History of the World Part I (1981)

History of the World, Part I was written, produced, and directed by Mel Brooks who also stars in the film, playing five roles: Moses, Comicus the stand-up philosopher, Tomás de Torquemada, King Louis XVI, and Jacques, le garçon de pisse. The large ensemble cast also features Sid Caesar, Shecky Greene, Gregory Hines (in his film debut), Charlie Callas; and Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Andreas Voutsinas and Spike Milligan.

The film also has cameo appearances by Royce D. Applegate, Bea Arthur, Hugh Hefner, John Hurt (as Jesus Christ), Barry Levinson, Jackie Mason, Paul Mazursky, Andrew Sachs and Henny Youngman, among others. Orson Welles narrates each story.

History of the World, Part I was a box office success, taking in $31,672,907 domestically from an $11 million budget.

At the very end of the film, there is a teaser trailer for History of the World: Part II, narrated by Brooks, which promises to include Hitler on Ice, a Viking funeral, and Jews in Space. Despite the preview, no sequel has been released, and the “Part I” of the film’s title is merely a historical joke (The History of the World was a book about the ancient history of Greece and Rome, written by Sir Walter Raleigh while prisoner in the Tower of London; he had only managed to complete the first volume before being beheaded). The Viking funeral scene involves Vikings taking off their stereotypical horned helmets – only to show that the horns were on the Vikings’ heads, rather than on their helmets.