History of the World: Part I (1981) on Netflix
An anthology comedy traces human history from the Stone Age through the French Revolution. Moses, Comicus, Torquemada and King Louis XVI are among its characters.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.8/1059,600 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes59%
Trailer
Plot summary
A narrator guides the audience through a comic anthology that parodies epic films and period costume dramas, moving from the Stone Age to the Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition and the French Revolution, with shorter skits in between. The Stone Age section covers the first inventions, the first artist and the first critic, the first marriages and the first funerals. Comicus is a Roman stand-up philosopher, Josephus an Ethiopian slave, and Miriam a Vestal Virgin. Torquemada is the infamous figure of the Spanish Inquisition, while Madame Defarge keeps a Paris tavern and King Louis XVI rules France with Count de Monet and Béarnaise among his advisors.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
- Leigh Frenchas Prehistoric Woman
- Richard Karronas Prehistoric Man
- Susette Carrollas Prehistoric Man
- J.J. Barryas Prehistoric Man
- Earl Finnas Prehistoric Man / Disciple - The Roman Empire
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about History of the World: Part I (1981)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The actor originally cast in a major role, Richard Pryor, had to be replaced days before filming after he was hospitalized with severe burns, and co-star Madeline Kahn's on-set suggestion led directly to Gregory Hines being cast instead.
- A scene referencing the real Three Mile Island nuclear disaster, showing parents mutated by a meltdown, was cut after test audiences reacted with stunned silence instead of laughter, director Mel Brooks said.
- Mel Brooks invented the title in a 20th Century-Fox parking lot in 1979: he shouted to a grip that his next film would be the biggest movie ever made, History of the World, and when someone asked how one movie could cover the whole world, he said he would call it Part I.
- Orson Welles, who had been booked for five full days of voice narration, finished recording every one of his lines in only a few hours.
