 Young Frankenstein 1974   PG, 105 min.
Genre: Comedy / Sci-Fi
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Gene Hackman, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn, Liam Dunn, Danny Goldman, Oscar Beregi Jr., Arthur Malet, Anne Beesley, Monte Landis
This is a great satirical look at Frankenstein as seen through the eyes of comedy when the Monster (Peter Boyle) comes across as a sympathetic creature who elicits many laughs. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) is the grandson of the infamous Frankenstein and has inherited his Transylvanian estate. He moves in and meets hunchback Igor (Marty Feldman), assistant Inga (Teri Garr), and housekeeper Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman). Frankenstein creates his Monster, but Igor has stolen the wrong brain, and problems–and humor–are a certainty. 1 User Review
| User Review |
| | The Most Successful Mel Brooks Movie | 1fatts 11/08/2007 | I think the credit goes to Gene Wilder -- not as an actor, although he is very good in this, but as the co-writer. Wilder shares writing credit with Brooks on this film, and that may be where the disciplined structure comes from in the film.
The film is, of course, zany and contains the requisite number of Brooks silliness, bad puns and misfires, but, as a film, we have a tight, controlled structure. And we end up, because of it, with a true spoof and tribute to the original James Whale movies.
Wilder does a fine job. Madeline Kahn was a wonder. Kenneth Mars does another one of his truly gifted dialect roles. Gene Hackman's cameo as the blind hermit is, hands down, the funniest thing he ever did. Still, my own personal favourite here is Cloris Leachman doing a take-off of Judith Anderson's housekeeper in "Rebecca"/
I can't say it's the funniest Mel Brooks stuff on film -- that must forever go to two or three of the best scenes in The Producers (That's the original; we won't talk about the musical), but Young Frankenstein, taken as a a whole, is the best "film" Brooks ever did. |
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|  | | Young Frankenstein (1974) |
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| Oscars: Best Actor for The French Connection (1971), Best Supporting Actor for Unforgiven (1992) |
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| Oscar: Best Supporting Actress for The Last Picture Show (1971) |
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