Lending his burlesque touch to 1970s genre revision, Mel Brooks followed his hit "western" Blazing Saddles with this parody of 1930s Universal horror movies. Determined to live down his family's reputation, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (co-screenwriter Gene Wilder) insists on pronouncing his name "Fronckensteen" and denies interest in replicating his grandfather's experiments. But when he is lured by Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman) to discover the tantalizingly titled journal "How I Did It" in his grandfather's castle, he cannot resist. With the help of voluptuous Inga (Teri Garr), wall-eyed assistant Igor (Marty Feldman), and a purloined brain, Frankenstein creates his monster (Peter Boyle). Igor, however, stole the wrong brain, and the monster tears off into the countryside, encountering a little girl and a blind hermit (Gene Hackman). Frankenstein finds the monster and trains him to do a little "Puttin' On the Ritz" soft-shoe, but the monster escapes again, this time seducing Frankenstein's uptight fiancée Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) with his, ahem, sweet mystery. His love life and experiment in shambles, Frankenstein finally finds a way to create the being he had planned. Shooting in gleaming black-and-white, with sets and props from the 1930s and appropriate fright music by John Morris, Brooks' cheeky attitude towards the Hollywood past attracted a large audience, turning it into one of the most popular 1974 releases after (what else?) Blazing Saddles. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Comedy

Haunted By the Past, Experiments Gone Awry, Mad Scientists

Irreverent, Satirical, Racy, Madcap, Silly, Atmospheric, Frantic

DVD Features

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• Commentary by Mel Brooks
• Inside the Lab: Secret formulas in the making of Young Frankenstein
• The Franken-Track: A monstrous conglomeration of trivia
• Blucher button
• Its' Alive! Creating a Monster Classic featurette
• Transylvanian Lullaby: The music of John Morris
• Making FrankenSense of Young Franksteing featurette
• Outtakes
• Isolated score track
• Interviews with Marty Feldman, Gene Wilder and Cloris Leachman
• Deleted scenes
• Production photo galleries

• 1974--Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Richard Portman-Nominee
• 1974--Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Madeline Kahn-Nominee
• 1974--Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Cloris Leachman-Nominee
• 1974--Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Gene Wilder-Nominee
• 1974--Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Gene S. Cantamessa-Nominee
• 1974--Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Mel Brooks-Nominee

Review

Few movies have offered up such satisfying parody and un-self-conscious wit as this Mel Brooks spoof, and all with the scatological flair that only Brooks can provide. When he's in top form, Brooks can make audiences feel as if they're simultaneously going to burst into tears, bust a gut, and pee in their pants with laughter. The great thing about Young Frankenstein, aside from this ability to make people lose all motor functions, is the reverence it pays to the films it parodies. Silly but always respectful, Brooks wants to honor the old Frankenstein films rather than skewer them, and as a result he serves up a film that is a cinematic achievement rather than a half-baked knock-off of better efforts. One of the funniest films of the 1970s, Young Frankenstein has lost none of its hilarity to the passing of time, serving as a reminder of how innovative parody can be. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi