The Set-up

The Midnight Take

I truly have so many fond memories of watching this movie throughout my life. Among my favorites: watching it for the first time with my Dad and my uncle one crisp fall afternoon. It was during one of our many visits to my aunt’s & uncle’s house for dinner. The incredible savory smell of dinner cooking (I can almost smell it now!) while watching the “Putting on the Ritz” segment is forever burned into my grey matter. I can almost smell it now. I have since lost both my Dad and my uncle and I can’t even begin to tell how much I cherish this memory. Another fantastic memory was watching the film during a slow overnight shift when I worked as a 911 dispatcher up in Worcester, MA. Me and my good friend Andy are both Mel Brooks fans and we were absolutely psyched to find the movie playing one night on TCM. That’s Turner Classic Movies to you young’uns. I think we probably drove the rest of the room nuts for the duration of the shift quoting the film.

Honestly I could probably fill up this entire section just with fond memories attached to this film. This one ranks right up there with another Gene Wilder favorite that always gets me right in the nostalgic feels: Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Don’t worry, we’ll talk about that one in November. Why November? I’ll explain when we talk about it next month!

Young Frankenstein has some really great behind the scenes stories attached to it. As promised, I told you I’d tell you a sweet little story about Peter Boyle and I am a man of my word. Loraine Alterman, a Rolling Stone reporter, visited the production to interview Mel Brooks. While she was there, she met Peter while he was in full make-up. We’re talking about all the prosthetics on his face, the zipper on the neck, the platform boots that raised him up to 6’7″ and about 125lbs of padding in the costume! He asked her out and she accepted. They were married in 1977 and remained so until his passing in 2006. And here’s a super crazy factoid for you: Loraine was friends with Yoko Ono and when Peter and Lorraine were married, John Lennon was his best man! See? Told you that was a sweet little story!

Speaking of connections to music: reportedly, while Aerosmith was recording Toys in the Attic, they went to see Young Frankenstein at the theater. When Igor picks up Frederick at the train station and leads him to the carriage he tells him to “Walk this way…” and hands him the cane after demonstrating how to do it. According to recording engineer Jay Messina, they came back to the studio with Walk This Way as the title for a song they were currently writing and developing!

While viewing the movie this last time, I was watching with a more critical eye (as one does when they run a film review website) and it really hit me for the first time HOW unlike other Brooks films this one was. I’m sure most fans know that Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks wrote the story together, but did you know that Gene Wilder actually came up with the concept and it was his agent, Mike Medavoy, who was the one who suggested Peter Boyle and Marty Feldman be involved. Brooks came on a bit later and he and Wilder wrote the screenplay in about six weeks. Wilder was also very insistent that Brooks NOT appear in his film like he did his others. Brooks agreed…though he still snuck himself in there. He voiced an offscreen cat and it’s rumored that one of the gargoyles was modeled after him. Whether or not that is true…I can’t say for sure…but I like to think it is!

One more thing that I want to point out: There is a credit in the beginning of the film for one Kenneth Strickfaden. Kevin is the gentleman who designed the ORIGINAL lab equipment for the ’31 Frankenstein film and he still had pieces of it in his garage! He agreed to let them use the pieces and also fabricated new pieces to build out the lab, reconstructed missing pieces and served as a technical consultant. So that lab is LEGIT! One of the best parts of this, to me, is that because of this, Strickfaden was given the proper acknowledgement for his work that he didn’t receive from the 1931 film.

Oh…and one last thing. We need to put the Frau Blücher rumor to rest. Blücher does NOT translate to glue in the German Language. The German word for glue is kleber. So no, the horses didn’t panic when her name was said because they were afraid of being turned into glue. They were just afraid of Frau Blücher because she was a scary ass lady!

I was lucky enough to get to watch this film with my good friend Mr. Debbie, which was nice. Especially since they never really cared for the film before, but it had been ages since they’ve seen it and agreed to give it another go and very much enjoyed it this go around. With age comes wisdom, I guess. Heh heh.

Mr. Debbie sez:
“Ha! Ha-ha-ha! Oh, darling… the secret to a long, peaceful marriage? It’s Frau Blücher’s Rule Number One: Never ask a man if he’s ready for bed, sweetie—always give him options!
​Brandy? … Warm milk? … Ovaltine?
​They all pair so delightfully with a sudden cash out of his life insurance policy. A-ha-ha-ha-HA!”

BEST LINE
“What hump?”

MVP
Marty Feldman as Igor

MOST 1974 THING
A giant dick joke disguised as sophisticated European terminology.

WHY IS THAT THERE?
The horses losing their absolute shit whenever anyone says “Frau Blücher.”

LESSON LEARNED
Always read the label before stealing a brain.

PRODUCT PLACEMENT AWARD
Kenneth Strickfaden’s Genuine Frankenstein Laboratory Equipment™

Pizza Roll Rating

The Midnight Quotient

Final Thoughts

What can I say that hasn’t already been said? I truly love this movie. Not only does it bring up warm nostalgia for me, but it’s also somewhat of an early October tradition for me. If you’ll recall, I mentioned Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory towards the beginning and how I would be talking about that in November. This is because of tradition as well. After I have fully immersed myself in spooky goodness for the month of October I take a little bit of a break in November and cleanse the palate, so to speak. One of my favorite watches in early November is the original Willy Wonka, with Gene Wilder.

I do find traditions are becoming more important to me as I look at the world through older eyes. The memories of watching this film with my Dad and Uncle Tom back in the early 1990’s ( I must have been around 12 or so)…watching it late one night with my good friend Andy…these are cherished memories for me and rewatching the film really helps to keep the magic of those memories alive.

I had to sit for a while and think about how I wanted to tackle this review, because my first thought was: “Everyone’s seen Young Frankenstein. What the hell could I possibly add to this conversation?” It was my wonderful wife who had to remind me: “No. Not everyone has seen it. It’s 2026 and there are whole generations out there who have yet to discover the movie.”
First of all the realization that there are now multiple generations behind me made me feel incredibly old, but hey…that’s life. But she was right. This wasn’t the 90’s or even the early 2000’s anymore. In this new age of streaming, the days of running across a movie on late night TV just doesn’t work the same. So, it is my job…nay…my DUTY as The Midnight Cinephile to try and pass on these films to a new generation, to remind my generation that they’re still there and to have a record somewhere that in this moment, this mattered. To me anyway.