[Brooks'] films abound in lovingly precise dialect humor, a near-balletic control of physical comedy, and whirlwind pacing that begins in chaos and ends in sweet lunacy.

Superficially, Brooks' movies … seem less careful than carefree. But Brooks says he does not believe in chance: his films are the result of meticulous construction, especially in the scriptwriting stage….

At their core, his films come surprisingly close to being "male" love stories. You can see it in the sadomasochistic friendship in The Producers (with Zero Mostel as the S., and Gene Wilder as the M.), the love-hate relationship of Frank Langella and Ron Moody in The Twelve Chairs, the easy warmth between Wilder and Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles, even the sympathetic if hysterical bond established between Wilder as Dr. Frankenstein and Peter Boyle as the Creature.

Jacoba Atlas, in her introduction to her "Mel Brooks Interview," in Film Comment (copyright...