Interesting Facts #29: Silent Movie

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the movie Silent Movie has the fewest spoken words of any sound movie.

The story concerns the attempts of aspiring filmmakers Mel Funn (Mel Brooks), Marty Eggs (Marty Feldman) and Dom Bell (Dom Deluise) to make the first silent film in 40 years. The first part of the movie records their attempts to secure big name stars, all playing themselves, to appear in the movie. The second part depicts the filming and attempts to sabotage the screening by the villains.

The movie is itself filmed as a silent movie with old time flash cards on the screen setting out the dialogue.

In various comic and slapstick ways Funn, Eggs, and Bell succeed in recruiting Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minnelli, Anne Bancroft, and Paul Newman.

There is only one spoken word in the whole movie – “Non!” – when a French star refuses their request to take part in the movie. It is spoken by Marcel Marceau.