Wednesday Movie – Young Frankenstein

This was supposed to be the movie that restored my faith in Mel Brooks. I’d only ever known him as maker of unfunny films. Spaceballs, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Dracula: Dead and Loving it—all just terrible. (Don’t get your back up over Spaceballs. If you still think it’s a funny movie then you haven’t seen it as an adult. Or you’re Bill Pullman.)

Young Frankenstein is a satire not just of the original Frankenstein movie, but of the plethora of classic Frankenstein movies that followed: Bride of, Son of, Ghost of, Proctologist of, Posse of, etc. Gene Wilder plays Frederick Frankenstein, grandson of the megalomaniacal creator of the original creature. His plans to pursue legitimate, moral avenues of science go awry when he inherits his grandfather’s castle, and more importantly, Victor’s secret library. In short order he has built and brought to life a monster of his own (played by Peter Boyle), which he can neither contain nor control.

There’s more to it than this. It’s of course not just a by-the-books Frankenstein movie—there’s satire and ‘comic bits’, but I just can’t be bothered to relate complicated gag after complicated gag that just isn’t that funny... Alright, just one then:

(A storm rages overhead. The inanimate, hulking form of the monster lays strapped to a platform with thick metal bands. Frederick verifies that all conditions are set while his assistant, Inga, observes.)

Frederick: Well, dear, are you ready?
Inga: Yes, Doctor.
Frederick: Elevate me.
Inga: (incredulous) Now? Right here?
Frederick: Yes, yes, raise the platform.
Inga: Oh. Ze platform! Oh, zat, yeah, yeah.

What? You’re not laughing? But it’s funny though! She thought he wanted fellatio! Now imagine an hour and forty-five minutes of such comic gold. It’s almost to much for one man. It’s pistol-in-your-mouth funny!

Bullshit aside, there actually is one very funny scene: when Frederick presents the monster to the scientific community as “a cultured, sophisticated man about town.” Description won’t do, this is something to be experience. (Best I can do is .wav file right now, but if anyone can find me a video link they’ll be my new best friend.) Back in grade school, this was my friend Brady’s favourite video clip. I’d seen it at least a dozen times, but then I’d forgotten about it for a while until we caught it in one of the AFI specials we saw on the cruise. Sarah had never seen or heard it before and she was kicking her feet in the air she was laughing so hard. It’s a testament to how funny this scene is, that I sat though an hour and fifteen minutes of shit first and still laughed my ass of when Putting on the Ritz came around.

Brady, thanks for bringing that clip into my life. And for never once recommending the whole movie.