Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

A few nights ago, while I was watching Jeopardy after dinner, our local ABC affiliate aired a commercial for the upcoming Disaster Movie, one of those "new wave" spoof movies that seem to be always written by a committee of six or more people who have watched Airplane! one too many times and want to achieve the same level of comedic and financial success as that 1979 Zucker-Abraham-Zucker film but never quite reach it.

"Oh, no. Not another bad spoof movie," I muttered. "Why don't those damn writers watch 'early Mel Brooks movies' and study how and why they worked so well instead of resorting to the same 'throw a thousand jokes out at the viewer and hope some stick' shtick they use nowadays?"

Though it's been at least 13 years since actor-producer-writer-director Mel Brooks last helmed a film of this genre (Dracula: Dead and Loving It) and at least 30 since his last really good one (Silent Movie), I really want to take those new spoofers by the scruff of the neck and make them watch Brooks' earliest masterpieces, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.

Co-written by Brooks and Gene Wilder, who also stars as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, this 1974 classic skewers the Universal Pictures series of Frankenstein movies from the 1930s, yet is also a loving homage to James Whale's classic adaptation of Mary Shelley's Gothic novel about a scientist who fatefully - and fatally - decides to play God and attempts to create life on his own.

Perhaps the most focused of all of Brooks' madcap, subversive, and irreverent takes on Hollywood film genres, Young Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein's Americanized grandson Frederick (Wilder), a medical doctor and professor at a New York university who is determined to break free of his infamous grandfather's
"mad scientist" reputation.

How determined is he? Not only does he disavow Victor's disastrous experiments to create life from death, but he also goes as far as to pronounce his surname differently:

Igor: Dr. Frankenstein... .
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: "Fronkensteen."
Igor: You're putting me on.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: No, it's pronounced "Fronkensteen."
Igor: Do you also say "Froaderick"?
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: No... .”Frederick."
Igor: Well, why isn't it "Froaderick Fronkensteen"?
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: It isn't; it's "Frederick Fronkensteen."
Igor: I see.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: You must be Igor.
[He pronounces it ee-gor]
Igor: No, it's pronounced "eye-gor."
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: But they told me it was "ee-gor."
Igor: Well, they were wrong then, weren't they?

Frederick's efforts to avoid what we know is his destiny go awry when a representative of Victor's estate shows up at one of his lectures and informs the young doctor that the old man's will has been read...and that Frederick has inherited the infamous Baron's castle in Transylvania and all that lies within.

Insisting that he will not follow his grandfather's footsteps, Frederick nevertheless takes a sabbatical from his university and heads to Transylvania, temporarily leaving his seemingly frigid and superficial fiancee Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) behind.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Pardon me, boy. Is this the Transylvania station?
Shoe-Shine Boy: Ja, ja. Track 29. Can I give you a shine?

Upon arriving in Transylvania, Frederick meets three individuals who become integral to the plot of Young Frankenstein: his hunchbacked assistant Igor (Marty Feldman), the formidable and frightening Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman), and the beautiful lab assistant Inga (Teri Garr), who is both sexy and funny in this movie.



Joining Wilder, Feldman, Kahn, and Garr are such talents as Kenneth Mars (Inspector Kemp), Liam Dunn (Mr. Hilltop) and an uncredited but very recognizable Gene Hackman, who has a short but hilarious scene as a blind man who victimizes The Monster, who's played by the wonderful Peter Boyle (Everybody Loves Raymond).


Shot entirely in black and white and using some of the sets and props from Whale's 1931 Frankenstein, Brooks's 1974 classic is everything the Date Movie-type spoofs aren't. It's bawdy and contains adult situations and one cuss word, but it has a superior script and every performance is rife with brilliance and fantastic comedic talent.

Most of all, Young Frankenstein is surprisingly a multi-layered film. It is, of course, a knowing send up of the 1930s horror genre, with no cliche or story idea left unturned. The look and feel of the film is calculated to both replicate and satirize the visual and acting styles of the period.

At the same time, Brooks and Wilder add something that their "The Writers of Scary Movie" imitators fail to do - an actual story that makes sense within the fictional and madcap universe it takes place in. There are two love stories going on in here, and the inevitable father-son (or Doctor-Monster) relationship between Frederick and The Monster is, when all is said and done, a touching one.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older