MOVIE · 1981

History of the World: Part I

ComedyMusical92 min

Mel Brooks turns the history of civilization into a string of comic vignettes, hopping from the Stone Age and the Old Testament to the Roman Empire, the French Revolution and the Spanish Inquisition. Brooks is everywhere at once — Moses, a street philosopher in Rome, Torquemada and Louis XVI among them — as each era becomes a target for songs, slapstick and irreverent gags. Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman and Gregory Hines move through the ensemble, with Brooks directing the whole parade.