Taking a second brain labeled 'Abnormal', he returns with it, and Frederick transplants it into the corpse, thinking he has transplanted Delbrück's brain.įrederick brings the creature to life by electrical charges during a lightning storm. Startled by his own reflection, Igor drops and ruins Delbrück's brain. He sends Igor to steal the brain of a deceased 'scientist and saint', Hans Delbrück. After discovering the secret entrance to Victor's laboratory and reading his private journals, he decides to resume his grandfather's experiments in re-animating the dead.įrederick and Igor steal the corpse of a recently executed criminal, and he sets to work experimenting on the large corpse. Hearing that the professor pronounces his name 'Fronkensteen', Igor insists that his name is pronounced 'Eyegor', rather than the traditional 'Eegor'.Īrriving at the estate, Frederick meets Frau Blücher, the intimidating housekeeper. When a solicitor informs him that he has inherited his family's estate in Transylvania after the death of his great-grandfather, the Baron Beaufort von Frankenstein, Frederick travels to Europe to inspect the property.Īt the Transylvania train station, Frederick is met by a hunchbacked, bug-eyed servant named Igor, whose own grandfather worked for Victor and a beautiful, young, female assistant named Inga. He becomes exasperated when anyone brings up the subject of his grandfather Victor Frankenstein, the infamous mad scientist with whom he does not want to be associated, and insists that his surname is pronounced 'Fronkensteen'. Frederick Frankenstein is a lecturing physician at an American medical school and engaged to Elizabeth, a socialite. In 2014, the year of its 40th anniversary, Brooks considered it by far his finest (although not his funniest) film as a writer-director. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay (for Wider and Brooks) and Best Sound.

It was later adapted by Brooks and Thomas Meehan as a stage musical. In 2003, it was deemed 'culturally, historically or aesthetically significant' by the United States National Film Preservation Board, and selected for preservation in the Library of Congress National Film Registry. The film also features a period score by Brooks' longtime composer John Morris.Ī critical and commercial success, Young Frankenstein ranks No. 28 on Total Film magazine's readers' 'List of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films of All Time', No. 56 on Bravo's list of the '100 Funniest Movies', and No. 13 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 funniest American movies. To help evoke the atmosphere of the earlier films, Brooks shot the picture entirely in black and white, a rarity in the 1970s, and employed 1930s-style opening credits and scene transitions such as iris outs, wipes, and fades to black. Much of the lab equipment used as props was created by Kenneth Strickfaden for the 1931 film Frankenstein. The film is a parody of the classic horror film genre, in particular the various film adaptations of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus produced by Universal Pictures in the 1930s. The film co-stars Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn, and Gene Hackman. Wilder also starred in the lead role as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr.

The screenplay was co-written by Brooks and Gene Wilder. Young Frankenstein is a 1974 American comedy horror film directed by Mel Brooks.

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