Mel Brooks is the funniest. That we all agree on. There is no need to debate it. All of us who try to make comedy know we will never be the best. Mel wins.
What we can debate is which is the best Mel Brooks movie. Yes, this is a subjective question. If you choose Blazing Saddles or The Producers or High Anxiety, I can’t prove you wrong. But allow me to make the case for Young Frankenstein.
Young Frankenstein is perfect. It’s the comedy equivalent of Sgt. Pepper, or The Great Gatsby, or the ’86 New York Mets.
The pace and joke compression are off the charts. The laughs are huge. The jokes land like the punches of a prize fighter: in furious volleys from all different angles, the big ones landing when you least expect them.
What modern comedy doesn’t owe a debt of gratitude to Young Frankenstein? The physical comedy is both precise and insane. The genre parody is spot-on and meticulously detailed. There have been a million spoof movies since, but none of them even comes close. You don’t need to know a thing about Frankenstein to love this movie. Plus, Marty Feldman’s looks-to-camera are so well-timed and iconic, he’s basically inventing The Office in 1974.
Gene Wilder (the co-writer) is on fire throughout the movie. He’s a like a comedy cheat code. It’s unfair. One second he’s screaming at the top of his lungs, mania in his eyes, and the next second he’s teasing extra laughs with just the tiniest look or smile or gesture.
The casting is perfect. The women in Young Frankenstein are historically hysterical. What is funnier than Frau Blücher slowly turning to Dr. Frankenstein and asking him if he’d like some Ovaltine? Or Inga’s roll in the hay? Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn. Mel directed these brilliant women in some of their finest performances. OK, their finest performances. My opinion.
Even Gene Hackman is funny in it. When has Gene Hackman ever been that riotously funny? Sure he was funny in Superman III (or was it IV?) but the spilled soup bit is as good as comedy gets.
Every part of Young Frankenstein is perfect. When Gene Wilder is lecturing the class at the beginning of the movie, the science kind of makes sense. He sounds like he knows what he’s talking about. And the movie is genuinely scary sometimes. The monster’s speech at the end is emotional and touching. The sets and photography are gorgeous. Even without these things, it would still be one of the funniest movies of all time, but the fact that it succeeds in so many arenas is what makes it the absolute high-water mark. Its credibility makes everything funnier and more impactful.
Another thing to keep in mind: Mel Brooks made Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles in the same year. Has a director ever had a better year than Mel Brooks in 1974? Victor Fleming made Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz in 1939, but Gone with the Wind isn’t funny at all. Mel wins again.
A few years ago I went to see Young Frankenstein at a revival house, and it got the loudest, most sustained laughs I have ever heard in a theater. I was jealous, but then I realized, I will never fight as well as Ali, I will never paint as beautifully as Picasso, and I will never be as funny as Mel Brooks. But even if you are only a third as funny as Mel, that still will make for a comfortable living!
I am so glad that this book of beautiful photographs and information about this classic film is out. Maybe I will learn something. If I work hard, hopefully I can get to forty percent.
