Mel Brooks - and Gene Wilder - incredible team... Blazing Saddles AND Young Doctor Frankenstein - in one year!

Also featured in the movie was Gene Hackman, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, Terri Garr, and who could forget the incredible hunchback by Marty Feldman and the monster by Peter Boyle.

Reviewed by Martin Davis
1974 was a vintage year for Mel Brooks.

His comedy western ‘Blazing Saddles’ was a huge box office hit when it opened in February and the year ended with the release of arguably his best film, the classic horror parody of classic horror movies, ‘Young Frankenstein’.

It was when filming on ‘Blazing Saddles’ was nearing completion that Gene Wilder suggested an idea he had to Brooks for a spoof on the Frankenstein films produced by Universal Pictures in the 30’s and 40’s. The director was indifferent at first, feeling the genre had pretty much ended up parodying itself but his interest grew when Wilder elaborated “What if the grandson of Doctor Frankenstein wanted nothing to do with the family whatsoever" was his hypothesis for the movie - and it worked.

He was ashamed of those wackos”.

The two met each night at Wilders Bel Air Hotel bungalow and over cups of tea and digestive biscuits began work on their screenplay. Brooks took the finished script to Columbia Pictures who were reluctant to agree to his budget of $2.3 million and the decision to make the picture in black and white, fearing it would be unmarketable in the 1970’s.

Wanting to stay faithful to the source material, the director turned to 20th Century Fox who were willing to not film in colour as well as agreeing to a higher budget.

Dr Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) is a lecturing physician at an American medical school and desperate to disassociate himself from his infamous grandfather It’s pronounced Fronkensteen! is a famous line from Wilder in the movie.

When he inherits the family estate, Frederick travels to Transylvania to inspect the property and after reading his grandfathers journals decides to resume his work and attempt to re-animate the dead with the help of his assistant Inga (Teri Garr) and faithful hunchbacked bug-eyed servant Igor (Marty Feldman) who informs him “It’s pronounced Eyegor!”. The inevitable chaos ensues when The Creature (Peter Boyle) is given the wrong brain and the townspeople led by chief of police, Inspector Kemp (Kenneth Mars) storm Frankensteins castle.

Brooks wanted his film to look as authentic as possible and when he found out that film set designer Kenneth Strickfaden still had the laboratory equipment used in ‘Frankenstein’ (1931) in his garage he asked 20th Century Fox if they could rent them and pay the designer a decent sum of money. Strickfaden was never credited for his work on the original film and 43 years later would receive a special thanks mention in the opening credits of Brooks film. There’s an authenticity to how the movie sounds too, with an evocative score by Brooks’ long time composer, John Morris.

The Universal films are affectionately sent up with recreations of the Monster encountering the young girl in the 1931 original and the scene with the blind hermit in ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ (1935) featuring Gene Hackman in a rare but excellent comedy role, not to mention Madeline Kahn as Frankensteins fiancée turned monster lover, complete with Elsa Lanchester hairdo from ‘Bride’.

Packed full of absurd but brilliant comedic creations from Wilders exasperated and sometimes manic Frankenstein to Cloris Leachman as housekeeper Frau Blücher (cue neighing horses) as well as Feldman as Igor and Boyle as the Monster, ‘Young Frankenstein’ is a timeless comedy classic.