Young Frankenstein
USA - 1974
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Movie Review By Monica Sullivan
Undoubtedly the funniest movie ever made. You won't be able to look at O. P. Heggie & Boris Karloff in 1935's "Bride Of Frankenstein" without shrieking from the side-splitting memory of Gene Hackman & Peter Boyle's hilarious satire of the Blind Man & the Monster. Mel Brooks lovingly recreates the look & feel of Universal's "Frankenstein" films of the 1930's, but with the addition of the wickedly funny Oscar-nominated screenplay he dreamed up with Gene Wilder. (It must have been tough for Academy voters to choose between "Young Frankenstein" & "Godfather II" in 1974.) Such is the on-target wit and fame of this film that if you quote half a line from it in public, EVERYONE will get the reference. The much-missed Madeleine Kahn (1942-99) is at her glorious best as the Bride of the Monster, Teri Garr is at her most appealing, the "Putting on the Ritz" routine is better than a number of ENTIRE musicals of the 1930's & Cloris Leachman & Marty Feldman (1933-82) ARE Frau Blucher & Igor. Why couldn't "Dracula-Dead & Loving It" have been this good? No question about it: Brooks & Wilder were at their razor-sharp best TOGETHER.
© 2001 - Monica Sullivan - Air Date: 3/7/01
