It’s been a while since I’ve written something here on The Splintering, but rather than awkwardly explaining myself, I’ll just jump right into things like it hasn’t been over a year!

Mel Brooks made his film directorial debut in the late 60s with The Producers, a controversial film for its time given both the subject matter and the casting of Zero Mostel, who, wasn’t particularly liked by the House Un-American Activities Committee and subsequently blacklisted by the film industry since the 1950s for it. The Producers would later garner favor with its Broadway adaptation and a healthy dash of nostalgic appreciation.

For Brooks, Twelve Chairs would open the 70s, proving critically more successful and less incendiary during its run, adapting a 1928 Russian novel by Ilf and Petrov about retrieving precious jewelry hidden inside a chair. These two films proved to be great moorings for Brooks’ career on the silver screen, establishing his style and clever execution of comedy. Indeed, the 70s was arguably Mel Brooks’ best decade, following 12 Chairs with two of his all-time greatest works, both in the same year.

1974’s Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, respectively.

Young Frankenstein, in light of the looming holiday, is the subject of this retrospective, and to confess a strange tradition, I tend to watch it on Thanksgiving! I find to be a perfect symmetry as the film itself was released on during the Christmas season on December 15th. Yes, while smoking a ham, and drinking copious amounts of Miller Highlife in the front yard, I pop Young Frankenstein into a portable DVD player.

The trayf cooks, and I get toasted.

Seasonal traditions and affectations aside, what makes this cinema send up of Mary Shelly’s classic novel of Gothic horror and early science fiction so intriguing is that the movie itself could be seen as something of a legitimate sequel, at least to some of the Frankenstein films that came before.

The plot centers around Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced Fronkensteen, and played by Gene Wilder), an American scientist, and grandson to the Transylvanian mad scientist, Victor Frankenstein. After Frederick heatedly dismisses everyone from a class he was teaching, a lawyer from Transylvania informs him that with the death of his great grandfather, Baron Beaufort von Frankenstein, he has inherited the family estate.

Seen off by his fiancee, Elizabeth (my God, Madeline Kahn), Frederick travels to Transylvania to claim his inheritance, meeting Igor (the pitch perfect Marty Feldman), and his future lab assistant and something more, Inga (Teri Gar at her comedic best and downright hottest).

At the castle, Frederick is introduced to Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman, and yes, I heard the horses neighing as I wrote that), who in turn introduces him to the castle, and eventually the secrets within it, setting off his own successful mad attempt in creating a Monster (a baby faced Peter Boyle).

Not only is the film clearly stating in the first act that a monster was made before, but the film goes on throughout to reinforce this. In one scene in particular, a villager at an assembly regarding Frederick Frankenstein’s machinations, states that they all know what he’s up to based on five previous experiences.

Mel Brooks’ has stated in DVD commentary that this is a reference to the old Universal films: 1931’s Frankenstein, 1935’s The Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein from 1939, and 1942’s The Ghost of Frankenstein just to name four (maybe Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man rounds out the five?). Wilder stated in an interview on the DVD releases that the film is in fact based on these early Universal movies. Furthermore, the original lab equipment from the 1931 Frankenstein was used for the lab again! Kenneth Strickfaden, who had built it, still had it stored in his garage.

While I like to think of it as a canonical sequel to what came before, Young Frankenstein was not a product of Universal, but rather a product of Fox, namely because Fox was willing to allow Mel Brooks to shoot on black and white film, something that was decided upon as necessary between Brooks and Wilder, who co-wrote the script together.

It also has to be noted again that Young Frankenstein is, and always shall be, a comedic parody where the Universal outings were by and large played with all seriousness like the novel that birthed them; Wilder and Brooks had intentionally and meticulously crafted a humorous screenplay, of which ad lib abounded on set.

From Marty Feldman moving his prop hump around, taking days for anyone to notice; Cloris Leachman and Madeline Kahn inserting additional dialogue with brutally perfect timing; Mel Brooks issuing an off camera cat screeching as if hit by a dart that had been thrown by Wilder; Gene Hackman tossing in an unscripted line about making espresso after scalding the fleeing Monster’s crotch with hot soup, causing a quick fade to black in editing because the whole set burst into laughter moments later. All of this made it into the final cut.

The cast and crew had so much fun on set that apparently Brooks added more scenes to shoot so they could stay filming longer. Naturally, they could not, and with a bloated run time full of various content (like this article is becoming!), a sizable amount ended up on the cutting room floor before going to the theaters.

The rest is history.

Silent Movie (1976), and my personal favorite of Brooks, High Anxiety (1977), would close the decade both fiscally profitable and critically praised. Mel Brooks would find himself the face of comedic parody in Hollywood forever after.

This year, for this article, I watched my Thanksgiving film a month early, and went through a recitation of old facts and trivia that most fans probably already know… but… I still hope some of you reading this don’t have a clue about who Mel Brooks is. I hope that you don’t know who Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, and Peter Boyle are (and were); that some of you who never watched Young Frankenstein read this. It is my Thanksgiving celebrated early on Halloween, and what I share with you all.

Trick or treat?

I’d say it’s both, really.

Thanks for reading!

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