Inside Mel Brooks’ Surprising Friendship with Alfred Hitchcock

Mel Brooks has made it his life’s work to make people laugh, and he worked with many talented people over the years in pursuit of that goal. But one of his most unexpected creative relationships was with a director whose work could not have been more different: Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock was the undisputed “Master of Suspense,” who built his legacy on psychological unease, while Brooks built his on outrageous comedy. Yet the two men ended up forming a genuine friendship that helped shape one of Brooks’ most clever films. With Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man!, the new  documentary airing on HBO on January 22 and 23, it is a perfect moment to revisit how this unlikely bond came to be.