Young Frankenstein

I kinda wish I’d seen the Mel Brooks movies I’d seen in chronological order. I think it would’ve helped me love this movie more than like and appreciate it. If that sounds like damning with faint praise, it isn’t; kinda the opposite, really. This is a well-made movie — exceedingly so, in fact — with outstanding performances, breathtaking filmmaking, excellent sound and lighting, and surgically placed humor to take the mick out of the genre it’s spoofing. Seriously, the filmmaking of this, perhaps more than any other movie of Mel Brooks, convinced me he is the Weird Al of movies. Like Al can flawlessly and faithfully recreate styles from rap to grunge to boy bands to new wave, Brooks’ eye for recreating movie styles is amazing. Aside from a few minor moments of modern life creeping in (the classroom at the beginning, for instance),  YF looks and feels like it could’ve been made and come out alongside 1931’s Frankenstein. The angles and lighting and set design recreates the Universal Monster Movie era with unbelievable precision. The acting likewise slots right alongside it, arch and melodramatic but without a tinge of irony (except when it’s being funny, of course). The music cues in exactly when it should, swelling in the proper way to evoke terror, majesty, and insanity. From a movie-making standpoint, this might be Brooks’ finest achievement. The performances are likewise outstanding, but you kind of expect that when your movie has Gene Wilder (the greatest comedic actor ever, don’t @ me, you’ve already lost), Madeline Khan, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, and Cloris Leachman (Teri Garr is fine, but she has a ceiling that the others don’t). Every one of them comes to play hard and play hard they do. So what did he mean in that opening statement, I hear you thinking? If he’s gushing with so much praise, why not 9/10, or the full deck? My first Brooks movie was Spaceballs. I’ve not seen his whole directorial filmography, but the only ones I’ve missed now are The Producers, Silent Movie, and The Twelve Chairs. Spaceballs is still, hands down and by leagues, my favorite. It is constantly throwing jokes and satirical jabs at you, and at the movie it’s satirizing. It is a barrage of humor. That’s the Mel Brooks style I’m used to. Young Frankenstein fits more comfortably alongside High Anxiety than Saddles or Spaceballs. Like High Anxiety, it is more of a wry genre deconstruction than a comedic bombardment using satire as a vehicle. In both, Brooks took apart a genre and a style of filmmaking, and it’s fun to watch, but it’s not always FUNNY. There’s plenty of humor in Young Frankenstein, but — and I say this at the risk of knowing I may be unfriended by some people and divorced from my wife — there is not one scene in YF as funny as the “asshole” scene in Spaceballs. It’s more of a dry funny, a quiet internal chuckle than an out-loud side-splitter. I was still entertained, but it just doesn’t hit the same as Brooks’ more overtly silly movies. It’s more intelligent, yes, and I enjoy that kind of humor, but I laugh out loud at the “Ludicrous Speed” sequence. That’s the Brooks I came to know first, so that’s the Brooks I’m looking for. Also … again, a little blasphemy … everything after “Puttin’ On The Ritz” DRAAAAAAAAGS like a mother. This is still mandatory viewing, though. There’s no denying why it has its place, both in his filmography and in cinema in general. Everything about it is the work of a master of his craft. I just wish I came to know it before I came to know Brooks’ later work and got used to a certain style.