Young Frankenstein

Plot synopsis:
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) is a lecturing physician at an American medical school and engaged to the tightly wound socialite Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn). He becomes exasperated when anyone brings up the subject of his grandfather Victor Frankenstein (German /ˈfrankenʃtaɪn/, in English traditionally /ˈfrænkenstaɪn/), the infamous mad scientist; to dissociate himself from his forebear, Frederick insists that his surname is pronounced /ˈfrankenstiːn/. When a solicitor informs him that he has inherited his family's estate in Transylvania after the death of his great-grandfather, the Baron Beaufort von Frankenstein, Frederick travels to Europe to inspect the property. At the Transylvania train station, he is met by a hunchbacked, bug-eyed servant named Igor (Marty Feldman), and a lovely young personal assistant named Inga (Teri Garr).
Upon arrival at the estate, Frederick meets the forbidding housekeeper Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman). Upon discovering the secret entrance to his grandfather's laboratory and reading his private journals, Frederick is so captivated that he decides to resume his grandfather's experiments in re-animating the dead. He and Igor steal the corpse of a recently executed criminal, and Frederick sets to work experimenting on the large corpse. Matters go awry when Igor is sent to steal the brain of a deceased revered historian, Hans Delbrück; startled by lightning, he drops and ruins Delbrück's brain. Taking a second brain, Igor returns with a brain labeled "Do Not Use This Brain! Abnormal", which Frederick unknowingly transplants into the corpse.
Soon, Frederick is ready to re-animate his creature (Peter Boyle), who is eventually brought to life by electrical charges during a lightning storm. The creature makes its first halting steps, but, frightened by Igor lighting a match, he attacks Frederick and must be sedated. Meanwhile, the townspeople are uneasy at the possibility of Frederick continuing his grandfather's work, unaware of the creature's existence; most concerned is Inspector Kemp (Kenneth Mars), a one-eyed police official with a prosthetic arm and a thick German accent. Kemp visits the doctor and subsequently demands assurance that he will not create another monster. Upon returning to the lab, Frederick discovers Blücher setting the creature free. After she reveals the monster's love of violin music and her own romantic relationship with Frederick's grandfather, the creature is enraged by sparks from a thrown switch and escapes from the Frankenstein castle.
While roaming the countryside, the monster has frustrating encounters with a young girl and a blind hermit (Gene Hackman). Frederick recaptures the monster and locks the two of them in a room, where he calms the monster's homicidal tendencies with flattery and fully acknowledges his own heritage, shouting out emphatically, "My name is Frankenstein!". Frederick offers the sight of "The Creature" following simple commands to a theater full of illustrious guests. The demonstration continues with Frederick and the monster launching into the musical number "Puttin' On the Ritz". However, the routine ends disastrously when a stage light explodes and frightens the monster, who becomes enraged and charges into the audience, where he is captured and chained by police. Back in the laboratory, Inga attempts to comfort Frederick and the two wind-up sleeping together on the suspended reanimation table.
The monster escapes when Frederick's fiancee Elizabeth arrives unexpectedly for a visit, taking Elizabeth captive as he flees. Elizabeth falls in love with the creature due to his inhuman stamina and his enormous penis (referred to as Schwanstücker or Schwanzstück). The townspeople hunt for the monster. Desperate to get the creature back, Frederick plays the violin to lure his creation back to the castle and recaptures him. Just as the Kemp-led mob storms the laboratory, Frankenstein transfers some of his stabilizing intellect to the creature who, as a result, is able to reason with and placate the mob. Elizabeth marries the now erudite and sophisticated monster — with her hair styled identically to that of the female creature from the Bride of Frankenstein, while Inga joyfully learns what her new husband Frederick got in return during the transfer procedure — the monster's Schwanzstücker.

Tags: cult, comedy, gothic, satire, humor

Review:
His character is the most crucial for this parody to work right and he succeeds, figuring in a high percentage of the comedy highlights.Representing the distaff side, Madeline Kahn is one cool cucumber, stealing focus whenever she's on camera as the placid, meticulous, hopelessly stuck-up fiancee Elizabeth; Cloris Leachman sinks her teeth into the role of the grotesque Frau Blücher, whose mere mention of her name sends horses into panic; and Teri Garr is delightful as a dinghy Deutschlander who assists Frankenstein in his wild experiments and other things.An amalgamation of Universal's earliest and best Frankenstein' movies ("Frankenstein," "Bride of Frankenstein" and "Son of Frankenstein," this spoof relies on close imitation and Brooks took painstaking methods to recreate the look and feel of James Whale's original sets, black-and-white photography and musical score.
"Blazing Saddles" indeed has its insane moments but when it comes to toasting Mel Brooks in the years to come, "Young Frankenstein" should certainly stand front and center when representing this clown prince of comedy..
Mel Brooks' hilarious "Young Frankenstein" is one of those strange films that is so outlandish and makes fun of itself so much that it sucks the viewer into its twisted world and does not let up until the final credits roll.
What follows is a comic joy-ride that involves the assistant (Marty Feldman), the love interest (Teri Garr), the stuck-up girlfriend (Madeline Kahn), the weird house-keeper (Cloris Leachman), the odd detective (Kenneth Mars) and naturally the monster himself (Peter Boyle in a priceless performance).
Add in the great talents of Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Gene Hackman, Peter Boyle, Cloris Leachman, etc., and you have a memorable movie with a lot of memorable scenes.Looking at the Frankenstien "monster" in a tuxedo or sitting up in bed with a cigar reading The Wall Street Journal are just a few of the outlandish scenes, along Wilder entering the mansion commenting on the "nice knockers."Kudos, also, for Mel Brooks having the good sense to film this in black-and- white.
Mel Brooks' tribute to the Frankenstein movies of the 40s is done with such love, such skill, and such side-splitting, fall-on-the-floor hilarity, that it has rightfully become a comedy classic.
From the wild-eyed Igor, the hunchbacked Transylvanian servant whose hump keeps changing from side to side, to the modern-day descendant of Baron von Frankenstein, determined not to follow in his great-grandfather's nefarious footsteps, to the nurse, a naif with enormous...er...chestal appendages, to the fearsome Frau Bleucher, whose mere mention causes horses in the castle's faraway stables to neigh in fear...to the scene of the monster and his creator singing and dancing in black tie to "putting on the Ritz," this movie should come with a warning: "Danger--Uncontrollable Laughter May Become Chronic."The cast is beyond superb.
The late, wonderful British comedian Marty Feldman (Igor), who turned his congenital wandering eyes into comedic foils, never misses a beat as second banana to Gene Wilder, who plays the distraught Dr. Frankenstein to the hilt and beyond.
Zany spoof of the Frankenstein films with a superb script from Brooks and off the wall performances from Wilder, Boyle, Leachman and Kahn.
If you love comedies, but haven't seen Young Frankenstein, you're in for a delicious treat.After three decades, it still makes people laugh to death, and it's a must-see for every spoof lover in the world.Actually, it's not a parody, but a homage by Mel Brooks to James Whale's classic,shot in black and white on the same location and with the same props.The "hero" is Dr.Frederick Frankenstein(Gene Wilder), who, after a long period in which he hated it, decides to repeat his grandfather's experiment.The result is the Transylvanians want to kill him, despite the fact that the monster is the most harmless creature in the world.This sort of sequel to the original Frankenstein is hilarious from start to finish, mostly because of two actors:Peter Boyle and Martin Feldman.The former is great as the mute creature(he'll compensate that by talking too much in Everybody Loves Raymond), particularly in the scene with Gene Hackman's Blind Man.But it's Feldman's Igor that makes this film unmissable.No wonder, given he's got the best lines("Wait Master.It might be dangerous...you go first").With no doubt Mel Brooks' masterpiece.The Scary Movie franchise wishes it was this good..
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) **** Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Kenneth Mars, Teri Garr, Gene Hackman.
Mel Brooks' masterpiece horror comic spoof of all those Universal Frankenstein flicks of the Thirties expertly capturing the set design (actually from the 1931 classic!) and overall look of those timeless films.
Much of the words I used to describe Mel Brooks' work in Blazing Saddles applies here as well.To have not one,but two masterpieces of comedy in the same year is incredible.I'm amazed at the way Brooks is able to capture the cinematography of a genre such as 30's horror films,and use it in a spoof of the genre.Sheer genius!
As for casting,Marty Feldman is hysterical as Igor.Classic routines,excellent casting,and again,the cinematography make this film one of the all time great comedies..
Hilarious Mel Brooks/Gene Wilder comedy filled with horror satire , amusing events , nice settings and lots of laughters .
The original cut of the movie was almost twice as long as the final cut, and it was considered by all involved to be an abysmal failure , it was only after a marathon cutting session that they produced the final cut of the film, which both Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks considered to be far superior to the original product ; at one point they noted that for every joke that worked, there were three that fell flat , so they went in and trimmed all the jokes that didn't work.
He inherits his demented grandfather's castle in Transylvania and becomes curious about his experiments to the point that he is enticed into repeating them.Lending great support is Marty Feldman as Frankenstein's incompetent hump backed assistant Igor (pronounced EGOR), Madeleine Kahn as Frankenstein's seemingly frigid fiancée who comes visiting at the castle at an awkward time, Terri Garr as Frankenstein's buxom assistant, and Peter Boyle as the monster.
Despite some Mel Brooks's bad movie this one deserve a proper respect, Gene Wilder quite often is funny,but he needs a partner,in this case Marty Feldman is indubitable a prefect choice,all star casting is fantastic,each little roles has their exactly significance to developing the picture,well done productions on little details in black and white backing memories from previous and old Universal's Frankenstein...the picture survived over time!!!Resume: First watch: 1987 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD Rating: 7.5.
Hilarious Mel Brooks send-up of the classic horror story.The grandson of the infamous Dr Frankenstein travels to his grandfather's castle and works on creating life...One of Mel Brooks' better movies, and that says a lot.
The cinematography really resembles that of the original Frankenstein films, which I loved.Young Frankenstein is a great comedy, a movie that understands what it is doing most of the time and, although childish at times, I think fans of the original Frankenstein films and horror classics in general will enjoy this one..
delivered by the originator of spoofs Mel Brooks with a film that's up there with his classic Blazing Saddles (1974) and in fact released the same year which is quite amazing considering both are so great!
starring Gene Wilder as a teacher / scientist & grandson of the Dr. Frankenstein who first reanimated a corpse back into real life, Marty Feldman as the hilarious English spoken hunchback who is also the grandson of the famous hunchback who worked alongside the original Dr. Frankenstein, Teri Garr as the sexy assistant & Peter Boyle as the monster with a soft heart the young Franenstein doesn't want to follow in his grandfather's footsteps but with news of a will from his grandfather, he ends up traveling to Transylvania and what eventuates is classic Mel Brooks, with so many golden moments & an awesome spoof on the horror genrehttp://samuellbronko.tumblr.com/post/118188941547/young- frankenstein-1974-mel-brooks-8-10-been.
Mel Brooks set his comic genius to satirizing the horror film genre by taking one of the classic Universal horror characters, the monster created by Baron Von Frankenstein.
Teri Garr has some good moments as Wilder's Valley Girl type assistant Inga and Gene Hackman in his one scene as The Blind Man is hilarious.Fans of the zany humor of Mel Brooks should not let Young Frankenstein get by..
But, some problems arise when trying to revive the creature..."Young Frankenstein" is hugely popular, scoring 8 out of 10 on IMDb and considered by many to be Mel Brooks' best and one of the funniest comedies of all time.
Yes. But I neither think it's the funniest of Mel Brooks' work ("History of the World", "The Producers" and maybe even "Silent Movie" are funnier) or one of the greatest comedies.
But to say this is Mel Brooks' best film, one of the best comedies of all time or Gene Wilder's best role is just not correct, in my opinion.
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, considered one of Mel Brooks' best films, was released in the same year as BLAZING SADDLES.
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN shines in the performances and the love of the screenwriters (Brooks and star Gene Wilder) for the source material at which they're lovingly poking fun.
Watching it for the more slapstick and pop culture gags I'd come to expect from stuff like SPACEBALLS and ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS, I'd overlooked all the best material from the amazing cast and sharp writing.YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN presents itself as a sort of sequel to the classic Universal horror films directed by James Whale in the early 1930's.
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN has reverence for source lacking in Brooks' others except maybe SILENT MOVIE.Gene Wilder's performance as the conflicted Frankenstein heir is one of his greatest that I've seen, right up there with his turn as Willy Wonka.
With that, another women looked up and said " It is pronounced Fronkenstein." Wonderful, the film has had that MUCH impact after so much time.The famous scene when Marty Feldman kept getting bits of fur in his mouth from Kahn's fox piece is still a wonderful evocation of old slapstick and Marx Brothers comedy.
It's got a nice rhythm, and all the actors play their roles as good as they're supposed to: Gene Wilder (Mr. Fronkonstin!) gives us his best performance ever; Marty Feldman (aIgor) looks like a real freak (with that face you don't even need to be a real actor); and Peter Boyle (the Monster) proves that he's as good in comedy as he's in drama (you may remember him from Scorsese's Taxi Driver or Hardcore -Paul Schrader 70's-).
Add to all this of course the Brooks/Wilder trademark gags: Igor's hump, which he denies having, keeps swapping shoulders; when his train arrives in Transylvania Frederick ask a passing shoeshine boy 'Pardon me boy, is this the Transylvania station?' 'Ya, ya, track twenty-nine' replies the boy, 'Can I give you a shine?'; to demonstrate his brilliance to the scientific community Frederick has his monster join him in a rendition of 'Puttin' on the Ritz' complete with cane, top hat and tails; a brain stored in a jar with the label 'Warning - Do Not Use This Brain' (which of course they do); horses whinny whenever Frau Blücher's name is mentioned, and Wilder's Frederick Frankenstein, with his pencil thin moustache and mop of frizzy hair, appears just as if SON OF's Basil Rathbone had stuck his fingers in a light socket.It's obvious from every scene that Mel Brooks has great affection for those old monster movies which results in this being the best thing he's ever done and, if I had one, it would certainly be amongst my all time top ten  just above BLAZING SADDLES.
They reworked the story of Frankenstein and his monster into a smart, occasionally hilarious, always enjoyable, classic comedy that helped put Brooks on the map after "The Producers" ("Blazing Saddles" also helped quite a bit).Some fans of "Frankenstein" could consider the film almost sacrilegious, I suppose, but that wouldn't be fair.
Surprisingly over rated spoof comedy that is really only FAIR at best but is being praised as a masterpiece!The movie struggles for any luaghs it can get despite many opportunities the material has to offer.I do recommend this movie for the classic FRANKENSTEIN horror movie fans who like the comedy genre for this comedy version treats that classic horror film with respect.Wait for the sequence when Gene Hackman as an old blind man who plays host to our monster to one of the most hilarious scenes in movie history much in the 3 STOOGES style.But other than that sequence,everything else is cliche comedy.The cinematography is only standard 30's style black and white and yet it is praised to high heaven as if it was in the same level of quality as LAWRENCE OF ARABIA!Most probably these over rating high praisers were blinded out of reality by Terri Garr's obvious beauty.If you want a masterpiece horror/comedy,see THE RE-ANIMATOR.For a masterpiece Mel Brooks movie,see BLAZING SADDLES which deserves it's praises.......
I wrote a comment about "Blazing Saddles" where I mentioned the fact that it came out the same year as "Young Frankenstein", and both movies had the same director (the GREAT Mel Brooks) and the same star (the INCOMPARABLE Gene Wilder, also co-writer).
If you do not know the story of, or have never seen a Frankenstein film before then you should watch one in-order to get the humor in this movie.This is an all-star fantastic cast with a cute script.
Young Frankenstein is a fantastic film with a very fun and cleverly parodied spoof of classic Frankenstein films that is directed very impressively by Mel Brooks and is a pitch perfect resemblance of how those films actually looked.The cast is very inspired and all play really funny and unique characters,obviously the best performance is from the great Gene Wilder,this man just knows how to act,but in a serious and comedic way,and the other cast members all do a great job as well,the two that really stand out for me are Peter Boyle and Gene Hackman's cameo.I don't think it's Mel Brooks or Gene Wilder's best film,but all fans of classic comedy will really appreciate it,and fans of classic monster films will appreciate its very impressive parody.Dr Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) is assigned to recreate his grandfathers well known experiment,something he has being trying to avoid for many years..
With "Young Frankenstein", Mel Brooks managed to combine, in perfect symbiosis, the romance and intrigue of the classic black & white Universal monster movies of the 1930's and 1940's with the shtick comedy that made Brooks famous.With the script, Gene Wilder managed to write something not only witty and amusing but rife with the old-world nostalgia that made the original Universal monster films so appealing.
It's one of the funniest films I've seen in my life.Gene Wilder is perfect for the role of Frankenstein and there is also hilarious acting from Peter Boyle, Cloris Leachman, Kenneth Mars, and especially Marty Feldman and Igor.
This would likely be a desired effect in a political commercial, but not so in a film parody/comedy/farce.Collaborative writer/star, Gene Wilder and Writer/Director Mel Brooks are charged with having to carefully choose the gags and situations so as to bring the greatest number of genuine laughs, and at the same time maintain a respect and reverence for the old Horror Genre.
And what an amazing cast of supporting characters: Peter Boyle as the monster, wildly funny (and touching!) with almost no dialogue; Marty Feldman as Igorwas anyone ever more perfectly cast in a comic role?; Cloris Leachman, brilliantly over-the-top; Madeline Kahn, capping her run of great comic roles (What's Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, Blazing Saddles) with what I consider her best.
Plus good work from Kenneth Mars, a young Teri Garrand let us not forget the best star cameo ever put on film  Gene Hackman's uproarious turn as the blind man.Can you imagine a comedy this good being released today?
The scenes which were comedically based on the original ones from the Frankenstein series of movies were the best, my favorite being the one with the monster going to visit the blind man in the woods (cameo by Gene Hackman) and the other with the wonderful Madeline Kahn singing "Oh, Sweet Mystery of Life." The entire audience was rolling.Of course, Kenneth Mars and Terri Garr also did great jobs, adding to the film immensely.
The scene where the monster visits a lonely blind man (played by Gene Hackman) is as funny as anything I've seen in a movie.Young Frankenstein isn't quite perfect.
Young Frankenstein is sure to please fans of Mel Brooks, or people who are just beginning to get into his movies.
Mel Brooks' classic, Young Frankenstein, is in black and white and looks like it could have been the sequel to the Frankenstein movies of the 1930s, and that's a complement.
With help from his assistants Igor (a very funny Marty Feldman) and Inga (Teri Garr), Frankenstein is able to bring Peter Boyle, he plays the monster, back to life.
(Gene Hackman's blind man soup scene, lampooning a scene from, I think, "Bride of Frankenstein." Not Mel Brooks' best work.
And every minute Gene Hackman is on the screen as the blind hermit playing to Peter Boyle's increasingly frustrated Monster is pure gold.The "little" details like the use of Kenneth Strickfaden's original electrical equipment from Dr. Frankenstein's 1931 laboratory reveal how hard they worked on this film and how eager they were to get it just exactly right.Thank you, Mel Brooks, for two things.
This is also a very funny spoof on Frankenstein movies as Mel Brooks was top notch in this film as he did nearly no wrong in casting and the story was to die for.
Young Frankenstein was directed by Mel Brooks who was famous for many funny as well as great films.
A lot of the credit for that goes to the performances of Gene Wilder, as young Frankenstein, and Peter Boyle as the monster.