Mel Brooks directs Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle and Teri Garr in this spoof of the 1930’s Universal monster series.

Young Frankenstein is a strange one. If it catches me in the right mood then it is very funny. Yet more often than not, at least until the madcap final stretch, I just find myself admiring the loving forgery. The visual lifts and replication of the gothic originals are bang on. It also bizarrely reminds me of childhood Christmases. This always seemed to be scheduled on TV well past my bedtime on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day or New Year’s Eve. So watching even the first 10 minutes of Young Frankenstein at a cousin’s house or a party meant a taboo was being broken. These days I just enjoy watching peak Madeline Kahn or Teri Garr. They’re enough to raise the dead.

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Perfect Double Bill: Blazing Saddles (1974)