A Triple Feature for Mel Brooks's 100th Birthday at the Crandell

Pictured: Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder on the set of "Young Frankenstein."

Sunday, June 14 | Chatham, NY

The Crandell Theatre and Mel Brooks share a birth year. The Spanish Renaissance theater on Main Street in Chatham opened on Christmas Day, 1926—the same year Brooks was born in Brooklyn—and this Sunday the theater marks the iconic director's Centennial with a triple feature as part of its own 100th Anniversary Series: "The Producers" at 1pm, "Blazing Saddles" at 3:30pm, and "Young Frankenstein" at 6pm. FilmColumbia Festival Director Calliope Nicholas hosts.

"The Producers" came first, in 1967—an irreverent debut built around the audacious premise of two Broadway producers deliberately trying to stage a flop. Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder play the conspirators with a chemistry that the film practically floats on, and the central joke—that bad taste weaponized with enough confidence becomes its own kind of genius—turned out to be prophetic: the film eventually became a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical and landed Brooks on the coveted EGOT list, one of fewer than twenty people in history to win Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards.

"Blazing Saddles," co-written with Richard Pryor, arrived in 1974 as a Western parody that used every convention of the genre to cut straight to the bone of American racism. It is one of the most subversive studio comedies ever made and its willingness to name what it was satirizing directly rather than letting the audience off the hook has given it a staying power that politer films from the same era don't have.

"Young Frankenstein," also from 1974 and co-written by Gene Wilder, is the warmest of the three: a loving homage to 1930s Universal horror films that works as parody and as something close to the real thing simultaneously. Shot in black and white on sets borrowed from the original "Frankenstein" films, it is the rare comedy that earns its affection rather than just assuming it.

Coming Soon:

Beyond Sunday's triple feature, the Crandell's current programming is worth noting. "I Love Boosters," Boots Riley's follow-up to "Sorry to Bother You," opens Friday, with Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, and Demi Moore. On Wednesday, June 17, a one-night Community Wednesday screening of "Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul" is just $6. "The Sheep Detectives" and Leo Woodall's sonic thriller "Tuner" both open June 19; Summer Kid Flicks launches June 20 with "Finding Nemo" (free for kids under 12 all summer); and a rare rerelease of Jerry Schatzberg's 1991 film "Reunion," about the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany, screens June 21. Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" opens July 17.

Crandell Theatre, 48 Main St., Chatham, NY. Tickets at crandelltheatre.org.