Young Frankenstein

3/22/2020

For what we are about to see next, we must enter quietly into the realm of genius. Young Frankenstein is directed by Mel Brooks who also co-writes the screenplay with Gene Wilder. It stars Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Teri Garr and Madeline Kahn. Music is by John Morris and cinematography by Gerald Hirschfeld. Filmed in black and white, Brook's movie is an affectionate spoof of the Frankenstein movies that came out of Universal Studios back in the 1930s. There wolf, there castle. You are either a Mel Brooks fan or not, there doesn't seem to be any middle ground. However, even his most ardent fans admit not all of his productions have paid dividends, but when on song, as he was in 1974 (Blazing Saddles also released), it's justifiable that those fans proclaim him as a sp

2/12/2021

When I had the opportunity Ro watch this film again after decades, due to a Cloris Leachman tribute, I couldn’t resist, despite feeling there was a risk of a familiar problem: that of me not liking a program or movie as a mature adult as much as I had as a young man. I needn’t have worried. This is not Mensa material here, but it is a good example of what Mel Brooks did best, spoof movie genres or other cinematic cliches. Everyone seems to have great fun making this movie, and it shows. Some of the bits have become catch phrases: the horse neighing when a certain name is mentioned, the hilarious sight gag of the secret door (“Put the candle back!), and other classic lines. This doesn’t make any of my Favorites list, but it was well worth revisiting it for the laughs and a glimpse at

5/27/2023

I'd probably best start by saying that I love the writing of Mel Brooks, but I detest the acting style of Gene Wilder - so my views on this are somewhat mixed. It is a spoof - and James Whale ought to be writ large in the credits, as should Glenn Miller and a host of others who have inadvertently contributed to the wonderfully paced script that rarely draws breath. Wilder - the grandson of the eponymous, famously mad scientist - decides to visit Transylvania where he stumbles upon a formula that might just bring the dead back to life. In my view, the acting plaudits go to Marty Feldman, who is great as henchman "Igor" trying desperately to foil the over-the-top antics of the star - who just seems to play each role he takes on in the same, super-hammy, fashion with big eyes and loud, grand

4/5/2024

**One of the great comic films of the 70s.** Mel Brooks is one of those names in comic cinema that I haven't explored much yet, and that I know more from his fame than from having seen his work. I decided to change that a little by watching this satirical film, which he directed, and in which a grandson of the infamous German doctor and nobleman Dr. Frankenstein, after years denying his name and any association with his grandfather, is called to the family castle for... what? In fact, the script badly explains this decision, but it is important for the film that he returns and that is what he will do. There, he contacts the locals and decides to further explore his grandfather's attempts to reanimate human corpses. As already understood from these lines, the script is not this film's