| Overall Grade: |
A- |
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| Story: |
B+ |
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| Acting: |
B+ |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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The Monster Returns, Younger
by Ryan (movies profile)
Aug 11, 2006
3
of
3 people found this review helpful
There is something about movies shot in black and white that adds flavor to a movie, something that takes the audience back to the golden age of movies in the 1950s. Mel Brooks' classic, Young Frankenstein, is in black and white and looks like it could have been the sequel to the Frankenstein movies of the 1930s, and that's a completment. The black and white, the use of the original sets from the famous movies all add up to a visual delight. This movie would not have worked if it were in color. The lighting is too dark for successful color, so the decision to shoot in black in white was perfect and gives the movie a wonderful visual style. The story isn't bad either. Gene Wilder plays the grandson of the infamous Dr. Frankenstein (Wilder also wrote the movie) who finds out the secret that brought the monster to life to begin with. With help from his assistants Igor (a very funny Marty Feldman) and Inga (Teri Garr), Frankenstein is able to bring Peter Boyle, he plays the monster, back to life. There are other funny performances, Cloris Leachman is the Frankenstein house sitter who may or may not have had a relationship with horses, Gene Hackman as the blind man in the woods (directly out of The Bride of Frankenstein in the movie's best parody), Kenny Mars as the town detective who had a wooden arm, and a Brooks' favorite, Madeline Kahn as Dr. Frankenstein's lover, who may have found love in an unexpected place at the end of the movie. Not as consistantly funny as Blazing Saddles, which came out earlier in 1974, or as socially biting as The Producers, Young Frankenstein is still a wonderful homage to the monster movies of the 1930s and 40s, with a great black and white look that reminds us of what movies used to be. |
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