The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother

As a comedic enterprise, I must declare this film extraordinarily successful, although logistically derivative. Gene Wilder directed the movie, but all points of directing and humor bear the image of Mel Brooks. The movie is conceptually original (although a broad parody of the Sherlock Holmes ouvre), and it is in the specific jokes, casting, probably production costs, and the ending (as seemingly desperate as an exploding Muppet) that Mel Brooks' influence appears.

This movie is truly funny, with jokes ranging from the raunchy (mostly breasts) to the intellectual (parody of the opera, the opening scene with Queen Victoria). Not once did any of the humor directly imitate Brooks specific jokes, but the flavor and style were unmistakable, probably because the casting was so similar and Brooks had such a handle on this kind of adventure parody (Star Wars, Robin Hood, Westerns, and Frankenstein all came under his artistic license, in two of which he starred Gene Wilder). Wilder's treatment of authority figures, the mixture of personal and family issues within the stereotype being parodied, and the ridiculously flippant ending all resemble Brooks' work.

Here Madeleine Kahn plays her usual brash and erratic character (who sings, naturally), Gene plays the tortured and foolish protagonist (more like Young Frankenstein than Blazing Saddles). Supporting cast includes the inimitable Leo McKern (The Prisoner), Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman (Young Frankenstein), and Roy Kinnear (Help!).

Although the styles and skills Wilder drew upon were certainly from his time with Brooks (he accuses Brooks of inducting him into comedy), we see Wilder's own crazy stamp on the script itself, and the way it skirts the broad puns and plays for bigger scene-based laughs. This humor is a continuation of his script-writing style from Young Frankenstein, which, although directed by Brooks, integrated larger amounts of Wilder's writing, both on story and script (www.imdb.com).