# The 1976 movie scene Mel Brooks didn’t even try to deny he’d plagiarised: “I call it thievery”

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-1976-movie-scene-mel-brooks-didnt-even-try-to-deny-hed-plagiarised-i-call-it-thievery/
- Published: 2026-11-11T19:15:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-11T20:36:28+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/movie-scene-mel-brooks-didnt-even-try-to-deny-hed-plagiarised/
- Topics: Entertainment, Film, Government, Politics

## Key points

- Brooks borrowed a gag from Keaton’s *The Cameraman*.
- The scene appeared in *Silent Movie* in 1976.
- He called the borrowing “thievery” and a tribute.

## Summary

Mel Brooks admitted that a bathroom gag in his 1976 comedy *Silent Movie* was copied from a scene in Buster Keaton’s 1928 film *The Cameraman*. He described the borrowing as “thievery”, while also making clear it was a tribute to a filmmaker he admired.

In Brooks’s scene, characters played by Harold Gould and Ron Carey struggle as one becomes stuck in the other’s coat; Keaton’s similar mishap takes place in a changing room. Brooks said he thanked Keaton after the scene was filmed, and Keaton’s widow, Eleanor, was also involved in a gag that was cut from the finished film.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.