{"id":6555,"date":"2024-10-20T01:34:04","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T05:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6555"},"modified":"2024-10-25T23:15:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-26T03:15:00","slug":"young-frankenstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/20\/young-frankenstein\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Frankenstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Young Frankenstein <\/strong>(1974)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th<\/sup> Century Fox\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (suggestive content, scary images, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Mel Brooks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Morris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gerald Hirschfeld\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 15, 1974 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr, Kenneth Mars, Madeline Kahn, Gene Hackman, Richard Haydn, Liam Dunn, Danny Goldman, Oscar Beregi, Arthur Malet, Richard Roth.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $86.2M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0When it comes to Mel Brooks comedies, the question that seems to come up the most is \u201cBlazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein<\/strong>?\u201d Me, I am and always will be Team Blazing Saddles. Brooks\u2019 western send-up is brilliant on virtually every level. Its utter lunacy is inspired. It\u2019s one of my all-time favorite comedies. I don\u2019t feel the same about Young Frankenstein<\/strong>, a spoof of the horror genre; specifically, the old Universal Frankenstein movies of the 30s. Don\u2019t get me wrong; I like it a lot, I just don\u2019t love<\/em> it like some people do.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What I do love about Young Frankenstein<\/strong> is the love with which it is made. Brooks clearly has a genuine affection for the genre. In fact, if you look at his entire oeuvre, you can see he has a love of old movies in general. But in Young Frankenstein<\/strong>, it\u2019s clear from first frame to last that he\u2019s paying homage to something that has meaning for him. Not only is it filmed entirely in black and white, the opening and closing credits are in the style of 30s movies. He even employs old-time scene transition techniques- e.g. wipes, irises and fades to black. The score by John Morris also evokes the era. It\u2019s actually Brooks\u2019 most beautiful film. It\u2019s true artistry.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If the opening minutes of Young Frankenstein<\/strong> remind you of Citizen Kane, you\u2019re not alone. After an extended, under-the-credits, exterior shot of Frankenstein\u2019s castle, we go inside where an unseen person attempts to wrest a mysterious box from the hands of a rotting corpse that, of course, fights back. This is, after all, a Mel Brooks comedy. The scene then shifts to a medical school classroom in New York where the professor is doing a lecture on the brain and central nervous system. The professor is actually Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Wilder, Blazing Saddles), a direct descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein. He\u2019s not proud of his lineage. He gets upset whenever somebody asks him about his grandfather\u2019s experiments with reanimation, dismissing his work as insanity. He even goes so far as to tell people his name is pronounced \u201cfronk-on-steen\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0ANYWAY, he\u2019s approached after class by an old solicitor from Transylvania who informs him that he has inherited the entire Frankenstein estate including the castle. After a not-so-emotional goodbye with his socialite fiancee Elizabeth (Kahn, Blazing Saddles) at the train station, Frederick travels to the Transylvania station (yes, Track 29!) where he meets hunchbacked servant Igor (Feldman, Silent Movie), pronounced \u201ceye-gor\u201d, and comely lab assistant Inga (Garr, Oh, God!) who immediately asks him if he\u2019d like to go for a \u201croll in ze hay\u201d. It\u2019s Mel Brooks, what do you think she means? When they arrive at the castle (with its big \u201cknockers\u201d), they\u2019re greeted by housekeeper Frau Blucher (Leachman, Phyllis) whose very name causes horses to buck and whinny in fright.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Eventually, Frederick locates his grandfather\u2019s secret laboratory and his private journals entitled How I Did It. He decides maybe his grandfather wasn\u2019t so crazy after all and proceeds to resume his experiments, hopefully with more success. He and Igor steal the corpse of a hanged murderer, transplant the brain of somebody named \u201cAbby Normal\u201d and bring it to life. Of course, all hilarious hell breaks loose. The monster, played by Peter Boyle (Joe), is still afraid of fire. He does, however, do a nice rendition of \u201cPuttin\u2019 on the Ritz\u201d with his master\/maker.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ve watched Young Frankenstein<\/strong> a few times over the years and it\u2019s never completely won me over. For all its wonderful stylish trappings, it\u2019s not as consistently funny as the outrageous and gleefully anachronistic Blazing Saddles. Written by Wilder and Brooks, it\u2019s quite funny, no doubt, but it didn\u2019t make me laugh out loud like Blazing Saddles or as often. Most of time, I chuckled at the double entendres, stupid puns and takes on familiar scenes from its source material like the one with the little girl playing with flowers. It has an entirely different (and pretty funny) outcome. The scene with the blind man (Hackman, The French Connection) takes a turn for the riotous as well. There\u2019s no shortage of humor in Young Frankenstein<\/strong>; I just think it runs out of steam near the end. At 105 minutes, it might be a tad too long.<\/p>\n

\u00a0But you know what? As I think about it, there are some great bits in Young Frankenstein<\/strong>. I don\u2019t think I have to explain them in too much detail. Fans instantly recognize lines like \u201cWhere wolf? There wolf.\u201d, \u201cPardon me, boy? Is this the Transylvania Station?\u201d, \u201cWhat hump?\u201d, \u201cPut… the candle…. back.\u201d and \u201cFrau Blucher.\u201d Then, of course, there\u2019s \u201c\u2019UTTIN\u2019 ON THE \u2018IIIITZ!!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0The cast does an amazing job. That is one area in which Brooks is always spot-on. He brings out the funny in every actor he works with, the sole exception being the dreadful Dracula: Dead and Loving It (his final film before retiring in \u201995). Wilder is at his zany best as the increasingly crazy Dr. Fred Frankenstein. Feldman is a riot as Igor. Garr has some great moments as Inga. Leachman stands out as Frau Blucher (NEIGH!!!!). Kenneth Mars (What\u2019s Up, Doc?) does fine work as the local police constable who leads the townspeople in a charge against the doctor and his monster. In one of their meetings, somebody mentions they\u2019ve had five previous experiences with the Frankenstein family. What a clever way to reference the five Frankenstein flicks from Universal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The more I think about it, the more I like Young Frankenstein<\/strong>. I can see why it\u2019s regarded as a comedy classic. It lovingly goofs on a genre that\u2019s become a cornerstone of our cinematic culture. It looks like an old horror film, but plays like a contemporary comedy with its bawdy humor that never actually feels dirty or obscene. It\u2019s simply a silly comedy-horror film that knows and understands its target very well. Even with its shortcomings, it\u2019s still better than most of today\u2019s so-called comedies.<\/p>\n

One last thing….. BLUCHER! (NEIGH!!!!)<\/p>\n

TRIVIA TIDBIT: The lab equipment seen in Young Frankenstein<\/strong> is the same lab equipment used in the original Frankenstein (1931). It would later be used again in the 1998 film Gods and Monsters about Frankenstein director James Whale.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Young Frankenstein (1974)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th Century Fox\/Comedy-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (suggestive content, scary images, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Mel Brooks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Morris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Gerald Hirschfeld\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 15, 1974 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr, Kenneth Mars, Madeline Kahn, Gene Hackman, Richard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Young-Frankenstein-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6555"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7523,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6555\/revisions\/7523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}