Young Frankenstein 50 Years of Puttin’ on the Ritz

Some movies are gold from their very beginning. The right idea, the right tone, the right director, writer, and star can set up a movie for success before the cameras even start rolling. That was the case for Young Frankenstein, which debuted in theaters 50 years ago on December 15, 1974.

Written by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder, it is a satire of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s classic science fiction/horror novel, Frankenstein. Brooks was a director, comedian, actor, and songwriter who spent a career writing parodies and satire. For his part, Wilder was a scene stealing actor who cracked up viewers with a toolbox full of comedic skills. The two knew they worked well together, having cracked up audiences with their Western parody, Blazing Saddles.

The black and white comedy starred Wilder as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, the grandson of Victor Frankenstein. The movie opens with Frederick learning that he has inherited his grandfather’s estate in Transylvania. Once there, he decides to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps by reanimating the dead. He is helped by his assistants Inga (Teri Garr) and Igor (Marty Feldman), and the tough housekeeper Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman). Frederick is able to waken his monster (Peter Boyle) and things get sillier and sillier – including a musical number with the creation and a visit from the doctor’s fiancée, Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn).

With Gerald Hirschfeld’s black-and-white cinematography, Dale Hennesy’s production design (including Kenneth Strickfaden’s electrical equipment from the original Frankenstein) and John Morris’s music helped the film make fun of the horror genre in the way that only someone who truly loved it could.

Young Frankenstein was a major success, earning an impressive $86 million at the box office and Oscar nominations for Brooks and Wilder’s script and the sound design. It has had a significant impact on pop culture with scenes from the movie finding their way into other films, Brooks adapted it as a stage musical, and Igor’s line “walk this way” inspired Aerosmith to write one of their biggest hits.