Young Frankenstein

Young Frankenstein (1974)
Director: Mel Brooks
Cast: Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Terri Garr, Cloris Leachman
Memorable Line: "Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a seven and a half foot long, fifty-four inch wide GORILLA?"

Simply genius. That's the best way to describe Young Frankenstein. Mel Brooks decides to go with a funny take on the Frankenstein tale and makes a comedy classic.

A young Baron Von Frankenstein (Wilder) returns to his boyhood castle and decides to pick up on his grandfather's forbidden experiments -- to make life from death. Aided by a hunchback side kick, Igor (Feldman), and a bubble-headed lab assistant (Garr), Frankenstein works on creating a man from the parts of dead bodies and succeeds -- almost, but for the small mistake on Igor's part. The creation quickly becomes dubbed the monster (Boyle) and the rest is history. Albeit, very funny history.

Brooks mixes exceptional film technique, matching the look and mood of past movies in the classic horror genre, with borscht-belt, vaudevillian jokes to create a whip-crack funny film that is both silly and smart. Wilder excels with the manic energy of the young Frankenstein. Boyle handles the part of the monster with aplomb. Feldman knows his way around the silly sight gag and makes the most of his hunchbacked part.

There are sight gags galore and the back and forth banter between Frankenstein and Igor is hilarious. There are couple of show-stopper moments in this film that will leave you rolling out of your seat and with the exception of a few more risque bits, the film works across generations.

Need a night of laughs and shtick, try Young Frankenstein.