(Mel Brooks, US 1976, 86 min.)

Mel Brooks. Twenty-five years before The Artist, Mel Brooks gambled big — and won — with this boldly uncommercial attempt at recapturing the magic and hilarity of the pre-sound era. And like The Artist, Brooks’s affectionate homage is not entirely silent, but the one spoken word of dialogue comes, ingeniously, from the least expected mouth. Though not the smash success of Blazing Saddles, this loving satire has, like Young Frankenstein, aged beautifully, and there’s a cadre of fans who argue it’s as good — if not better — than anything else Brooks directed during the 1970s.

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