Blazing Saddles

Blazing Saddles (1974)

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(25 votes)

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Trivia: As a "spoof", Blazing Saddles deliberately included some obvious errors. But one thing impressed me in this film. Saloon singer Madeline Kahn/Lili Von Shtupp sings "I'm Tired", accompanied by six musicians in an orchestra pit in front of the stage. In many westerns a saloon singer is backed by a full orchestra that cannot be seen (for example Marlene Dietrich/Frenchie in Destry Rides Again, whom Madeline Kahn is parodying). So, perhaps inadvertently, Mel Brooks actually got something right.

Rob Halliday

Video

Trivia: As Sheriff Bart and The Waco Kid are first getting acquainted, The Kid demonstrates how fast he is by snatching a chess piece from the board before Bart can grab it. Even though Bart plainly captures the chess piece in both his hands, he is stunned to find the piece missing when he opens his hands again a moment later (all in the same shot). No special effects were necessary, because actor Cleavon Little used a simple tabletop magic illusion: As he clapped his hands together around the chess piece and drew it back from the table for a split second, he smoothly dropped the piece into his lap and then immediately opened his hands for the surprising reveal. (00:36:02 - 00:36:28)

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Mongo first comes into town and the man on the horse says "You can't park that animal here," Mongo punches the horse and its rider, and the horse falls. Before the cut to the close up of the man (obviously the stunt double), his head is facing toward the horse's head. After the cut to the close up of the man, his body is facing the opposite direction. (00:46:30)

More mistakes in Blazing Saddles

Jim: Well, it got so that every piss-ant prairie punk who thought he could shoot a gun would ride into town to try out the Waco Kid. I must have killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille. It got pretty gritty. I started to hear the word "draw" in my sleep. Then one day, I was just walking down the street when I heard a voice behind me say, "Reach for it, mister!" I spun around... And there I was, face-to-face with a six-year old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass. So I limped to the nearest saloon, crawled inside a whiskey bottle, and I've been there ever since.

More quotes from Blazing Saddles

Trivia: The language that the Indians speak is actually Yiddish. (00:39:55)

More trivia for Blazing Saddles

Question: At the beginning, Lyle refers to the song Camptown races as "The Camptown lady"? Is this simply cause he's stupid, or is there any other reason?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: The opening line of the song refers to the Camptown Ladies and the phrase "Camptown Races" never appears anywhere in the lyrics. If nobody told him otherwise, Lyle may simply have assumed that some variation on "Camptown Ladies" was the actual title.

Tailkinker

The actual title of the song was "Gwine to Run All Night, or De Camptown Races," written by American lyricist Stephen Foster and first published in 1850. Over many years on the minstrel show circuit, the title was shortened to "Camptown Races" and was sometimes erroneously called "Camptown Ladies." While the phrase "Camptown Races" doesn't appear in the lyrics, the phrase "Camptown Racetrack" does appear in the second line: "Camptown ladies sing dis song, doo-dah, doo-dah, Camptown Racetrack five miles long, oh-de-doo-dah-day." The song refers to Camptown, Pennsylvania, a real town with a popular horserace in the mid-1800s.

Charles Austin Miller

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