It’s that time of year again! Time to celebrate the Resurrection with a weeklong plunge into all things zombie! Here’s the history: In 2008, Dr. Girlfriend and I decided to spend a week or so each year marathoning through zombie films that we’d never seen before, and I would blog short reviews. And simple as that, the Easter Zombie Movie Marathon was born.
For the curious, here are links to 2008, 2009 (a bad year), 2010, 2011, 2012 (when we left the blog behind), 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
1974 was a big year for Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder, whether they realized it at the time or not.
Production on Blazing Saddles was wrapping soon in late April or the start of May 1973, when, according to interviews with both creatives, Wilder approached Brooks with an idea for a new Frankenstein movie with himself starring as the American grandson of Baron Victor Frankenstein. While reticent at first, Brooks agreed once he heard the initial concept and once Blazing Saddles wrapped, he and Wilder would meet every night and, little by little, the script came together.
Wilder affirmed in a DVD interview that the film was based on Frankenstein (1931), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1939), and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). Originally supposed to be produced for Columbia Pictures, Brooks and the studio couldn’t agree on the budget, and Columbia wasn’t thrilled with the idea of shooting in black and white, preferring instead to shoot color and convert it before release, so they could release it in color around the world. 20th Century Fox, however, was happy to take the picture with Brooks given free rein with a higher budget and full support for a black and white release.
Principal photography began in February 1974 just after the release of Blazing Saddles, and wrapped by the start of May. Brooks and company then had Young Frankenstein in theaters by the middle of December, making 1974 the biggest financial and critical success of their careers, launching Brooks and Wilder into the upper echelon of comedy legends. On a budget of $2.6 million, Blazing Saddles brought in $26.7 million with it initial release in the U.S. and Canada (it would continue to add to that with a subsequent re-release in 1976 and with the eventual home video market). Young Frankenstein was an overwhelming success bringing in $86.2 million on a $2.78 million budget.
What is there to say about Young Frankenstein that hasn’t already been said?
The film, as already mentioned, was shot in black and white and echoed the visual style of the original Universal Pictures films, with vintage-style opening credits and scene transitions. Brooks also approached Kenneth Strickfaden, who had designed and maintained the original lab equipment from the Universal Frankenstein films, and according to a Blu-ray interview with Brooks, Strickfaden still had a garage full of the original equipment, and at nearly 80 years old he oversaw Young Frankenstein’s use just like he did in the thirties.
According to Wilder, his agent approached him about doing a film with Marty Feldman and Peter Boyle (as he also represented them), so both actors were on-board from the start, as Igor and the Monster, respectively. Having just worked with Madeline Kahn on Blazing Saddles (and snagging her a Best Supporting Actress academy award nomination with her performance as Lili Von Shtupp, she was also a shoe-in and was cast as Frankenstein’s high maintenance fiancé Elizabeth. Teri Garr’s mother was working on the production as the wardrobe mistress and told her about the auditions. According to a Blu-ray interview, she originally auditioned for the role of Elizabeth, but Brooks told her Madeline Kahn had already gotten the role, but to come back the next day with a German accent and try for the role of Frankenstein’s assistant and love interest Inga. Then, with the amazingly talented Cloris Leachman as the mysterious Frau Blücher the core cast was set and it couldn’t have been a more perfect moment in film history.
As I’m sure everyone reading this knows, Young Frankenstein is the story of Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Wilder), who rejects his family’s monstrous heritage, but after inheriting a castle in Transylvania from his recently deceased grandfather, Victor Frankenstein, finds himself seduced by possibility of continuing that family tradition of attempting to reanimate the dead. He also inherits Igor (Feldman), whose grandfather had worked for Frankenstein’s grandfather (of course the rates have gone up!), and a bubbly and beautiful lab assistant, Inga (Garr).
Thanks to the mechanizations of Frau Blücher, Frederick discovers his grandfather’s notes in a volume entitled, How I Did It, and before long, he and Igor have gotten their hands on the body of a hanged criminal (Boyle). Of course, after a mishap with the appropriation of a brain, the Monster is brought to life and quickly begins terrorizing the countryside, including having a run-in with a kindly old blind man named Harold, who is also lonely and looking for a friend (Gene Hackman). In the end, Frederick is able to stabilize the Monster’s brain chemistry by transferring some of his own intellect, all’s well that ends well, with the Monster and Elizabeth settling down together while Frederick and Inga live happily ever after.
Very happily ever after, if you know what I mean. And I think you do.
It’s very difficult to review comedy, as senses of humor are very much like sexual tastes; Everybody’s are very different and distinctive to each individual. However, I think it’s safe to say that Young Frankenstein is comedy gold from its opening credits until the final fade to black. From Frederick’s preference for his name’s pronunciation, to Igor’s improvised switching of his hump from right to left from scene to scene, to the classic gags of the brain used being from “Abby something. Abby normal” to the charades scene while Frederick is being attacked (“Sedi-give? Sedi-give!!”), to “Damn your eyes!” “Too late,” to “I ain’t go no body, no body cares for me, hatcha cha cha!” to the instantly iconic song and dance number to “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (a sequence Brooks originally rejected for being too silly, but with Wilder’s insistence they kept it in and again, history was made.) to every moment of the Monster’s encounter with blind Harold, to both Elizabeth and eventually Inga singing “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life” upon discovering their husbands’ enormous, um, Schwanzstucker.”
I know I’m leaving out dozens of gags and perfect moments, but hell, just go give Young Frankenstein a rewatch. It’s well worth it. And if you’ve never seen the film, you should add it to your viewing schedule immediately and get ready for a treat. It’s naughty at times, and owes a debt to Brooks’ comedy pedigree, but you’ll definitely find something to laugh at.