Something Wilder! Behind The Scenes Of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN In Colour

Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein is a Movies In Focus favourite and it might be the finest film featuring Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (or should that be Fronkenstein?). Without a doubt it is the greatest comedy film of all time.

On the surface it would seem like Young Frankenstein is a parody of James Whale’s classic 1931 horror, Frankenstein but in reality this is a love letter to that film. Written by Brooks and star Gene Wilder, it’s a masterwork of comedic perfection, a spoof that takes itself totally serious. For Young Frankenstein, Brooks used many of the original props from Whales’ film and shot it in Black and White. That adds to its aesthetic and the feel. It has verisimilitude. 

Gene Wilder is electric in that movie but the entire cast (Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman and Teri Garr) is brilliant.