by Julian Spivey
Mel Brooks is known as a comedic genius
and his best movie is widely considered to be 1974’s Blazing Saddles. However, it was another 1974 Brooks movie that
was co-written by him and leading man Gene Wilder that could easily be considered even better than Blazing Saddles.
Young Frankenstein is Brooks’ parody
of the Mary Shelley novel and 1931 Hollywood
classic Frankenstein, directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster.
Wilder plays Dr. Frederick Frankenstein,
a man in denial about his family’s infamous past who inherits the family castle in Transylvania
and soon after reading his grandfather’s diary decides to take up where he had left off. Pretty soon Dr. Frankenstein
has brought a monster, played by Peter Boyle, to life. The monster escapes as always and frightens the townsfolk who form
a mob in order to stop him.
Young Frankenstein features Wilder in what
is his most prominent movie role and Boyle, Marty Feldman, Terri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Kenneth Mars and Madeline Kahn in
very good supporting roles. Feldman, who plays Dr. Frankenstein’s sidekick Igor has many of the movie’s memorable
lines like the famous, “What hump?” when Dr. Frankenstein replies about his sidekick’s disfigurement.
Some of the movie’s more memorable
scenes include an uncredited cameo by Gene Hackman in which he plays a blind man who invites the monster into his house thinking
that he is a possible female suitor, a hilariously wacky game of darts between Dr. Frankenstein and Police Inspector Hans
Wilhelm Friederich Kemp, played by Mars and the famous tap dancing scene where Dr. Frankenstein showcases the monsters talent
with a duet of “Puttin’ on the Ritz.”
Young Frankenstein ranks 13th among the American Film Institute’s 100 Funniest Movies of All Time.
Brooks has three movies, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles and The Producers on AFI’s list, all ranking in the top
fifteen.
Young Frankenstein is possibly the greatest movie parody in the history of
cinema.
