Classic Movie Review: Young Frankenstein (1974)

Not "Frankenstein." Not "Bride of Frankenstein." But "Young Frankenstein." Why? Well, that's a good question. Even though this year's release of "The Mummy" was a dud, Universal's attempt to reboot their monster universe (which "The Mummy" may have killed) gave me the desire to go back and watch some of the actual Universal Monster movies. In fact, I went all out in an Excel file compiling a list of all of them. And there's A LOT of monster movies. Sorting through the wheat and the tares, I also looked up IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes scores for each one to determine which ones were worth watching. Then I was going to dive in. I haven't actually taken the dive yet, outside "The Mummy" franchise, but I have the list ready and that includes 18 "Frankenstein" movies, of which my sources tell me nine of them are worth seeing. On my own accord, there's probably about eight of them I would've checked out before "Young Frankenstein," but when I asked for requests of Halloween movies to review, this is the one that came up. Yeah, it surprised me, too. But after the second strong recommendation, I decided what the heck. Let's watch and review "Young Frankenstein." And hey, it's on Netflix right now. That makes it easy for you to watch it if you haven't already.

If you're like me from two weeks ago and you haven't been exposed to "Young Frankenstein," allow me to give you a quick taste of what you're in for. This is a movie directed by the great Mel Brooks and stars Willy Wonka himself (Gene Wilder) as Frederick Frankenstein, the grandson of the infamous Victor Frankenstein from our original "Frankenstein" story. Frederick Frankenstein hates his heritage so much that he gets angry when someone brings it up and he even prefers to pronounce his last name the German way instead of the traditional English way in order to separate himself from his grandfather. He'd prefer to be famous based on his own merits and not because of the cynical and crazy history of his grandfather. Despite this hatred, he ends up being dragged into his grandfather's work, anyways, when he's informed that he has inherited his family's estate in Transylvania. Curiosity gets the better of him and he checks the estate out and, with the help of the hunchback Igor and the beautiful assistant Inga, he discovers his grandfather's secret lab and can't help himself. The three of them work together to create another monster from the remains of others, which leads to practically everything going horribly wrong in perhaps the most hilarious way possible.

There's a reason why Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" is so well known. Outside the fact that both the novel and the 1931 movie were highly influential in the sci-fi, monster and horror genres, in both literature and film, the story of Frankenstein and his monster is so profoundly deep and moving. I'd argue that most people will be able to relate to some angle of the story with the themes of the creator vs. the creation and all that entails. There's a lot of religious symbolism packed in there, too, especially when it comes to the monster's viewpoint of being confused and hurt as to why he's been created and what his purpose on earth is. There can also be a lot said about Victor Frankenstein's point of view with the desire for power and influence by creating life and the dangers that can come your way when you get consumed with such greed without realizing the consequences. This is just me barely scratching the surface. There's a lot more to cover with this story and perhaps it would be fun at some point for me to watch and review the original 1931 movie as well as some of the other movies that followed, such as "Bride of Frankenstein," "Son of Frankenstein," "The Ghost of Frankenstein," "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," "The Curse of Frankenstein" and "The Revenge of Frankenstein."

But now is not the time for that. Now is the time for "Young Frankenstein," the movie that came long after those and does not take itself seriously at all. This is not a movie designed to make you think on all the deep mysteries of life. Even though I don't find the "Frankenstein" movies scary, per se, "Young Frankenstein" isn't even a horror movie. It's a straight-up comedy that's meant as a "Frankenstein" parody movie. Even though I personally prefer my original "Frankenstein" movies, when it comes to a light-hearted comedic telling of a classic story, it doesn't get a whole lot better as alot of this humor is quite on point. Much of this is shouldered by Gene Wilder, who absolutely owns this role as Frederick Frankenstein. I haven't been exposed to Gene Wilder as much as I would like to, but I've always adored him as Willy Wonka in "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" from 1971. That exposure alone was enough for me to be sad about his passing last summer. It was fun seeing him in something else as I watched "Young Frankenstein" and I was super impressed as he went all in with this role, embracing both sides of this complex character of Frederick Frankenstein. The other actors in this movie did well, too. But I honestly don't think this movie would've gone anywhere had it not been for the brilliant performance of Gene Wilder.

As far as the comedy itself, I will admit that not all of it worked for me. I think that's the case with comedy in general, which is why it's such a hard genre to pull off. Not everyone is going to laugh at the same jokes, especially in this case if they are less familiar with the source material that this movie is parodying. If you're less familiar with "Frankenstein," I'd suggest you watch that first instead of this, because otherwise the comedy might go right over your head. But even with the knowledge of "Frankenstein," not all of this worked for me. I'd hesitate to use the word "raunchy" to describe this movie, but there is quite a bit of sexual humor scattered throughout that I think would put this movie at a PG-13 in today's standards, thus making it not quite the Halloween movie for the whole family to enjoy. Specifically there's an ongoing gag about the size of the monster's you-know-what that was kinda chuckle-worthy the first time they used it, but completely unfunny every other time, but yet they kept going. I will admit that I did laugh when Gene Wilder exclaimed his amazement at the size of the knockers on the door in which Inga responded with a "thank you." That was a cleverly timed joke, even though it does fit under the same category as the other.

The humor in this movie that I enjoyed most was more of the silly, slapstick humor, like when Frankenstein and Inga were trying to figure out how to work the secret door or when the monster was at the home of the blind man. Those were scenes that made me smile quite a bit and I kinda wish there were more of them. But overall, I couldn't help but be pleased with this movie throughout its run time. I could definitely see how much fun everyone had in the process of making this film, which I think helps it translate well onto the big screen. Comedy is all about chemistry and timing. When everyone involved is on the same page with making it happen, it makes it that much more enjoyable to watch, thus I can definitely see why this movie has made it onto quite a few lists of the greatest comedies ever made. In terms of the parody, I also had quite a bit of respect for how much fun they had with poking fun at the "Frankenstein" franchise while still being respectful towards the franchise as a whole as to not alienate fans of the franchise.  When you can enjoy a movie, then enjoy it being made fun of in a respectful way, that's a sign of a good comedy because there's nothing worse than seeing an attempted comedy where the humor is way off.

I definitely think there is a strong place in this world for Halloween movies like this. Halloween is a fun time of year, but it's understandable that some people are not on board for the scary, horror side of Halloween. As such, it's good to have a wide selection of light-hearted, Halloween humor to enjoy. Even though I prefer the dramatic, serious side of "Frankenstein" more than this, I would still give this my strong recommendation, especially if you are one that prefers the lighter side of Halloween. It's not as deep and powerful as other "Frankenstein" movies. And it does dive more into the sexual humor than it needed to. I think this would've worked best as a movie the whole family can enjoy as opposed to it being targeted more towards the adult audience, but this is still a fun movie to enjoy that is propelled by Gene Wilder owning the role of Frederick Frankenstein, but supporting roles from the likes of Marty Feldman (Igor), Teri Garr (Inga), Madeline Kahn (Elizabeth), Cloris Leachman (Frau Blucher) and Peter Boyle (the monster) certainly have to be given credit as well. It was a good team effort all around, thus we also have to give a lot of credit to Mel Brooks for being the director at the helm of the project. I think a fair grade for "Young Frankenstein" from me is a solid 8/10.