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Young Frankenstein

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Young Frankenstein is a 1974 American comedy film directed by Mel Brooks and starring Gene Wilder as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The supporting cast includesTeri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn and Gene Hackman. The screenplay was written by Wilder and Brooks.[3]

The film is an affectionate parody of the classical horror film genre, in particular the various film adaptations of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein produced by Universal in the 1930s. Most of the lab equipment used as props were created by Kenneth Strickfaden for the 1931 film Frankenstein. To further reflect the atmosphere of the earlier films, Brooks shot the picture entirely in black-and-white, a rarity in the 1970s, and employed 1930s-style opening credits and scene transitions such as iris outs, wipes, and fades to black. The film also features a notable period score by Brooks' longtime composer John Morris.

A critical favorite and box office smash, Young Frankenstein ranks No. 28 on Total Film magazine's "List of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films of All Time",[4] number 56 on Bravo TV's list of the "100 Funniest Movies",[5] and number 13 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 funniest American movies.[6] In 2003, it was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the United States National Film Preservation Board, and selected for preservation in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.[7] It also has 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, where it was Certified Fresh; the consensus reads: "Made with obvious affection for the original, Young Frankenstein is a riotously silly spoof featuring a fantastic performance by Gene Wilder."[8]

Contents[]

 [hide] *1 Plot

Plot[edit][]

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) is a physician lecturer at an American medical school and engaged to the tightly wound actress Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn). He becomes exasperated when anyone brings up the subject of his grandfather, the infamous mad scientist. To disassociate himself from his legacy, Frederick insists that his surname be pronounced "Fronk-en-steen."

When a solicitor informs him that he has inherited his family's estate in Transylvania after the death of his great grandfather, the Baron Beauvort von Frankenstein, Frederick travels to Europe to inspect the property. At the Transylvania train station, he is met by a hunchbacked, bulging-eyed servant named Igor, pronounced as "eye-gore" (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), whose name, whenever mentioned, causes horses to rear up and neigh madly in fright. Though his family legacy has brought shame and ridicule, Frederick becomes increasingly intrigued about his grandfather's work, especially after Inga assists him in discovering the secret entrance to his grandfather's laboratory. Upon reading his grandfather's private journals, Frederick is so transformed that he decides to resume his grandfather's experiments in re-animating the dead. He and Igor resort to robbing the grave of a recently executed criminal, and Frederick sets to work experimenting on the large corpse. Matters go awry, however, when Igor is sent to steal the brain of a deceased revered scientist, Hans Delbruck; startled by lightning, he drops and ruins Delbruck's brain. Taking a second brain, Igor returns with a brain labeled "Do Not Use This Brain! Abnormal" (which he subsequently refers to as "A-b (Abby) Normal"), which Frederick unknowingly transplants into the corpse.

Soon, Frederick is ready to re-animate his creature (Peter Boyle), who is elevated on a platform to the roof of the laboratory during a lightning storm. Eventually, electrical charges bring the creature to life. The creature makes its first halting steps, but, frightened by Igor lighting a match, attacks Frederick and must be sedated. Upon being asked whose brain was obtained, Igor confesses that he supplied "Abby Normal's" (abnormal) brain, unknowingly creating the Monster.

The townspeople are uneasy at the possibility of Frederick continuing his grandfather's work. Most concerned is Inspector Kemp (Kenneth Mars), a police official who sports an eyepatch and monocle over the same eye, a creaky, disjointed wooden arm, and an accent so comically thick even his own countrymen cannot understand him. Kemp visits the doctor and subsequently demands assurance that he will not create another monster. Upon returning to the lab, Frederick discovers that Frau Blücher is 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); these scenes directly parody the original Frankenstein movies. 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!" (This time, he uses the more common, Anglicized pronunciation.)

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," complete with top hats andtails. Although the monster can only shout his song lines in painfully high-pitched monotones, he dances impressively with almost perfect timing. The routine ends disastrously, however, when a stage light explodes and frightens the monster, who becomes enraged, pushes Frederick, and charges into the audience, where he is captured and chained by police.

The monster escapes, then kidnaps and ravishes the not unwilling Elizabeth when she arrives unexpectedly for a visit. Elizabeth falls in love with the creature due to his inhuman stamina and his enormous penis (referred to as Schwanstuker orSchwanzstück — a Yiddish word from Schwanz, "tail," which also is German slang for "penis," and Stück, "piece").

The townspeople hunt for the monster. Desperate to get the creature back, Frederick plays the violin to lure his creation back to the castle. 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. The film ends happily, with Elizabeth married to 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 Schwanzstück.

Cast[edit][]

Production[edit][]

Origins[edit][]

In a 2010 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mel Brooks discussed how the film came about:[10]

I was in the middle of shooting the last few weeks of Blazing Saddles somewhere in the Antelope Valley, and Gene Wilder and I were having a cup of coffee and he said, I have this idea that there could be another Frankenstein. I said not another — we've had the son of, the cousin of, the brother-in-law, we don't need another Frankenstein. His idea was very simple: What if the grandson of Dr. Frankenstein wanted nothing to do with the family whatsoever. He was ashamed of those wackos. I said, "That's funny."

Unlike his previous and subsequent films, Brooks did not appear onscreen as himself in Young Frankenstein, though he recorded several voice parts and portrayed a German villager in one short scene. In 2012, Brooks explained why:

"I wasn’t allowed to be in it. That was the deal Gene Wilder had. He [said], “If you’re not in it, I’ll do it.” [Laughs.] He [said], “You have a way of breaking the fourth wall, whether you want to or not. I just want to keep it. I don’t want too much to be, you know, a wink at the audience. I love the script.” He wrote the script with me. That was the deal. So I wasn’t in it, and he did it."[11]

Filming[edit][]

Mel Brooks wanted at least $2.3 million dedicated to the budget, whereas Columbia Pictures decided that $1.7 million had to be enough. Brooks instead went to 20th Century Fox, for distribution after they agreed to a higher budget.

While shooting, the cast ad-libbed several jokes used in the film. Cloris Leachman improvised a scene in which Frau Blücher offers "varm milk" and Ovaltine to Dr. Frankenstein, while Marty Feldman surreptitiously moved his character's hump from shoulder to shoulder until someone noticed it, and the gag was added to the film ("Didn't you used to have that on the other side?", "What hump?"). Brooks has declared Young Frankenstein his favorite among his own films.[citation needed]

Deleted scenes[edit][]

The following deleted scenes can be found as bonus material on the DVD:

  • When the solicitor speaks with Frederick Frankenstein, he presents him with the will of his great-grandfather, Baron Beaufort von Frankenstein. This can cause confusion, as the movie makes reference from this point on only of Frederick's grandfather, and clearly indicates that it was his grandfather, not his great-grandfather, who was the "mad scientist" in the family.
  • Also, there is no further mention of the will; this is cleared up in a deleted scene, in which it is revealed that Baron Frankenstein is indeed meant to be the father of the mad scientist and not the scientist himself. It is also revealed in a gathering of all the surviving family heirs that the details of the will (not surprisingly) have Frederick inherit everything, which is why he travels to his ancestral home. The will was delayed by order of the Baron himself, instructing that its details not be revealed until his 100th birthday.
  • A highwayman unwisely attempts to rob the monster.

Soundtrack[edit][]

ABC Records released the soundtrack on LP in 1974. On April 29, 1997, One Way Records reissued it on CD. There are pieces of dialogue by the actors as well as background and incidental music on the disc. The LP and disc are now out of print and command a very high price on Internet auction sites when available.

Track listing

  1. Main Title (Theme from Young Frankenstein)
  2. That's Fron-Kon-Steen!
  3. Train Ride to Transylvania / The Doctor Meets Igor
  4. Frau Blücher
  5. Grandfather's Private Library
  6. It's Alive!
  7. He Was My Boyfriend
  8. My Name Is Frankenstein!
  9. Introduction / Puttin' on the Ritz
  10. A Riot Is an Ugly Thing
  11. He's Broken Loose
  12. The Monster Talks
  13. Wedding Night / End Title
  14. Theme from Young Frankenstein (Disco Version) – performed by Rhythm Heritage

Cultural references[edit][]

  • In one of the scenes of a village assembly, one of the authority figures says that they already know what Frankenstein is up to based on five previous experiences. On the DVD commentary track, Mel Brooks says this is a reference to the first five Universal films. In the Gene Wilder DVD interview, he says the film is based on Frankenstein (1931), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939) and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942).
  • The brain which Igor is ordered to steal is labeled as belonging to "Hans Delbrück, scientist and saint". A real-life Hans Delbrück was a nineteenth-century military historian; his son Max Delbrück was a twentieth-century biochemist and Nobel laureate.
  • Every time Frau Blücher's name is mentioned, horses are heard whinnying as if afraid of her name. Many viewers mistakenly believe that Blücher means "glue" in German; however, Blücher is a well-known German surname.[12] The German term for glue is der Kleber, or tierischer Leim for animal glue. Brooks suggested in a 2000 interview that he had based the joke on the erroneous translation, which he had heard from someone else.[13] In an interview, Cloris Leachman said that Mel had told her that that is why he named her character Blücher.[14] In the audio commentary, Mel Brooks explains that the horses are whinnying to show us that Frau Blücher is an ominous character: "They're terrified of her; God only knows what she does to them when nobody else is around."
  • The U.S. AMC cable network broadcast a 2007 "DVD TV" version of the film with commentary in subtitles. Among other information, it stated that Inga was based on Ulla from Brooks' earlier film The Producers.

Cultural legacy[edit][]

When the film was in theaters, the band Aerosmith was working on its third studio album, Toys in the Attic. The members of the band had written the music for a song but couldn't come up with any lyrics to go with it. After a while, they decided to take a break and see a late night showing of Young Frankenstein, where the "walk this way" gag provided the basis (or phrase) for the Aerosmith hit "Walk This Way".[15]

Musical adaptation[edit][]

Main article: Young Frankenstein (musical)

Brooks adapted the film into a musical of the same name which premiered in Seattle at the Paramount Theatre and ran from August 7 to September 1, 2007.[16] The musical opened on Broadway at the Foxwoods Theatre (then the Hilton Theatre) on November 8, 2007 and closed on January 4, 2009.[17]

Awards[edit][]

Nominations[7][18]

Cloris Leachman was nominated as a lead despite Madeline Kahn having far more screen time.

Wins[7]

Other honors[edit][]

American Film Institute recognition

In 2011, ABC aired a primetime special, Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time, that counted down the best movies chosen by fans based on results of a poll conducted by ABC and People. Young Frankenstein was selected as the #4 Best Comedy.

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