The opening of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein is a dark and stormy night with sudden flashes of lightning and scary music playing in the background. This is an appropriate setting in a typical horror movie. However, everything that comes after is less like a horror movie and more like a roller coaster of laughs and giggles.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, the grandson of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein, travels to his family’s castle in Transylvania after he is presented with the will of his great grandfather. Upon his arrival, he meets Igor, Inga, and Frau Blucher. Igor, after finding out Frederick pronounces his name Fronkensteen, tells Frederick his name is pronounced eye-gor, not Igor. Soon after, Inga asks Frederick if he would like to have a ‘roll in ze hay’ and then proceeds to roll side to side in the hay while singing ‘roll roll roll in ze hay!’ Lastly he meets the creepy housekeeper Frau Blucher whose name causes the horses to neigh and whinny every time it is said. This is just the beginning of the hilarious shenanigans that take place throughout the film.

During his stay at the castle, he comes across his grandfather’s book titled ‘How I Did It’. ‘How I Did It’ details how Dr. Victor Frankenstein brought his creature to life and Frederick becomes obsessed with creating his own creature. With Igor and Inga’s help, Frederick is able to get a corpse and a brain that belonged to a genius. The only hiccup in the plan is when Igor drops the brain he was supposed to get and brings back a different brain labeled ‘Abnormal’ instead. According to Brian Scott Mednick in his article, Young Frankenstein,

This leads to what Wilder has said is his
favorite scene in the film. After the newly animated
creature nearly chokes Frederick to death, he asks
Igor whose brain he used:
IGOR
Abby someone.
FREDERICK
Abby someone? Abby who?
IGOR
Abby Normal.

After the creature escapes with the help of Frau Blucher the film leads into my personal favorite scene. The monster is playing with a little girl on a see-saw while her parents frantically search the house for her inside. The young girl demands that he sit on the other side of the see-saw and when he does the force flings her into her room through the window. The parents open the door moments later and sigh in relief that she is safe inside the house. The creature moves on and has an unfortunate and hilarious encounter with a blind man that results in very hot soup being poured in his lap and his thumb being set on fire. When the creature has had enough he leaves and ends up being captured by Frederick, Igor, and Inga.

Soon after, Frederick goes before the world and shows them the creature and they perform a lovely tapdance and song together. Near the end of the dance, a flash of fire and light frightens the creature and he attacks Frederick and then is carried off by a mob. Later on, Inga and Frederick resolve the sexual tension that had been building between them since their meeting. Shortly after the tension is resolved they are interrupted by Frau Blucher who tells them Frederick’s fiance, Elizabeth,  has arrived. Frederick greets Elizabeth and they go off to bed but she is kidnapped by the creature in the night. The creature takes Elizabeth to the woods and the two of them have intercourse and she bursts out into song.

The creature is lured back to the castle by music and he is strapped to a table and Frederick does a transference which gives the creature intelligence. They are interrupted by a mob who want to kill the creature but instead, the creature gives them a heartwrenching speech that results in the mob backing off. There is a time jump that shows Frederick marries Inga and the creature marries Elizabeth. Inga leans onto Frederick and says “You know in ze transference part, ze monster got part of your wonderful brain, but what did you ever get from him?” Frederick looks directly into the camera and makes a grunting/ humming noise that the creature made throughout the film as the camera zooms in.

In Mednick’s article, it is stated that when going to see the film, “if you go expecting too much it could seem like kids’ stuff–which, of course, it is, but it’s very funny kids’ stuff…” I disagree with Mednick because I feel that with the amount of sexual innuendo and complicated language that ‘Young Frankenstein’ had was definitely meant for adults. However, I feel that the film was meant to be a relaxing film that allowed adults to embrace their more childish or immature side of themselves.

In John H. Dorr’s article Young Frankenstein: THR’s 1974 Review, he says that Mel Brooks’ film ‘Young Frankenstein’ is “More theatrical than cinematic in its conception, this group effort relies on the improvisation of its performers.” I do agree that the film is extremely theatric and that the film seems to be full of improv but I think that is what made this film so unique and so hilarious. Some scenes, I found funny but I thought they were a little overboard. One such scene was the Sedative scene in which Frederick is being strangled and uses charades to tell Inga and Igor to get a sedative. It takes Inga and Igor a few guesses but they eventually get it. While it was hilarious I felt that the scene was a bit out there and borderline ridiculous.

Dorr and Mednick agree in their articles that the actors are the best part of the film and they also agree that the film is comedic. However, Mednick praises the way the characters are portrayed and used while Dorr criticizes the characters and the ‘dim-witted approach’ or misuse of characters.

The film was hilarious and I loved watching it but I was expecting something completely different. I am used to today’s version of horror where something is truly scary and/or horrifying so I was not expecting the amount of comedy and jokes. There were no scary aspects whatsoever and yet according to the article, Mel Brooks’ hilarious secrets behind the making of ‘Young Frankenstein’ the first showing of the film was a disaster. But later “Young Frankenstein” would eventually gross $86 million in 1974. I feel that ‘Young Frankenstein’ fit the original idea of the horror genre pretty well with the scary and monstrous creature being defeated by love.

I cannot deny that the film is absolutely fantastic. The poster for ‘Young Frankenstein’ is bright and colorful so I probably should have expected the movie to be less of a ‘scary’ horror film and more of a comedy. Originally, I had thought that since the bottom of the poster looked creepy I would see some scary elements. This, however, turned out to be incorrect.

I would recommend that everyone should watch ‘Young Frankenstein’ at least once in their life. It was a very funny film. I really enjoyed it even if it was not what I expected it to be.

Sources

poster for ‘Young Frankenstein’

Mel Brooks’ hilarious secrets behind the making of ‘Young Frankenstein’

Sedative scene

Young Frankenstein: THR’s 1974 Review,

Brian Scott Mednick in his article,