Young Frankenstein is a 1974 film directed by Mel Brooks, starring Gene Wilder as the title character. Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, and Gene Hackman also star. The screenplay was written by Brooks and Wilder. The film's is a parody of the horror film genre, primarily, of course, of the various film versions of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein.
Plot
Frederick Frankenstein (Wilder) is a respected lecturer at an American medical school and is more or less happily engaged to Elizabeth (Kahn). Frederick becomes exasperated when anyone brings up the subject of his grandfather, the famous mad scientist, to the point of insisting that his name is pronounced "Fronkenshteen". Nevertheless, while on a trip to his ancestral home to attend to his family's estate, he is inspired by the household servants Frau Blücher and Igor (Leachman and Feldman) and his grandfather's journals to pick up where his grandfather left off. Wackiness ensues.
Awards
Young Frankenstein recieved two Academy Award nominations for Best Sound (Richard Portman and Gene S. Cantamessa ) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Wilder and Brooks). It was named the 13th funniest film in the American Film Institute list of 100 Laughs. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
The success of Young Frankenstein led to another horror spoof -- 1974's Vampira starring David Niven and Teresa Graves -- being renamed Old Dracula for North American release.
