Linen backed original U. S. One sheet film poster; of Mel Brook's Blazing Saddles. NSS: 74/42.
Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft. The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards, and is ranked No. 6 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs list.
Brooks appears in multiple supporting roles, including Governor William J. Le Petomane, a Yiddish-speaking Indian chief and Adolf Hitler. The supporting cast also includes Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, David Huddleston, as well as Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, and Harvey Korman. Bandleader Count Basie has a cameo as himself.
The film satirizes the racism obscured by myth-making Hollywood accounts of the American West, with the hero being a black sheriff in a mostly white town. The film is full of deliberate anachronisms, from a jazz band in the Wild West to a rustler referring to the Wide World of Sports to Nazis and camels.