Saturday, October 27, 2007

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Movie 2




I haven't watched "Young Frankenstein" (1974) in years, and was hesitant to do so now because i was afraid I'd find the familiar jokes stale, and because some of the performances such as Gene Wilder as the blind hermit, and Kenneth Mars as Inspector Kemp had affected my ability to watch the original performances which inspired them. I was gratified to see that I still found it funny, and that the jokes continued to work because of the performances that accompanied their delivery. So, even such adolescent fare as "What knockers," still work well. The performances are all perfect with a great cast including Gene Wilder (who also cowrote the script with Mel Brooks), Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Peter Boyle, and Teri Garr. Like "Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein" this movie works because, well it isn't exactly played straight, and there's no real horror, but the story itself is taken more or less seriously, and Mel Brooks took the pains to make this look just like one of the Universal Frankenstein movies.

1 comment:

Stephen said...

I agree. This film is great, no matter how many times I've seen it, and couldn't have been done any better.

(I think you mean Gene Hackman as the blind hermit, by the way)