"That's HEDLEY Lamarr, you putz!!"

Last night I was trolling the internet and discovered, via The IMDB, that comedic actor Harvey Korman had passed away at age 81. He is, I imagine, known mostly for his co-starring role, with his partner in classic TV comedy sketches, Tim Conway on The Carol Burnett Show. Korman's movie career is sporadic; Disney sequels like Herbie Goes Bananas and the later Pink Panther film entries. He will, though, be forever remembered in my mind to have created one of the funniest and most memorable comic villains in film history. Mel Brooks utilized Korman in three films, I believe, and his performances always stood out. The one film role that stands highest of all to me is his portrayal of the vain, evil, oily western town power manipulator Hedley Lamarr in Brooks' BLAZING SADDLES. Each time he appears on screen to invoke more comic evil dialogue, filled with fantastic sentence construction of impeccable grammar and rakish intonations, I smile even more. Korman appears to be a mutated version of Dudley Do-right's moustache twirling villain Snidely Whiplash and a perverted Rhett Butler. Of course, the performance is a creation of Brooks and his screenwriters, but Korman adds such panache in his physical molding of Lamarr. I'll never forget his perfect diction in lines like this:

"My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention!"

And his smug leering that would turn on a dime when, instead of being called Hedley Lamarr, he was mistakenly called HEDY Lamarr (a confusion of his name with that of the 40s screen siren). This aggravated him to no extent and he would explode with volcanic force, sputtering indignation and anger at his ego being pierced and mental emasculation. My favorite bit is when the film reaches its surrealistic climax and the "western" breaks the fourth wall of audience perception and a barroom brawl erupts into the soundstage of a musical being filmed next door. Lamarr escapes into the studio back lot and hails a taxi. He calmly commands the driver to "get me out of this movie." This is one of my favorite comedy moments in film history. It's one of the rare film moments that makes me laugh every time I see it.

If you've never seen his performance or have and remember it as fondly as I, here is a snippet from BLAZING SADDLES:



Thanks for the laughs, Mr. Korman. You may be gone, but we'll always have HEDLEY Lamarr.