YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN BD

Description

Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman star in Mel Brooks' Academy Award-nominated comedy horror spoof. When young neurosurgeon Frederick Frankenstein (Wilder) inherits his grandfather's Transylvanian estate, along with his hunchback friend Igor (Feldman), lab assistant Inga (Teri Garr) and housekeeper Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman), he finds himself rather overwhelmed at the prospect of running his own castle. His scientific curiosity is piqued though when he discovers his grandfather's notebook in which he documented his experiments with reanimation, and Frederick sets about conducting his own experiments to create his very own monster. The cast features Peter Boyle as The Monster. Review: Good quality - A fun old film on DVD with 1970s humour. A little smutty but acting was good. Reproduction is good quality Review: Classic - The sign of a great Mel Brooks film (on the whole) is one in which he doesn't headline. Both Twelve Chairs and The Producers are excellent examples - Blazing Saddles pretty much leaves him in extended cameo roles and Young Frankenstein is by far one of, if not his best. He's also nowhere in site. Don't get me wrong, I like him and I think he's a funny man in interviews and stand up (Check out an Audience with....) but I don't like his acting (Possibly with the exception of To Be of Not To Be but in that he surrounds himself with some fine performances) Young Frankenstein is a very funny parody of the Universal 1930's movies Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. It's filmed in Black and White with a musical score replicating the era. All the performances are great, Marty Feldman being a standout. The actors pretty much play it straight even if Feldman gurns at the camera a couple of times (this works on this occassion). Running gags don't outstay their welcome and the story has a pretty coherent plotline throughout. There are lots of classic scenes with my favourite being Peter Boyle's Monster meeting Gene Hackman's Blind Man. Mel Brooks films in the UK have not really hit the blu ray market by any strength. The picture is cleaned up but the extras are simply ported over from the DVD. Luckily there are plenty of them to make this a fine package. If you already have the extras packed DVD, I wouldn't necessarily suggest you buy this unless you MUST have everything on Blu Ray. I'm tempted to give four stars as it is identical to the DVD but the film is my favourite of the Brook's catalogue so gets the five.