51 Years Ago Today, One of the Funniest Movies of All Time Was Released (And Its Best Jokes Have Dark Roots)

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Mel Brooks built his career on playfully mocking popular culture. He first gained recognition as a creator with the TV show Get Smart, a humorous take on spy films like the early James Bond movies. He continued to specialize in parody with films like The Producers, his first directorial feature, followed by Blazing Saddles, which spoofed grand westerns; High Anxiety, a send-up of Alfred Hitchcock thrillers; and Silent Movie, which clearly imitated silent films. Interestingly, some of his most successful parodies didn’t drastically depart from the styles they were imitating, and this might be why they worked so well.

Fifty-one years ago today, on December 15, 1974, Mel Brooks’ hilarious film Young Frankenstein hit theaters, released by 20th Century Fox. It quickly became a huge success, earning over $80 million – which is more than $500 million today. The movie even received an Academy Award nomination for its screenplay, and it remains a beloved classic. Interestingly, many of the film’s funniest moments are inspired by the classic Universal monster movies from the 1930s and 40s, adding another layer of humor.

Young Frankenstein Isn’t That Far Removed From What It’s Making Fun Of

Many movie fans are familiar with James Whale’s classic Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), but Universal Pictures continued the series with films like Son of Frankenstein (1939). That film, directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Basil Rathbone as Baron Wolf von Frankenstein, shares striking similarities with Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein in both its plot and visual style.

In Mel Brooks’ parody, Gene Wilder plays Frederick Frankenstein, the grandson of the infamous doctor. However, as the story unfolds, we learn that Basil Rathbone’s character is actually the doctor’s son. Both men share strikingly similar looks – thin mustaches and stylish, film-noir-inspired clothing – which contrasts with the more generic European village aesthetic of the other characters. In Son of Frankenstein, the title character aims to restore the family’s reputation, dismissing the outlandish stories from previous films. But fans already know that Frederick Frankenstein secretly thinks his grandfather’s work was terrible.

Several other characters share striking resemblances. Teri Garr’s Inga in Young Frankenstein looks a lot like Josephine Hutchinson’s Elsa von Frankenstein from Son of Frankenstein, even down to their similar blonde hairstyles. Both Frankenstein films also feature lab assistants: Marty Feldman as the hunched Igor in Young Frankenstein, and Bela Lugosi as Ygor in Son of Frankenstein. While both assistants have humps, their overall appearances aren’t particularly alike.

Aside from looking similar, the films share several scenes – like Frankenstein playing darts with an inspector, a town meeting about the new Frankenstein, and a long shot of the original Frankenstein’s grave. However, the biggest difference between Son of Frankenstein and Young Frankenstein (besides the latter being intentionally funny) is how the monster is used. In Son of Frankenstein, Ygor controls the monster, using him to carry out revenge. Young Frankenstein, on the other hand, keeps things lighthearted, with Igor never becoming fully villainous and the monster clumsily moving through scenes that are clear parodies of the original.

Young Frankenstein’s Direct Parody of Universal’s Monster Movies Is Underrated

Many of the funniest parts of Young Frankenstein come from directly imitating classic scenes in old Universal monster movies. But the humor isn’t just imitation – the film also takes seriously dark moments and turns them into comedy. A prime example is the character of Inspector Kemp, the village policeman with a wooden arm. His clicking, clacking arm is a running gag, used for everything from lighting a cigar to holding darts.

People might think the wooden-armed policeman in Young Frankenstein was a funny addition created by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder, but it actually comes from the 1939 film Son of Frankenstein. In that movie, Lionel Atwill plays Inspector Krogh, a policeman who lost his arm to Frankenstein’s monster in the original film – a backstory added retroactively, as it doesn’t appear in the earlier movies. While Son of Frankenstein treats the injury as tragic, Brooks brilliantly used the idea for comedic effect, taking a minor detail from the source material and exaggerating it to create a memorable gag.

A memorable scene in Young Frankenstein occurs after the creature escapes and encounters a young girl. This directly references a tragic moment in the original Frankenstein film, where the monster accidentally kills Maria while trying to play with her. Young Frankenstein cleverly uses this well-known scene as a setup for a joke. In the parody, the creature is playing with a girl named Helga, throwing things into a well. She asks, “What shall we throw in now?” and the creature unexpectedly looks at the audience. This subverts the grim situation from the original, making the moment – where the girl flies through a window and gently lands in her bed – even funnier.

A memorable, uncredited cameo by Gene Hackman in Young Frankenstein closely mirrors a scene from Bride of Frankenstein. In both films, the monster encounters a lonely, blind man simply seeking companionship—a detail also present in Mary Shelley’s original novel. While the core of the scene—the blind man offering food and even a cigar to his new friend—is borrowed from the earlier movie, director Mel Brooks cleverly adds comedic twists. Instead of a cigar, Hackman’s character accidentally spills hot soup on the monster and sets his finger on fire, creating a hilarious variation.

Watching Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein after Son of Frankenstein is a great way to fully appreciate it. The pairing highlights the striking similarities between the two films and demonstrates how much care and affection Brooks and his team put into honoring the classic Universal monster movies.

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2025-12-16 03:41