factory to uh to to take a look at the the set because I just agreed. No, I'm I as I mentioned, I mean I was probably I don't know, eight or nine, you know, when I first saw Blazing Saddles, and then of course Young Frankenstein came soon after that.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

How did you even know that we referred to it, Blazing Saddle? I'm I well I'm sure uh even all the the Western click that all that you know the stuff we wouldn't, you know, making fun of.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

I watched a lot of of Western stuff with my grandfather, so I think maybe a little bit of that started to sink in there and You know, but I may have been unconscious, you know, memory itself.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

I don't it could be the white at the black at the horses.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Yeah, I don't know where it's where exactly it it sunk in, but I I do remember I watched it enough because I we recorded the TV version. I watched it enough over and over that at night when we would go to bed when my little brother and I still share the room, we would go to sleep and I would try to recite the movie. I would I would sing start it off with singing Blazing Saddles, and I would try to go through as many scenes as possible till we fell asleep. Wow. That could have great. I'm not thinking that's just kind of just the give you a little inkling of where, yeah, my my situation. You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

You're really you're do better than you than not. Well, I don't do it anymore. But I'll get over it to go together, but not even that's good to know. But anyway, because it it's wonderful. You know that I'm on HBO tonight.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

I saw the yeah, well, I read about what that was. We had a little snippet in there that it was going to be on tonight, so that's gonna be exciting to see. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

Yeah, I'm being interviewed by one of my best friends in the world, a guy that is the creative director of the BBT, actually. That's yeah, marvelous. We always grew up together. He came out here when I was doing I think it was History of the World. And he did, I don't know, he he did a kind of a a documentary on me for BBT, a show called Arena. And it's in it's in the box that it's called I thought I was talking. Yeah. And uh it was good, it was funny, he's very bright, and it's a pleasure to talk to him, and he elicits great stuff. He kind of made it anymore. It's it's like smelly stuff like fruit, like getting a lost of something on a roman, going back, you know, writing a whole novel about it. He took that out of me. He's great. So that he might understand me if you go interview tonight. Yeah, a lot of good stuff. Not just not just perhaps, you know, but for kind of actually the uh the history of of time and moment.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

I've seen you know, it's uh I I find that stuff very fascinating just to hear in uh a little bit about uh where these things originated that we that were they're so you know, we're we know them so well, but it's sometimes it's it's nice to hear a little bit of a taste of where they Yeah, I haven't pulled that on the bar to set a site about five DVDs, right?

SPEAKER_03 16:03

I think. And in and one CD. And at the end, Steve Edelman who helped me put together Steve Edelman and Rudy DeLuca are two accomplished writers. And Rudy DeLuca is a great character actor. He played J. Paul Getty, and uh thinks he goes crazy because he thinks he has more money than I do. Clap each other in the street, it's crazy. But the wonderful writer we he wrote for the Al Burnett show and saw the greatest sketches in the world there. So there's Rudy and Steve, and they put together one of the editing that came into this set. I gotta k I can really have to give them both credit for for organizing it. One of the greatest things they did was they got to me and was the only continuity is is that at the end of each disc I spend 15 or 20 minutes. And it's called Man as Movies, and I talk about why I got into movies, what the movies were, and will my memory be to be those movies. So you know, at the end of each disc is Mallow's movies, and and that really gotta it it it you know it binds all from a nice a nice camper for sure.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Yeah. Today I was putting some questions together. From the and the horse's name. I don't think I've ever read exactly where that came from, but that's something that has always stood out for me.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

You know, I was given a good excuse and I took it, and it's not true. But it was a great, you know, someone said to me, I know why the horse is made. This was a long, it was right after the picture opened. Because glue curr means glue and they don't want to go to the glue factory. I said, that's perfect. That's I love that. That's great. It's not true. I don't think it I said a little, he said, I don't think blue cur means glue. But I said I said, who cares? Who cares? It's more true than than anything could be. So let's live with it. It could be true. Blue could mean because I think a general was a pointy hat in World War I, but but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

I really don't know where I got the name.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Well sometimes it's just those absurd moments that I guess don't need an explanation, but they're just talking about them that that tickles us.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

But you know, people like Gene Wilder and Cloris Leechman, they not only act it, they show their heart and soul to it. They really believe that they are those people, you know. Sometimes you say you break for lunch and you see the madness in their eyes, and you don't want to disturb that. But let them stay in it. But it wasn't like that. Now I could pop in and out of anything. It was a genius. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Yeah. She was marvelous. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

Well, I've It was great making all those movies, and I'm so glad at the end of each disc I can tell the truth and talk about them. And literally ran a listen, and he maybe noticed the guy asking me the question. Best people. Steve Averman. Oh, okay. He wrote some books about silent movies. One called Silent Scream. It's a wonderful book about Song movies. And so it was good. It was a good experience, you know, putting all this stuff together. But then I said, maybe I shouldn't do this. I don't want to be over. I don't want to be over. I do this don't be over. We'll have to do a part two. Well, I couldn't do the L and M top one. It's on tonight.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

You know, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

You know, it is an hour, but don't tell me when are you gonna get when are you gonna write this? The money are you gonna send it out?

SPEAKER_01 19:58

What do you talk about? As soon as possible. I'm gonna try to get to uh to transcribing my notes tonight and trying to get it written, you know, here in the next couple of days.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

Could you could you in any versions, your versions of me?

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Yeah, I mean, I'd be by bespead. Yeah, especially the the the you know, I guess the NBC one would be so easy. Yeah, no, I'd be more than happy to send them to you, of course. Of course.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

Okay, I'd better give you my email right now. Okay, ready? Yes. Corey, right. Okay, it's uh demand to author at gmail.com. Okay. Now I would have can I out. Oh wait, it must have one or two questions, because I talked to that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

That's all right. Well no, I was a Michelle about some of these unforgettable moments and and and how they came to the end. Another one that just jumped out at me was for to be or not to be when when you burst into the the tavern as Hitler, I think that was just that's a human reaction. Right.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

I I think that's one that's um that maybe is not that the prose is not as sung as loudly as as the Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein, but that's another one of those that I've had to watch, you know, over and over and over again.

SPEAKER_03 21:13

I'm so glad to like it because I remember too. I mean that was the last you know, chance I, you know. But that was one of the few movies we did and it was just it's very precious to me. I would imagine. I would imagine that is, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Well, I mean you've never map for Putin Reading Ladies, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_03 21:37

Yeah, they're real good. They're all real good. Well I make them I I think because Tan Wilder married her and I couldn't get her with uh Gilda. Yeah. She was so great.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Oh yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

But I I did all right. I think I think you did well. I did really well. What are your chats like with Carl Reiner when you guys get a chance to? catch up these days.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

Or then really, oh come on. Think things like me. I have an itch at the back of my neck. And it comes on midnight every night. But the the movies that we like, and you know, there's some Carly's gonna be 91. He's still with it. His mind is still clear as a bell. He's just wonderful. He said things we we like movies that say secure the perimeter.

unknown 22:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:27

And we don't want a good movie. We let the ear secure the perimeter. So we'll, you know, we'll watch, you know, it'll be either a James Bond movie or or the Bond Fourth Relegates Bond movies. We'd have stuff like that. And we'd actually like usually in those movies we like our other line, we like the ear try to get some red. But don't we the med tickles up there into a lot of mov a lot of detective movies, a lot of cop movies, a last running try with the rest we hear that. You know it does okay. We know we're in a we're in the right kind of movie. When was the last time that you left uncontrollably Oh that's that's pretty good uncontrollably. I think I was watching Sonia Annie Sonia Eddie I haven't she was the ice skater she won the she was the played century of pop star who well did 30s and 40s and in Humboldt the comedy relief it was carried by the Witch brothers. Hell yeah the Ritz rap on some of the Ritz brothers yeah yeah they they they usually were the comedy relief in in Sox movies and I think Harry Ritz but by the way I put Alley Ritz the Ritz was Jimmy and Harry Ritz was maybe the funniest guy that ever lived and Cherry Lewis and Fit Caesar and so many other comics and his facial expressions are you know his sit down to square he got them but he was just a comedy Sandiac. And he was very funny he did something about Gypsy reading T Leaves and Tom and I lost it where I'm rolling rolling around on the floor. We couldn't get I didn't want to have an heart attack I didn't want him to die but we couldn't get to the TV the remote to shut it up and I said this is it this is how we're gonna die you know uncontrollably laughing at Allie Ridd's and I find it you know in strange positions on the floor and then and and then I had my lingerie because it'll be past the Ari Rita or past the Sonia and it'll be out to some something else and I'll never know. But we were out of control. It's literally out of control you gotta see the Ritzbroth with some of those movies absolutely yeah no here 20th century past movies look up the Ritz brothers usually in a Sonya and Sonia S L N K H E I N I E or something I don't know what I can left the champ and then they made her a donut movie for them and and I think at the other movies he did they did anime be the fuck have kind of the comedy relief I can I have done quite a bit about what Harry writts and yeah but I know I would have said in law if you see the Solid Moon you will see him and he stepped out of a tailor shop. And Alindo the two uh kind of brown uh brown paper markup the way they used to do in Paris when they made suits and they they did stitching and they did they showed you they showed you the underneath suit our suit is crafted. Right there was there's stitching there's found paper and there's cardboard there's sometimes litter and sometimes swayed it was just crazy and it's just that this story bottled in the window I knew it was close to I knew nobody would get it but there all the comes out of the story is still it's that one right it you know you see it disappear from the window and mock makeup Zane Philip and comes out you know I tr and it tickles me so much to see him, you know and I got any young and flying my throat you know I've got I just I did whatever I could they're they showed for Paris and they are exquisitely poor and Carter said something like rats, rats for sale. You can make rats too rat by and the inevitable rat tattoo it's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

And and uh yeah try I try to stick comics in everywhere I can what do you think you get most often quoted to you from your stuff?

SPEAKER_03 27:22

Walk this way because it's something I don't know why I threw it so much every picture I ever made. I do I love walk this way. Checkboard joke you know and slove it.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

But people still use it. I think that uh but you let's add more more than anything I think New Palio is currently using that on his drag race show. This says walk this way and then he does like a you know a silly walk and then no I love it that's so great.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

Yeah yeah most people shout out walk this way do you remember when you when you learned how important the after can be for healing oh yeah I mean it meant a lot to me you know when I was a Lynn kid I said to my brother Bernie I'll never forget saying it you know I said Bernie I like to laugh and Bernie said why I said because I can't think of anything else when I'm laughing nothing bothers me so I mean I remember saying it yeah so that's I I don't know how I knew that but I knew that laughter was that important. Oh that's something important I think we should always try to remember yeah you can't think of anything else when you're laughing you're right so you know and there's a lot of lousy things and bad things to think of extra mind just drifts in that direction. Absolutely absolutely has your son helped you prepare for the oncoming zombie onslaught I don't know you know about next flip of course yeah yeah that checked him up when we were doing young Frankenstein up at Seattle before we brought it to New York right checking it to a hotel married or something and the I signed my name and the girl behind the desk that Mel Brooks Mel Brooks your son of Mac She said I know that she says you sin I have a lot Yeah but they're not fear Yeah you know they're not they're not iron filings to a magnet they're not crazy you know but it fans really hold it you know and they and and they're just saying to these because they ask him he has the he goes to colleges and universities, you know who smart kids and lectures and then he gets he tells me he gets questions like it be then if someone made a movie where the zombies moved faster than it's supposed to and that's true and Max says he's getting letters demanding saying to him what are you going to do about the fact that they've got zombies running But what are you going to do about it? And Max says I don't know I you know I I can't do anything about it. I just I'm just deal through the book that have nothing to do with the editing of the movie or the studio or you know they want to make it move faster and step it if they pay for it yeah. Do you think it is that he's doing fine I mean it's and I'm sure when the movie comes out it it's it's pretty cool. He's still number eight or nine he was two weeks ago on a New York Times bestseller with it of course when the movie comes that with both books with the zombie survival comedy and world war z amazing did they try to pitch even direct direct the World War Z? No they need one of those guys that directs you know action movies, pop movies, corner movies right those kind of directors sure sure I make the thing well I think I mean with as as much zombie stuff as we've had going on I think we're probably right for some parody here you know the satire oh yeah oh sure then will be there will be the I'm sure of it we'll mention that at the mention but the the possibility of uh a a Saddles musical but is there a genre that you that'd still like to tackle I really I don't think there is but I think I've caught at least at least film genre you know I don't know what I uh you know there might be web genres on art genres that I don't know about you know you know and there might be a whole other world that I could attack and and make fun of but I don't know about it yet.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Well now that we know that the uh you know that they sold the Lucasfilm senior writes that blue's gonna take over Star Wars you know maybe they'd want to might be time for a to look at a Space Ball sequel.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

Well wouldn't I wouldn't want to he was very good Lucas is very good sent me a wonderful letter about the movie and I thoroughly enjoying it. He was wonderful and caused me no trouble of course I was pretty I did all the post-production work with ILM with his company. Yeah that's really I didn't matter at the one and thereby I think preventing any animosity and bad blood or you know he was very happy his company was the starting company very happy to get rid of all the work and they do a great job it's a wonderful movie. Yeah as a matter of fact it is my number one sales movie the movie that thinks sell the motive DVDs or sell I don't know Delta Cable it's it's always playing you know it's probably uh big screen somewhere in food you know probably probably they like they like it all over the world you know the spaceport that seems to I mean they like I figured it out it took me a long time but and this listed to the father or mother and daughter because it's about a princess right who's being forced to marry Prince Sally I'm a guy that she doesn't like and and finally gets to marry this guy this long star the guy that she fell in love with. And I think that's that's the other shoe that I never dropped you know to really make some money. Right. You know to to get a princess blood story.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

But anyway it was you know a lot a lot of footprint people seeing it and buying it you know so well I think out of all of your memorable characters my favorite still has to be the governor Le Petame as show me and Julie praying M.

SPEAKER_03 33:47

Oh yeah that was that was great thought really you know and we shot it up at Popdale up in the high desert and we was kind of stuck together for like three weeks you know so a lot of it is outdoors though. A lot the indoors were shot at well there's in Burbank but the outdoors were way up there you know in in the high desert and it was beautiful because it was great yeah everybody was fought everybody Cleveland Little and I had Wilder all Harvey Corman people I love you know she working with you know was Harvey really as talented with that pebble bull or was that a county trick? He did it he really pushed real on that dream of me being just off saying you know and I grabbed it I said I asked him later I said were you were you practicing? He said no he said I just thought I liked it and I did it you know he maybe he might have been lying but I you know but he was magnificent and he he never got crazy little devil we we're gonna take all the Indian land with a box of the pedophile yeah and then and I my excuse was little devil they love they love these things you know that's you know it's kind of it it's a great movie because there's a only good engine that drives it you know right listen to any color but light you know the the great engine driving that picture you know and all the cliques and these of bean of cowboy pictures you know scraping beans on a tin plate and you know clutching horses and all I mean just it was just efficient. When I we had a screening a snake previewer screening on it at the EFCO embassy on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles and at that screening I had cattle in the lobby left off of course I I mean it was just it was a pride you know going up to the theater and horses and tying them up to a it was a both screen and it really I mean you never heard laughter like that in your life. But actually was lit it didn't you know we can't really this picture he had seen it before shoved me in the manager's office and I got a l a litidity of anger with just win complaint after another you can't punch a little old lady you can't ever live award can't oh the N-word you can't say it I mean he just went on and on and I just made and with me in the office was the guy running production there a wonderful guy just passed away a year ago John Cowley and I left it as we left I just scratched up the page threw it across the room and I did two points I had the waste paper basket.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

It was great but I mean he actually expected me I had you know you maybe didn't realize I had vinyl cut but I didn't want to hear his feelings though I said absolutely that both his stuff was out you know I couldn't do anything so rude ever ever.

SPEAKER_03 37:08

But it was fun I mean you know and it really was fun. That's perfect. And the guy who you know he was the thematic distribution for wonders and he said this is we got a screening for him and it's confused people. And he said what I can release this it's the first movie in my life that I've ever decided we're just gonna pay for it and I hate it and that's it. And Kelly again said well let's try New York Chicago LA just single theaters more because it's once we've got the print and you space saved it well that guy never would have been released it he said this this was disgusting. He said I don't want to leave anything that disgusting John Kelly running at that time in my life.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Absolutely well thank you so much and you have a fantastic day. What a pleasure okay good to talk to you thank you. I hope you had as much fun listening to that as I did talking with Mel looking back I'm still amazed I got to spend an hour with one of my heroes he was funny sharp and exactly the guy you'd hope he'd be happy 100th birthday Mel thanks for all the laughs the monsters and for proving those two things belong together more often than people think. Alright Tuesday we'll be back with another new horror heels episode but in the meantime remember is horror good for mental wellness? Of course it is