A few gags and the “The Inquisition” sequence from HISTORY OF THE WORLD: PART 1 (1981)
Mel Brooks’ hit-to-miss ratio was never lower than in this comedic ode to the Roman Empire, the French Revolution and other funny-outfitted periods from humanity’s first dozen or so centuries on Earth. For every short, funny line or gag (i.e., “It’s good to be the king,” “The Lord Jehovah has given unto you these fifteen...oy! Ten! Ten commandments” and the Jews In Space coming attractions trailer) there’s some embarrassingly lame poopy and/or booby joke or some interminable exposition about a plot point nobody cares about. But for eight continuous minutes in the middle of the movie, Brooks nearly tops his beloved “Springtime For Hitler” sequence from all the various incarnations of The Producers with his insanely catchy take-down of another of history’s great tragedies, the Spanish Inquisition, thus foreshadowing the iconic funnyman’s welcome focus on Broadway in recent years (which, despite generating the unnecessary 2005 Producers remake, has at least prevented Brooks from tarnishing his legacy with more unfunny late period cinematic dreck like Dracula: Dead and Loving It).
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