Young Frankenstein (1974)

Director: Mel Brooks

Starring: Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn, Gene Hackman

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The scariest comedy of all time!

Plot: A young neurosurgeon (Gene Wilder) inherits the castle of his grandfather, the famous Dr. Victor von Frankenstein. In the castle he finds a funny hunchback called Igor, a pretty lab assistant named Inga and the old housekeeper, frau Blucher -iiiiihhh!-. Young Frankenstein believes that the work of his grandfather is only crap, but when he discovers the book where the mad doctor described his reanimation experiment, he suddenly changes his mind.

My rating: 10/10

Will I watch it again? YES!!!

I friggin' love this movie.  In 1974 Mel Brooks gave us this and BLAZING SADDLES and makes him one of the most amazing humans who've ever lived.  I wouldn't mind shaking that cat's hand.  Not only is YF a great send-up of the old Universal Frankenstein pictures, it's a beautiful homage to them AND it's funny as hell.  The black and white photography is gorgeous.  John Morris' score is gorgeous (and wildly hilarious).  The entire cast is rock solid and fun-NY!  And last but not least, it stars three women that need to have my babies, two of which are at the absolute top of actresses I'm most attracted to (and who make me laugh hysterically), Madeline Kahn and Teri Garr (I wouldn't kick Cloris Leachman out of bed for eating crackers, either).  Marty Feldman proves in every frame that he's a natural born comedy genius and Gene Wilder?  I love this cat.  Brilliant and funny, funny, funny!  His performance and script (along with Mel) are wickedly funny and gentle.

I once had the pleasure of seeing this in a theater, days before Halloween.  It was a dirty print which made it even better as it looked more like the films it was referencing.  Halfway in, the film broke.  The lights stayed dim for about ten minutes while the projectionist fixed it and carried on.  In the meantime the dozen or so of us in the audience kept going, spitting out lines that we would have heard had the picture not stopped.  We laughed our asses off.  Then it started back and our asses kept laughing all the way out the door.