"Young Frankenstein" was an enormous commercial and critical success for Mel Brooks. It was released the same year as his other major box office hit, "Blazing Saddles". Both films were nominated for multiple Academy Awards, and continue to be highly regarded today.
"Young Frankenstein" is a loving satire of the Universal "Frankenstein" films from the 1930s. Fans of "Frankenstein" (1931), "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935) and "Son of Frankenstein" (1939) will see the most famous scenes from those films parodied here. "Young Frankenstein" does its best to look like its role models. It was filmed in black and white, with the same aspect ratio, and even with some of the same sets. Director Mel Brooks tracked down Kenneth Strickfaden, a designer of sets for "Frankenstein", and was able to borrow the sets (laboratory, etc) that Strickfaden had kept stored in his garage for the past forty years.
The plot is most similar to "Frankenstein". Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) is the grandson of the famed mad scientist, living in the U.S. His fiancee is Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn, who like Wilder was also in "Blazing Saddles"). He disowns his famous ancestor until he inherits his German castle. He visits there, and promptly resumes his grandfather's mad experiments. A giant corpse (There is an extended discussion as to why the corpse must be large; the long awaited punchline finally relating to the size of his you-know-what) is brought to life. The monster (well played by Peter Boyle) is the violent, tormented, grunting figure familiar to lovers of gothic horror films.
Admittedly, there are some hilarious moments
in "Young Frankenstein". My favorite is when
the blind man (Gene Hackman) accidentally pours
soup in the monster's lap. It's also funny
when he sets his thumb on fire, but breaking
his beer mug isn't as funny. Another great moment
is Boyle's double take after the little girl
asks, "What else can we throw in?"
The hit-or-miss of the satire misses more often
than the collective memory of the film would have
it. The horses neigh every time Frau Blucher's
name is mentioned (One source says that her name
is close to the German word for glue). I'm not
sure this joke was funny the first time, much less
the fifth.
Igor (Marty Feldman) wants his name pronounced as
eye-gore because he is annoyed about Dr. Frankenstein's
pronunciation of his own name. This wasn't
funny to me either. Poor Feldman looks almost
like an alien with those bulging eyes. He seems
to be having a great time on the set, but the
jokes about his eyes and his ever-shifting hump
grow old quickly as well. Teri Garr is fetching,
but her character is pure cheesecake, like a
companion from a "Dr. Who" episode. Her bad German
accent isn't that funny either.
What bothered me most, however, was when the
monster rapes Elizabeth. She protests, then
sings in ecstasy due to his um, performance.
Sexual assault is usually a poor subject for
laughs, and that rule applies here as well.
In "Dr. Strangelove", the title character was
a German with a mechanical arm. This is borrowed
for the character of Inspector Kemp, whose
funniest moment despite all the arm movements
comes when he cheats at darts.
All of this is simply my opinion, and I am
definitely in the minority. "Young Frankenstein"
is a very popular film, and a critical favorite
as well. My mixed review is unsupported by
other critics. However, one has to judge a
film solely by what one sees in it, and I saw
a hit-or-miss comedy that often missed. (54/100)
Mel Brooks monstrously crazy tribute to Mary Shelley s classic pokes hilarious fun at just about every Frankenstein movie ever made. Summoned by a wil...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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