YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN A film review by Chris Casino
**** out of **** (excellent).
Cast: Gene Wilder (Dr. Fredrick Frankenstein), Peter Boyle (The Monster), Marty Feldman (Igor), Madeline Kahn (Elizabeth), Teri Garr (Inga), Cloris Leachman (Frau Bleaucher), Gene Hackman (Blind man)
Crew: Director: Mel Brooks, Story/Screenplay: Gene Wilder/Mel Brooks, Producer: Michael Gruskoff, Cinematography: Gerald Hirschfield, Music: John Morris.
Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks were nominated for the best screenplay Oscar for this film in 1974. What puzzles me is, what they possibly had that won, and did it measure up to this?
Probably not, as this loving parody of the old Universal Frankensteins, is not only one of the funniest films I've ever seen in my life, but if it had been made forty years earlier, it just might've scared the living hell out of people.
Wilder (who came up with the concept and fits the mad scientist role like a charm) plays Dr. Fredrick Frankenstein (that's Frahnk-on-steen!), a supposedly humble college professor who is ashamed of what his Granddaddy, Victor, did to his family name. Nonetheless, Herr Faulkstein, a visitor to his class from his grandfather's village, comes to him telling him he inheirted great-granddaddy's estate. He also inherits Feldman's riotous hunchbacked Igor ("What hump?"), who insists that his name is "Eye-Gore", and Teri Garr's sultry Inga, whom he seduces in spite of having a somewhat snobbish finacee, Elizabeth (Kahn, a riot as always). Also aiding him is Cloris Leachman's caretaker Frau Bleaucher, who makes horses scream like hell!
Together, they create the usual Monster, and as usual, despite Freddy's good intentions, Igor screws up and he becomes a creature who scares everyone, even though he only wants love.
This is the correct way to do a parody. As hilarious as this is, if the jokes had been edited out, this could easily pass as a regular Frankenstein film, and that's wise. It has an excellent script by Wilder and Brooks (that got robbed at the Oscars, robbed I tell you!) fine B&W cinematography, great direction by Brooks, who proves he can be a fine filmmaker as well as joker when he wants to be here (despite his standard sexual puns, which are toned down a bit here), as well as fine performances by all, particularly Wilder's mad doctor, Feldman's hunchback (who must've ad-libbed most of his side-splitting performance), and Boyle's Monster, who charms the hell out of the viewer.
Two particular highlights are the blind man sequence with Gene Hackman, and the Puttin' On The Ritz routine.
I've heard this was ripped off fourteen years later by a film called Frankenstein General Hospital, which I have not seen. It's supposed to be the worst Frankenstein film ever made, and by turning this film into a color/lab scenes in B&W, low budget movie set in a hospital, I can see why. It's been referred to as the poor man's Young Frankenstein. I haven't seen this film, but I would still advise you: Accept no cheap imitations. When you try to copy a movie this good, you will fail. Of course the filmmakers of Frankenstein General Hospital failed miserably, however that's their problem.
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