Young Frankenstein (1974): An Exercise in Cinematic Reanimation
Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein (1974) can be broadly considered a spoof of classic Hollywood horror films. However, this statement belies the extreme specificity and fidelity with which director Brooks and star Gene Wilder employ everything from overall narrative structure to the minutest technical aspects to emulate and parody the first few Frankenstein films produced by Universal Pictures in the 1930s and ‘40s. I postulate that Young Frankenstein is not simply a comedic send-up, but is in fact a carefully crafted homage to a bygone era of filmmaking, with surprisingly deep themes lurking below its flippantly joke-filled surface.
Several period flourishes become apparent even in the opening credits of Young Frankenstein. The most obvious is that the film is shot in black and white; additionally, the musical overture which plays over the credits is modeled after early-20th century styles, with a dramatic motive followed by a haunting melody played on the violin, as the players’ names are presented onscreen in a blackletter font with illuminated capitals. Throughout the film, now uncommon transitions such as iris-ins, iris-outs (sometimes in unusual shapes, such as hearts), and wipes are also used. These technical elements establish the film as a direct continuation of and response to an earlier era of film.
The plot of Young Frankenstein, aside from its obvious genesis in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, is strongly modeled after the third movie in Universal Pictures’ Frankenstein series, Rowland V. Lee’s Son of Frankenstein (1939). In both, a direct male descendent of the original Dr. Frankenstein, Wolf (Basil Rathbone) in Son of Frankenstein and Dr. Frederick (Gene Wilder) in Young Frankenstein, decides to continue the original Dr. Frankenstein's work, bringing to life a monster (Boris Karloff/Peter Boyle) with the aid of a deformed man named Ygor (Bela Lugosi) or Igor (Marty Feldman), while being investigated by a police inspector with a mechanical arm, Krogh (Lionel Atwill) or Kemp (Kenneth Mars).
Many scenes and details in Young Frankenstein are also homages to the first in the Universal film series, James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931), including the grave-robbing sequence, the medical lecture, the intended brain being dropped and replaced by an abnormal one, the monster playing with a young girl, the mob storming the castle, and the creation and appearance of the monster itself. In a metafictional twist, an announcer (Norbert Schiller) steps out from behind a curtain to introduce the monster to an audience in Young Frankenstein, just as Edward van Sloan addresses the real-life audience to introduce the story in Frankenstein. The lab equipment shown in Young Frankenstein even includes original props from the 1931 movie.
The monster being attracted by violin music, as well as the scene with the blind hermit (Gene Hackman), are drawn from the other James Whale-directed entry, Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Additionally, after being scared by the monster, Frederick’s fiancée Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) in Young Frankenstein gains white streaks in her hair, like the titular mate of the monster (Elsa Lanchester) in Bride; later, she wears her hair up in the same style and hisses like the monster’s bride does.
Young Frankenstein’s imitation of the past ties in well with one of its major themes. Through most of the movie, Frederick rejects his heritage as a Frankenstein, insisting that it is pronounced Fränk-en-stēn. Once he is able to calm the monster, however, he fully embraces his family name, shouting that he is a Frankenstein when his German lab assistant Inga (Teri Garr) uses the other pronunciation. In effect, Brooks and Wilder are also claiming the Producers of the earlier Frankenstein series as their cinematic ancestors. However, Young Frankenstein ends very differently from its antecedents; both Dr. Frederick Frankenstein and his monster survive and achieve apparent marital bliss. I believe there are deeper reasons for this conclusion than the obvious glib explanation that comedies usually have happy endings.
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s chapter “Monster Culture: Seven Theses” in Monster Theory: Reading Culture states that “Fear of the Monster Is Really a Kind of Desire” (16). In Young Frankenstein, the monster is portrayed as both ugly and desirable. Inga remarks before she has even seen him that he must have an “enormous schwanzstucker.” Elizabeth is initially scared by the monster, but eventually accepts his advances (singing “Sweet Mystery of Life” from Naughty Marietta when they first make love), and ultimately marries him. Frederick is also implied to have gained the monster’s sexual prowess due to the transference of his some of his intelligence, as at the climax of the film, he growls like the monster and Inga sings the same way Elizabeth did, while the camera cuts to a log on fire, possibly meant as a phallic symbol. Both the relationships of Frederick and Inga and of Elizabeth and the monster stand in stark contrast to the awkwardly non-physical goodbye scene between Frederick and Elizabeth, which ends in an elbow bump that would not be out of place in our current era of pandemics. Thus, what seems to be simple “blue humour” may double as an examination of sexual repression.
Cohen discusses how “race has been…a catalyst to the creation of monsters” (10); he also states that “The Middle Ages accused the Jews of crimes ranging from the bringing of the plague to bleeding Christian children to make their Passover meal.” (8). It is noteworthy that Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder, and Madeline Kahn are Jewish. This may be why in Young Frankenstein, unlike in most Hollywood depictions (but as in Shelley’s novel), the monster, a social outcast, is able to speak in complete sentences and ultimately given a chance to explain his behavior. The monster says that “As long as I can remember…people have hated me” because of his appearance, and that he gave up all hope of inspiring love, deciding to cause fear instead; in these words may lurk the echoes of Wilder’s and Brooks’s own experiences of facing bullying and prejudice.
Due to the monster’s speech, in which he also expresses his gratitude to his creator, Inspector Kemp and the mob leave the castle; both the monster and his creator are spared from persecution, and are free to form their own alternate society of freaks and monsters, where even someone stitched together from corpses can become the sort of man who reads The Wall Street Journal in bed. Thus, Young Frankenstein ultimately provides a hopeful message that those who are rejected by society can find somewhere they belong and someone to love.
Requiescat in pace, Teri Garr.
Quite appropriate for the day!