5 Abby-Normal Facts About ‘Young Frankenstein’

Gabrielle Moss Yesterday, 1:09 pm

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Teri Garr, Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, 1974. — TM and Copyright © 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. Courtesy: Everett Collection.

It’s hard to believe that Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks‘ pitch-perfect tribute to classic Universal horror, is already 50 years old. The movie, which was released on Dec. 15, 1974, is still finding new fans every year, and is considered one of the best horror-comedies of all time. But even if you’ve been a fan since Igor first moved his hump, there’s still probably a lot about the film that you don’t know. So let’s all grab a plate of Schwartzwalder Kirschtorte, and learn a little more about Young Frankenstein.

And remember: It’s pronounced Frahn-ken-steen.

1The movie was dreamed up on a Blazing Saddles coffee break

Blazing Saddles Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, 1974

Everett Collection

Few artists had a better 1974 than Brooks — he began the year with the release of his breakthrough Western parody Blazing Saddles, and closed it out with Young Frankenstein. But the films share more than just a release year — Young Frankenstein actually began to come together on the set of Blazing Saddles, which also starred Gene Wilder.

According to a 2010 interview with Brooks, during the final weeks of shooting Blazing Saddles, “Gene Wilder and I were having a cup of coffee and he said, I have this idea that there could be another Frankenstein. I said, ‘Not another! We’ve had the son of, the cousin of, the brother-in-law. We don’t need another Frankenstein.’ His idea was very simple: What if the grandson of Dr. Frankenstein wanted nothing to do with the family whatsoever. He was ashamed of those wackos. I said, ‘That’s funny.'”

2But Mel Brooks wasn’t allowed to appear in it

You may have noticed that Young Frankenstein is one of the only Mel Brooks films in which Brooks doesn’t play a major role on screen. That was by Wilder’s request, but not because of any bad blood between the two men; rather, it was because Wilder though Brooks had an impossible time playing it straight on camera.

As Brooks recalled in a 2012 interview, “That was the deal Gene Wilder had. He [said], ‘If you’re not in it, I’ll do it.’ [Laughs.] He [said], ‘You have a way of breaking the fourth wall, whether you want to or not. I just want to keep it. I don’t want too much to be, you know, a wink at the audience. I love the script.’ He wrote the script with me. That was the deal. So I wasn’t in it, and he did it.”

Brooks couldn’t keep himself out of it entirely, though — he does pop up as a villager, and in a few vocal cameos (including one as a screaming cat).

3Gene Wilder fought to keep “Puttin’ on the Ritz” in the film

It’s hard to think of a more iconic moment in the film than when Wilder’s doctor and Peter Boyle’s monster perform a Fred Astaire homage while singing “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” But Brooks was originally against the dance number.

As he recalled in 2010, “The biggest fight [Brooks and Wilder] had, honestly, shame on me, was he said to prove the monster was more than mechanically able to walk or move, he wanted the monster to do Irving Berlin’s ‘Putting on the Ritz.’ I said, “Having the monster sing and dance is just going to be silly.’ He said maybe you’re right, but can we try it? So we shot it and I said, ‘This is the best thing in the movie.’ It turned out to be hysterically funny.”

4The man who built the original Frankenstein lab helped build the set

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, 1974

You may have heard that the film incorporates some old props from the original 1931 Universal Frankenstein. But these props weren’t found in a dusty old studio basement; they were located in the home of special effects expert Ken Strickfaden, who had designed the lab for the original film.

Strickfaden did more than just lend props to the production; he showed up on the Young Frankenstein set when they were shooting in the lab, designing new electrical implements to spark and bubble behind the good doctor.

5It inspired an Aerosmith song (no, really)

Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” has the rare honor of hitting the top 10 in two separate decades. But it has the even rarer honor of being the only hit rock song that we know of to be inspired by a Mel Brooks gag.

According to Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, in 1974, when the band was recording their album Toys in the Attic, one night, they hit a creative wall. So the band minus Perry decided to take in a movie playing nearby, which happened to be Young Frankenstein. When the rest of the band returned, Perry said, “they were throwing lines back and forth from the film. They were laughing about Marty Feldman greeting Gene Wilder at the door of the castle and telling him to follow him. ‘Walk this way,’ he says, limping, giving his stick to Wilder so he can walk that way, too. While all this was going on, Jack stopped and said, ‘Hey, ‘walk this way’ might be a great title for the song.'”