Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
This Young Frankenstein trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers Mel Brooks's 1974 comedy from the coffee break on the set of Blazing Saddles where Gene Wilder pitched it, through the fight with Columbia over shooting in black-and-white, the original Kenneth Strickfaden lab equipment rescued from a garage, and every quotable beat - 'Fronkensteen', 'Eye-gore', 'What hump?', 'Abby Normal', 'Walk this way', the whinnying horses and 'Puttin' On the Ritz'. It also digs into the cast beyond the film - Wilder's Willy Wonka and Gilda Radner years, Peter Boyle's Everybody Loves Raymond, Marty Feldman's eyes and his death on the set of Yellowbeard, Madeline Kahn's Tony, Cloris Leachman's eight Emmys, Teri Garr's Elvis movies, Kenneth Mars's King Triton - plus the Aerosmith song the film inspired, the Oscar nominations, the National Film Registry, the 2007 Broadway musical and the FX prequel series in the works. About a third of the questions are easy warm-ups; the rest are for people who can hum the Transylvanian lullaby. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the primary sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was Young Frankenstein released?
1974
Young Frankenstein opened on December 15, 1974, distributed by 20th Century Fox, and became one of that year's biggest box-office hits.
Q 02Whose idea was Young Frankenstein, pitched to Brooks over coffee on the set of his previous film?
Gene Wilder's
Brooks's first reaction was 'Not another! We've had the son of, the cousin of, the brother-in-law.'
Q 03How does Frederick insist his surname be pronounced?
'Fronkensteen'
Frederick insists on 'Fronkensteen': a lecturer at an American medical school, he is desperate to distance himself from his infamous grandfather's work.
Q 04How does Igor say his own name is pronounced?
'Eye-gore'
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.
Q 05What comic twist did Marty Feldman add to Igor without telling anyone?
Moving his hump from side to side
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?'
Q 06Sent to steal Hans Delbrück's brain, whose brain does Igor bring back instead?
One labelled 'Abnormal'
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.
Q 07Which distinctive feature does police Inspector Kemp have?
A prosthetic arm and one eye
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.
Q 08Which song do Frederick and the Monster perform for an audience of prominent guests?
'Puttin' On the Ritz'
'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.
Q 09Who wrote the 1929 song that Frederick and the Monster perform on stage?
Irving Berlin
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.
Q 10How do Frederick and Igor lure the escaped Monster back to the castle?
Playing violin and horn
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.
Q 11Why did Mel Brooks shoot the film entirely in black-and-white?
To evoke 1930s Universal horror
Brooks shot in black-and-white to evoke 1930s Universal horror films, matching the look with period-style credits, iris-outs and wipes.
Q 12Which studio originally had a deal for the film but lost it over budget and the black-and-white plan?
Columbia Pictures
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.
Q 13The laboratory equipment in the film was the original apparatus built for which movie?
Frankenstein (1931)
Q 21Who played the Monster?
Peter Boyle
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.
Q 22How many Emmy nominations did the Monster's actor get for playing Frank Barone on Raymond?
Seven
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.
Q 23Marty Feldman's famously misaligned eyes were the result of which medical condition?
Graves' thyroid disease
Graves' thyroid disease caused Marty Feldman's bulging, misaligned eyes, a look that later injuries and an operation only exaggerated.
The props were Kenneth Strickfaden's original electrical apparatus from Frankenstein (1931), which he had kept in storage in his garage for four decades.
Q 14What condition did Kenneth Strickfaden place on lending his equipment?
A special screen credit
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.
Q 15What is the name of the little girl who plays see-saw with the Monster?
Helga
Helga tosses flowers into the well with the Monster, then gets launched through her own bedroom window when he jumps onto the see-saw.
Q 16For which two Academy Awards was Young Frankenstein nominated?
Adapted Screenplay and Sound
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.
Q 17In which year was Young Frankenstein added to the National Film Registry?
2003
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.
Q 18Igor's instruction to Frederick at the train station inspired which Aerosmith hit?
'Walk This Way'
'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.
Q 19Who played Inga, Frederick's lab assistant?
Teri Garr
Teri Garr played Inga, the lab assistant who greets Frederick with 'roll, roll, roll in ze hay'; Garr was later Oscar-nominated for Tootsie.
Q 20Which uncredited star plays the blind hermit who befriends the Monster?
Gene Hackman
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.
Q 24Marty Feldman died of a heart attack in 1982 while filming which movie in Mexico City?
Yellowbeard
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.
Q 25What was the birth name of the actor who played Frederick?
Jerome Silberman
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).
Q 26For which film did Frederick's actor receive his only acting Oscar nomination?
The Producers
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.
Q 27Frederick's actor's third wife, with whom he made three films, was which comedian?
Gilda Radner
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.
Q 28Which 1993 comedy won Elizabeth's actress, Madeline Kahn, a Tony for Best Actress in a Play?
The Sisters Rosensweig
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.
Q 29Cloris Leachman, who played Frau Blücher, won her Oscar for which 1971 film?
The Last Picture Show
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.
Q 30How many Primetime Emmy Awards did Cloris Leachman win in her career?
Eight
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.