Keaton's character is named Peter Hedley Lamar, and I wonder if Mel Brooks was aware of the in-joke reference 35 years earlier when he cast Harvey Korman as Hedley Lamarr in BLAZING SADDLES. The commentary for this film doesn't mention it. Coincidence?
shareMaybe it's just an "unintentional plagiarism" (in the words of a jury deciding the case of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord"), but I wouldn't count on it. Brooks has an encyclopedic knowledge about film comedy of this era.
shareThanks for the "unintentional plagiarism" term which I had never heard of. It's been so long since I heard this Hedley Lamar" reference I don't remember the movie.
I liked Brooks' earlier movies and his appreciation for people like Henry Brandon as well as his use of stuntmen like Dave Sharpe and Tom Steele in BLAZING SADDLES. Brandon's career started with L&H's BABES IN TOYLAND and goes through TO BE OR NOT TO BE. Sharpe goes back to Fairbanks' THIEF OF BAGDAD while Steele goes nack to CAPTAIN BLOOD.
I wrote my first screenplay a few years ago and filled it with in-jokes and references, but Hollywood wasn't buying. The story? THE WAGES OF FEAR with women driving the trucks.
See you at the movies.