50 Fun Facts About Young Frankenstein

In what year was Young Frankenstein released?

Young Frankenstein opened on December 15, 1974, distributed by 20th Century Fox, and became one of that year's biggest box-office hits.

Whose idea was Young Frankenstein, pitched to Brooks over coffee on the set of his previous film?

Brooks's first reaction was 'Not another! We've had the son of, the cousin of, the brother-in-law.'

How does Frederick insist his surname be pronounced?

Frederick insists on 'Fronkensteen': a lecturer at an American medical school, he is desperate to distance himself from his infamous grandfather's work.

How does Igor say his own name is pronounced?

Igor insists it is 'Eye-gore', answering Frederick's own fussy pronunciation in kind; Marty Feldman played him as the grandson of the original Frankenstein's assistant.

What comic twist did Marty Feldman add to Igor without telling anyone?

Feldman kept moving his hump from side to side without warning anyone; Brooks kept it in, and when Frederick finally asks about it Igor replies, 'What hump?'

Sent to steal Hans Delbrück's brain, whose brain does Igor bring back instead?

Igor drops Delbrück's brain and grabs one labelled 'Abnormal' from the jar beside it; the mix-up is why the Monster wakes violent and confused.

Which distinctive feature does police Inspector Kemp have?

Inspector Kemp has a prosthetic arm and one eye covered by a patch, plus a monocle; Kenneth Mars played him with an accent so thick his own men cannot follow him.

Which song do Frederick and the Monster perform for an audience of prominent guests?

'Puttin' On the Ritz' is the number Frederick and the Monster perform in top hat and tails; Wilder fought to keep the scene after Brooks doubted it would work.

Who wrote the 1929 song that Frederick and the Monster perform on stage?

Irving Berlin wrote the song in 1927 and published it in 1929; the title phrase, meaning to dress lavishly, was inspired by the opulent Ritz hotels.

How do Frederick and Igor lure the escaped Monster back to the castle?

Playing violin and horn does it: Frederick bows the lullaby while Igor blasts a horn from the castle roof, drawing the Monster home after its escape.

Why did Mel Brooks shoot the film entirely in black-and-white?

Brooks shot in black-and-white to evoke 1930s Universal horror films, matching the look with period-style credits, iris-outs and wipes.

Which studio originally had a deal for the film but lost it over budget and the black-and-white plan?

Columbia Pictures had the original deal but refused both the black-and-white plan and the budget Brooks wanted, so the picture moved to 20th Century Fox.

The laboratory equipment in the film was the original apparatus built for which movie?

The props were Kenneth Strickfaden's original electrical apparatus from Frankenstein (1931), which he had kept in storage in his garage for four decades.

What condition did Kenneth Strickfaden place on lending his equipment?

Strickfaden's price was a special screen credit, since he had gone uncredited for building the same apparatus for Universal's original film four decades earlier.

What is the name of the little girl who plays see-saw with the Monster?

Helga tosses flowers into the well with the Monster, then gets launched through her own bedroom window when he jumps onto the see-saw.

For which two Academy Awards was Young Frankenstein nominated?

Young Frankenstein was nominated for Adapted Screenplay and Sound: Wilder and Brooks shared the screenplay nod, but the film lost both at the 1975 ceremony.

In which year was Young Frankenstein added to the National Film Registry?

Young Frankenstein entered the National Film Registry in 2003, the Library of Congress citing it as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant alongside that year's 24 other picks.

Igor's instruction to Frederick at the train station inspired which Aerosmith hit?

'Walk This Way' got its title after Aerosmith, stuck for lyrics during a 1975 recording session, took a break to see Young Frankenstein and came back quoting Igor's line.

Who played Inga, Frederick's lab assistant?

Teri Garr played Inga, the lab assistant who greets Frederick with 'roll, roll, roll in ze hay'; Garr was later Oscar-nominated for Tootsie.

Which uncredited star plays the blind hermit who befriends the Monster?

Gene Hackman, uncredited, played the blind hermit Harold, who scalds the Monster with soup and lights his thumb instead of his cigar, a cameo he took for fun after hearing about the film from his friend Wilder.

Who played the Monster?

Peter Boyle played the Monster, getting the tap-dance number and the blind-hermit scene; he later spent nine seasons as Frank Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond.

How many Emmy nominations did the Monster's actor get for playing Frank Barone on Raymond?

Frank Barone brought the actor seven Emmy nominations, one for every year from 1999 to 2005, without a win; his only Emmy was for a 1996 X-Files guest role.

Marty Feldman's famously misaligned eyes were the result of which medical condition?

Graves' thyroid disease caused Marty Feldman's bulging, misaligned eyes, a look that later injuries and an operation only exaggerated.

Marty Feldman died of a heart attack in 1982 while filming which movie in Mexico City?

Yellowbeard, a pirate comedy with Graham Chapman and Peter Cook, was Feldman's last film; he died in his Mexico City hotel room after a day's shooting, aged 48.

What was the birth name of the actor who played Frederick?

Jerome Silberman, born in Milwaukee in 1933, took his stage name in his mid-twenties; his first film role was the kidnapped undertaker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967).

For which film did Frederick's actor receive his only acting Oscar nomination?

The Producers earned Frederick's actor a Best Supporting Actor nomination as Leo Bloom at the 1969 ceremony; his only other nomination was for co-writing Young Frankenstein.

Frederick's actor's third wife, with whom he made three films, was which comedian?

Gilda Radner married him in 1984 and co-starred in Hanky Panky, The Woman in Red and Haunted Honeymoon; after her 1989 death from ovarian cancer he co-founded Gilda's Club.

Which 1993 comedy won Elizabeth's actress, Madeline Kahn, a Tony for Best Actress in a Play?

The Sisters Rosensweig, Wendy Wasserstein's comedy, won Kahn the 1993 Tony for Best Actress in a Play as Gorgeous Teitelbaum, the flamboyant middle sister.

Cloris Leachman, who played Frau Blücher, won her Oscar for which 1971 film?

The Last Picture Show (1971) won Leachman the Best Supporting Actress Oscar as Ruth Popper, the neglected coach's wife who has an affair with Timothy Bottoms's character.

How many Primetime Emmy Awards did Cloris Leachman win in her career?

Leachman won eight Primetime Emmys, from playing Phyllis Lindstrom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 1970s to Malcolm in the Middle in 2002 and 2006.

What does Frau Blücher reveal about her relationship with Victor Frankenstein?

Frau Blücher confesses she was his lover, bellowing 'He vas my boyfriend!', which explains why she guards Victor's memory and leads Frederick to his hidden laboratory.

Kenneth Mars, who played Inspector Kemp, had earlier played which character in Brooks's 1967 debut film?

Franz Liebkind, the pigeon-keeping Nazi playwright whose 'Springtime for Hitler' gets staged, was Kenneth Mars's breakout role in Brooks's debut film.

What does Frederick accidentally hit with a dart while Inspector Kemp questions him?

Frederick, rattled by Inspector Kemp's questions, flings a dart wildly and hits a cat outside the window, whose yowl of pain is one of the film's best-known sight gags.

In which year did the stage musical Young Frankenstein open on Broadway?

After Seattle tryouts it opened at the Hilton Theatre on November 8 to mixed reviews and closed after 485 performances.

How many performances did the Broadway musical run for before closing in January 2009?

The musical gave 485 performances, plus 30 previews, between its November opening and its closing on January 4, 2009, a run of just under 14 months.

Which city hosted the musical's pre-Broadway tryout in August 2007?

Seattle's Paramount Theatre hosted the tryout in August and September before New York previews began in October.

Which Brooks film was he making when Wilder pitched him Young Frankenstein?

Blazing Saddles was the film Brooks was making when Wilder, cast as its Waco Kid, pitched the Frankenstein idea on set; both films came out the same year.

What was Mel Brooks's birth name?

Melvin Kaminsky, born in Brooklyn in 1926, shortened his mother's maiden name Brookman to Brooks; he began as a writer on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows.

Which song does Elizabeth burst into during her night with the Monster?

Elizabeth, her hair shocked into white streaks, sings 'Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life' after the Monster's love-making; the gag returns in the final scene.

What is the title of Victor Frankenstein's private journal that Frederick discovers?

Frederick finds his grandfather's journal, titled simply How I Did It, in the hidden laboratory and reads it through the night before deciding to repeat the experiment.

How does Frederick save the Monster from the mob at the climax?

Frederick submits to a transference that gives the Monster part of his intellect and calm; the Monster then addresses Kemp and the mob in polished English.

Roughly how much did Young Frankenstein gross on its $2.78M budget?

Young Frankenstein grossed about $86M in North America against its $2.78 million budget, placing it among the biggest hits of its year.

Where does Frederick travel to claim his family's castle?

Frederick travels to Transylvania to claim the family castle, arriving by train at a country station where Igor meets him with a hay wagon.

Who composed the score for Young Frankenstein?

John Morris, Brooks's regular composer across a dozen films, wrote the score, whose haunting lullaby theme lures both Frederick and the Monster through the story.

Where does Young Frankenstein rank on the AFI's list of the 100 funniest American movies?

Young Frankenstein placed 13th on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Laughs list, compiled in 2000, just ahead of Bringing Up Baby at 14th.

What revolves to hide the secret passage to the laboratory in the castle?

A bookcase that revolves hides the passage; Inga and Frederick keep getting trapped as it turns until he snaps, 'Put the candle back!'

Who made Mel Brooks staying off-screen a condition of making Young Frankenstein?

Wilder told Brooks he would do the film only if Brooks was not in it, saying he had a way of breaking the fourth wall.

Which fabric does Elizabeth warn Frederick not to crush when he tries to kiss her goodbye?

Elizabeth fends off Frederick's farewell with rules, no lipstick smudges and no touching the hair, then pleads 'Taffeta, darling' about her dress; he answers, 'Taffeta, sweetheart.'

Which Will & Grace star was in the Broadway cast of the Young Frankenstein musical?

Megan Mullally played Frederick's fiancée Elizabeth in the Broadway cast, alongside Roger Bart as Frederick, Sutton Foster as Inga and Shuler Hensley as the Monster.

Which critic gave the film four stars and called it Brooks's 'most disciplined' comedy?

Roger Ebert's four-star review on release called Young Frankenstein Brooks's 'most disciplined and visually inventive film', praising its loving recreation of the Universal look.