Young Frankenstein (1974)

“Mel Brooks is home with Young Frankenstein, his most disciplined and visually inventive film (it also happens to be very funny)…It shows artistic growth and a more sure-handed control of the material by a director who once seemed willing to do literally anything for a laugh. It’s more confident and less breathless.” — Roger Ebert

“[Gene] Wilder’s hysteria seems perfectly natural. You never question what’s driving him to it; his fits are lucid and total. They take him into a different dimension — he delivers what Harpo promised.” — Pauline Kael

SYNOPSIS

One of the most beloved screen comedies ever made, Mel Brooks’s loving tribute to the Universal monster movies brilliantly resurrects the monsters (and the laughs) of Hollywood’s golden age. Gene Wilder stars as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, the reluctant grandson of Victor Frankenstein, who inherits his infamous family estate in Transylvania and soon finds himself tempted to continue the family’s forbidden experiments. Shot in luminous black and white using many of the original laboratory props from the 1931 Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein combines impeccable comic timing, unforgettable performances from Wilder, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, Peter Boyle, and Teri Garr, and Brooks’s infectious affection for the horror films that inspired it. Few spoofs have ever equaled its wit, craftsmanship, or sheer comic invention.