Young Frankenstein (1974) * * * *

Directed by:  Mel Brooks

Starring:  Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Cloris Leachman

Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder approach Young Frankenstein with gleeful, manic zeal.   They aren't really doing a send-up of the old Frankenstein movies as much as recreating one with a comic twist. 
Young Frankenstein is not about the original mad doctor, but his grandson Frederick (Wilder), who so wants to live down his family name he chooses an alternative pronunciation, ("That's Fronk-en-steen").   Frederick is a medical school professor with students who seem more interested in his grandfather's work than reflexes and central nervous systems.   But he saunters on, until the executor of his grandfather's will comes calling with news that is a mixed blessing:   Grandpa Victor has bequeathed his Transylvania castle and all of its contents to Frederick, and Frederick is now headed to the same place where the good doctor reanimated a dead body many years ago.

Despite his own misgivings, Frederick attempts to recreate his grandfather's experiment with help from Igor (Feldman), who pronounces his name "Eye-gor", Inga (Garr), a busty blonde assistant, and Frau Blucher (Leachman), whose very name causes horses to whinny in fright.    Frederick finds his way to his grandfather's secret lab, which is now full of cobwebs draped over equipment unused for decades, and now he must know if he can live up to his family name and bring another corpse back to life.

Frederick chooses the hulking body of a recently hung convict (Boyle) and the brain of a "scientist and saint".   Igor messes up the simple task of retrieving the saint's brain and instead uses an abnormal sized brain to plop into the big guy's head with potentially disastrous (and hilarious) results.   One of the funniest scenes in Young Frankenstein is how Frederick coaxes a confession out of Igor that he mistakenly picked up the abnormal brain instead of the intended one, using a facade and calm and poise.  ("I will NOT be angry").

One thing Frederick lacks is calm and poise, especially when confronted by the local police magistrate Kemp (Mars), who questions whether another Frankenstein is up to the family's old tricks in order to appease the town's very nervous citizens.   Kemp speaks in a nearly impenetrable German accent and a prosthetic right arm inspired by Dr. Strangelove.    And he cheats at darts. 

It will not come as a spoiler that Frederick successfully recreates his grandfather's experiment, and the Creature, who is only capable of grunts, escapes the lab and roams the countryside where he encounters a lonely blind man (Gene Hackman in a terrific cameo) who accidentally scalds the big man with soup and lights his thumb on fire.    The nonverbal comedy by Boyle here is something to behold.   He does what is not easy to do, perform mostly using his eyes and expressions.   And yes, he and Frederick do a pretty good version of "Puttin' on the Ritz" to the amazement of other scientists.

Young Frankenstein is not a laff-a-minit comedy, but one which is properly paced and earns its laughs from a variety of unexpected sources.    The cast is clearly enjoying itself and the black and white cinematography adds to the atmosphere.   This is not a movie to be shot in color, and Brooks wisely did not do so.   Young Frankenstein remains Brooks' masterpiece, mostly because we feel for the movie's two most pathetic characters, the Creature and Dr. Frederick himself.