The best comedies are the ones with the best rhythms. They’re the ones that establish the right joke-to-plot-advancement ratios and make you feel like you’ve been told a story.
“Young Frankenstein” is one of the funniest comedies of all time because it has such a great rhythm.
“Young Frankenstein” tells the story of Frederick Frankenstein, the grandson of the infamous scientist. After his great-grandfather dies, Frankenstein inherits the Transylvania castle where his grandfather raised the dead. Frankenstein soon finds old familial habits die hard when he begins to make his own monster.
One of the reasons “Young Frankenstein” works is the degree to which the filmmakers pay homage to the old Universal horror films.
This movie is shot in black-and-white, just like “Frankenstein” and “The Bride of Frankenstein.” The laboratory equipment in the sequence where Frankenstein brings his creation to life is actually the same laboratory equipment Ken Strickfaden made for the original Frankenstein films.
Against this fidelity to the original material Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks, the writers, add many jokes. Some of them are well engineered pieces of slapstick, like when The Monster meets a blind man.
Others are smaller and more absurd, like when a couple repeat a conversation in German when they are in Transylvania they had previously had in English when they were in New York.
The jokes always feel like they are adding something to the plot, not distracting you from it. “Young Frankenstein” alternates brilliantly between advancing the story of Frankenstein learning to embrace his legacy and his creation and making the audience laugh.
By the end of it you feel like you’ve eaten a full meal, while comedies that focus more on constantly telling stupid jokes than creating a story make you feel like you had too many McDonald’s french fries.
The performances are hilarious. Wilder plays Frankenstein in one of his best performances, and every scene where he shouts is a delight. British comedian Marty Feldman, whose eyes look like they were just busted for steroids, steals practically all of his scenes. Teri Garr and Cloris Leachman delightfully nail their German accents.
“Young Frankenstein” is one of Brooks’ best films as a director. It is technically adroit and has some excellent shots.
My favorite shot is when the camera swirls around the laboratory for the first time. It makes you feel the wonder and dread Wilder and Brooks probably felt when they saw the first Frankenstein films as children.
Some of the references in “Young Frankenstein” might be hard for people to understand, but it is an excellent comedy that lovingly pays tribute to some very entertaining old horror films.
To watch it is to see master comedians do what they do best.
@jessepasternack
