Start the Revolution without Me
Original Theatrical Date: February 4, 1970
Produced and directed by comedy veteran Bud Yorkin, Start the Revolution Without Me broke ground for a comedy revolution. It takes the tumultuous "let-them-eat-cake" days of the French Revolution and gives everyone a figurative pie in the face.
Two sets of twins are mismatched at birth so that years later, each set will have one Gene Wilder and one Donald Sutherland. One set grows up to be aristocratic swashbucklers, the other set are peasants. In a hilarious fluke of fate, they crisscross across classes.
In the years following Start the Revolution Without Me, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and the Abrahams/Zucker/Zucker team would all create madcap comedy masterpieces. A lineup like that must have had a tremendous Start.
Genre: Comedy