Mel Brooks Icon-a-thon
11:20am/10:20c, Movies!
Suddenly, the 2,000-year-old-man is 98! This mini-thon delves into birthday boy Mel Brooks’ (1977) parodies the films of Alfred Hitchcock, starring Brooks (right) as the new head of the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous. (Hitchcock gave Brooks notes during production and ultimately called it “a splendid entertainment.”) It’s followed by 1983 war comedy (1:20/12:20c), the only film in which Brooks costarred with wife Anne Bancroft. It’s about an acting troupe whose head and leading lady help locals in Poland escape the Nazis. Finally, there’s 1974’s (3:40/2:40c), with Gene Wilder as the doctor bringing a creature (Peter Boyle) back to life with the brain of someone his assistant Igor (Marty Feldman) insists is named “Abby Normal.”
