Mel Brooks
Frankenstein Junior

"Young Frankenstein" is not a comedic parody of an old and famous film.

"Young Frankenstein" is an act of love, it is a tribute that the Wilder-Brooks duo pays to all movie lovers in the world, succeeding in entertaining the audience with a product of the highest comedic grade while at the same time creating an imaginary bridge between that type of gothic literature, those almost prefigurative films of the 1930s (at least I perceive them that way) of the coming war conflict, and Broadway theater, seasoning everything with caustic Jewish humor.

It is not an act of lese-majesty, and I'm convinced that if James Whale, the director of 1931's Frankenstein, had lived long enough to see this film, he would have had a blast! We are in the United States in the 1930s, specifically in a university classroom at the New York medical faculty, when Professor Frederick Frankenstein is informed by a zealous executor of a will that his hated grandfather, Baron Viktor Von Frankenstein, has left him a substantial inheritance and that he must go to the castle, the residence of the deceased relative, located in Transylvania to better take care of the matters related to the inheritance.

Upon arriving in Romania, he will meet (and we with him!) unforgettable characters: the hunchbacked servant Igor with the mobile hump, the stunning and dizzy assistant Inga, the iron lady Frau Blucher, the policeman who reminds us of Dr. Strangelove, and with them, he will spend the craziest days in the world's craziest castle chasing the antics of a lab-created monster who could care less about good manners and just wants to roam the world like a street thug!

Few comedy films have any artistic significance, and this film is one of the exceptions; if we analyze valuable comedic films, especially absurd or parody ones, I believe we're facing a unique piece: because making people laugh is no joke and succeeding in doing so without using the usual slightly vulgar expedients and staging a product that stands the test of time and improves like wine with the classic formality of a beautiful black and white worthy of the best Lang films is a true achievement for a cinematic almanac.

As I said at the beginning, Mel Brooks performs a true act of love; he loves the old American gothic cinema and this is evident from the very first viewing, the screenplay is brilliant but never disjointed and its great humor serves the plot and not the opposite. In Spaceballs and his subsequent, even more inferior films, this passion fades, and it becomes apparent that he doesn't love what he parodies, and unfortunately, he will no longer gift us with treats of this kind.

A very happy note regarding the Italian market is the amazing dubbing done by Oreste Lionello and his companions, a real masterpiece!

In conclusion: I know very well that you have already seen it over and over, and my advice can only be to watch it again and again and again... the rating would be 4 maybe 4.5, but I don't feel like giving it less than 5... feelings have to count for something, right?