This article was originally published on WHerMoments
Young Frankenstein stands out as one of Mel Brooks’ most beloved flicks — and that’s saying something considering Brooks is also responsible for Blazing Saddles, The Producers, and Spaceballs. But it’s easy to understand why. The horror parody is consistently hilarious! And while the comedy classic has built up a sizable following since its release in 1974, there are plenty of juicy details that its legions of fans might not know about. In fact, some of these behind-the-scenes stories are so funny that it's scary.
1. A disastrous first test screening
To say that Young Frankenstein’s initial test screening was a horror show would be underselling it. The film clocked in at more than two hours at that stage, and the audience didn’t like it.
In the book Young Frankenstein: The Story of the Making of the Film, written by Mel Brooks and Rebecca Keegan, Brooks revealed what he had then said to the test crowd. He stated, “You’ve just seen a two-hour-and-22-minute failure. In less than three weeks, I want you back here to see a 95-minute smash-hit movie.” Then Brooks spent three weeks making a 90-minute version, and the rest is history!
2. The ad-libbed cat
Remember the sequence where Gene Wilder’s Dr. Frederick Frankenstein is playing darts with Inspector Kemp?
As one of the projectiles flies out of shot, a cat yelps in shock. Well, that sound came courtesy of Mel Brooks, who was positioned just off-screen, and it wasn’t even planned! He improvised it while the cameras were still rolling. Brooks also managed to score voice roles as a werewolf and as Victor Frankenstein. That’s not too surprising for a writer-director who always managed to squeeze himself into his own movies.
3. Gene Wilder hired Mel Brooks
Actors can sometimes recruit a director for a project, and that’s exactly what happened with Young Frankenstein. Brooks revealed in Young Frankenstein: The Story of the Making of the Film that he had spotted Wilder writing an outline for the film as they were making Blazing Saddles together.
The star then told him, “My dream is for you to write it with me and direct it.” Brooks replied, “You got any money on you?” “I have $57,” Wilder said. “It’s a beginning,” Brooks said. “I’ll take it as a down payment.”
3. A repeated conversation
How about this for a funny detail? It’s the kind of silly joke that is typical of Brooks in general and Young Frankenstein in particular — but this time you’ll only understand it on your first watch if you speak German!
When Wilder’s Frankenstein is traveling via train to reach New York near the start of the movie, we overhear a man and woman quarreling. Then, after we transition to a shot of him on another train heading to Transylvania, the exact same conversation is picked up again. Except it’s in German this time!
4. The scene with the most takes
Given how funny Young Frankenstein is, it shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that the actors couldn’t keep straight faces for certain scenes. It’s said that the hardest sequence to get through was when Marty Feldman’s Igor overzealously attacks Elizabeth’s scarf outside the castle.
There are actually seven minutes of hilarious outtakes and bloopers from the movie available on the DVD extras (and on YouTube). And if they're anything to go by, Gene Wilder seemed to have the hardest time keeping from laughing!
6. Extra scenes were added to prolong the shoot
Have you ever had so much fun at a party that you wish it could last forever? Well, the crew working on Young Frankenstein could certainly relate to that.
Brooks, in particular, was having a ball with his actors and wasn’t ready to stop. So, as the shoot was set to conclude, he decided to create some additional sequences to prolong the production. Brooks continued to think of the movie fondly afterward, too, telling the Los Angeles Times in 2014 that it was "by far the best movie [he] ever made."
7. Hans Delbrück was a real guy
Do you remember the brain that Frankenstein wanted to use for the monster? In case you forgot, it was in a container that read, “Hans Delbrück: Scientist and Saint.”
As it turns out, that wasn’t a made-up name; Hans Delbrück was a real guy. Delbrück was renowned for his knowledge of military history before his death in 1929. And another fun fact is that Delbrück's son, Max, won a Nobel prize “for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses.”
8. The monster’s make-up
Due to Young Frankenstein’s black and white cinematography, the crew had to call upon some old tricks when preparing Peter Boyle for the monster role. Boris Karloff wore “greenish” make-up for his iconic part in 1931’s Frankenstein because the color made his face stand out.
So, Boyle followed suit with his look. “I didn’t want [the movie] to be just funny or silly,” Brooks told the Los Angeles Times. “I wanted Mary Shelley’s basic feelings captured and the... haunting beautiful quality that James Whale got with Boris Karloff.”
9. The monocle debacle
Want to know how Kenneth Mars scored the part of Inspector Kemp? It probably helped, of course, that he and Brooks had worked together for 1968's The Producers, but according to Mars, his casting in Young Frankenstein actually hinged on a conversation he had with Brooks about the character’s look.
The actor reportedly stated, “[Brooks said], ‘Let me ask you this… If you’re wearing an eye patch and you’ve got a monocle on top of the eye patch, is that too much?’ I said, ‘Of course not.’ He said ‘Good, you’re hired!’”
10. Peter Boyle first encountered his future spouse on the set
Sometimes, romances can crop up in the most unexpected places. And that’s exactly what happened with Peter Boyle.
Incredibly, he was introduced to his future spouse while she was taking notes on Young Frankenstein’s production. Loraine Alterman Boyle was preparing to conduct an interview with Mel Brooks for Rolling Stone magazine. The story goes that Boyle was still in his monster makeup when he first asked Alterman out on a date. The pair married in 1977 and remained so until Boyle's death in 2006.
11. Cloris Leachman was nearly in the musical
Following Cloris Leachman’s elimination from Dancing with the Stars back in 2008, she revealed a bombshell to Us Weekly. The actress said, “Mel Brooks called me this morning when I was in the bathtub.
He wants me to come back to Broadway and take over my role in the musical Young Frankenstein.” Sadly, Leachman couldn’t reprise the hilarious part of Frau Blücher in the end because she had to go to Berlin and film scenes for Quentin Tarantino's movie Inglourious Basterds. (Her sequence ended up on the cutting room floor.)
12. Recruiting Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman is a tremendous actor with two Academy Awards to his name. But he had to push for his memorable cameo in Young Frankenstein.
It was revealed in the Blu-ray commentary that Hackman played a lot of tennis with Wilder back then, which is how he heard of his work on the movie. He subsequently asked for a part as he “wanted to try comedy,” even offering to do it for nothing! Just in case you don't know, Hackman plays the blind man Harold in the film.
13. A heated argument
It’s hard to imagine Mel Brooks ever losing his cool, yet it happened while shooting Young Frankenstein. He and Wilder had a heated disagreement at Brooks’ home, which led to Brooks walking out the front door.
Then, the director called Wilder back after a few minutes and said, “Who was that madman you had in your house? I could hear the yelling all the way over here! You should never let crazy people into your house, don't you know that? They could be dangerous!” According to Wilder, “[It was] Mel’s way of apologizing.”
14. “No tongues”
Not all ad-libs pay off when making a movie, but the great Madeline Kahn made one count in Young Frankenstein. During the sequence, when her character Elizabeth is about to share a smooch with Wilder’s Frankenstein, the character's fiance, she tells him, “No tongues.”
That line wasn’t in the script, but Brooks kept it in the final cut. There are a fair few other gags that were improvised by the actors on set, too, including one involving Igor's hump. What do you expect when you get so many funny people in the same room together?
15. Original Frankenstein props
The next time you watch Young Frankenstein at home, pay close attention to the machines in the laboratory. Why?
Well, most of those tools seen on screen were actually first used in 1931’s Frankenstein, the classic that inspired Mel Brooks (and many other filmmakers). Brooks tracked down Kenneth Strickfaden, who had been the man responsible for creating the props in the first place. “He had a garage in Santa Monica,” Brooks told the Los Angeles Times. “I went to his garage, and there it was. He said, ‘OK, let me turn it on.’ He hit the switch, and it all went buzzzzzz.”
16. The “walk this way” gag wasn’t well-received by everyone
As per Young Frankenstein: The Story of the Making of the Film, Marty Feldman was nervous while shooting the film because it was his first Hollywood gig. To cover his nerves, Feldman would make jokes — including the iconic “walk this way” joke.
But Brooks heard the gag and added it to the film. There was just one problem: the actor himself hated it. Wilder wasn’t too keen, either, but the director stood his ground and didn’t cut it. Thank goodness! And the joke had a few other notable fans...
17. Inspiring Aerosmith
“Walk This Way” is a classic song by rock legends Aerosmith, captivating listeners since it dropped back in 1975. But can you guess what ultimately spurred the group to create it?
Simple – they saw Young Frankenstein! Yep, Marty Feldman’s memorable line inspired Steven Tyler to pen the track. Needless to say, Aerosmith made back the price of their movie theater tickets and a little bit more. Brooks also reimagined the joke for his later movies History of the World Part I and Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
18. The candles
During the sequences where the characters were walking around Frankenstein’s castle, the candles they were using weren’t real. Instead, each candle was actually an aluminum tube that housed a powerful “projection bulb.”
That set-up came with a lot of wiring, which the actors needed to conceal under their costumes. Maybe it would've been easier to just use actual candles! Maybe this is why Gene Wilder always used to laugh when Cloris Leachman's character said the line, “Stay close to the candles, the staircase can be treacherous.”
19. Mel Brooks says it’s his best film... but not the funniest
When looking at Brooks’ films, where would you rank Young Frankenstein? Well, according to the man himself, it’s up there with the very best of them — even if the laughs are not as loud.
As the director said in the DVD commentary, “The movie is just as emotional as it is funny. And that’s why it’s lasted so long.” He told the Los Angeles Times, “Young Frankenstein [is] by far the best movie I ever made. Not the funniest — Blazing Saddles was the funniest, and hot on its heels would be The Producers. But as a writer-director, it is by far my finest.”
20. Crafting Inga’s voice
Teri Garr was absolutely perfect for the role of Inga. Mind you, she enjoyed a stroke of fortune that ultimately bagged her the part.
The Young Frankenstein: The Story of the Making of the Film book reported that Garr was on The Sonny and Cher Show ahead of her audition, where she met a German woman dealing with the wigs. Following a chat, the actress used the woman's voice as an inspiration for the character’s accent. She also stuffed her bra with socks to give herself a more ample bosom!
21. “Puttin’ on the Ritz” sequence was almost cut
We’re finding it tough to picture Young Frankenstein without the hilarious “Puttin’ on the Ritz” scene, but Brooks came close to cutting it out. Incredibly, he thought it was “too crazy” to be in the movie.
That’s really saying something, considering how wild his films can get! Anyway, Wilder was desperate for the sequence to be kept in, and thankfully he got his way. Brooks told the Los Angeles Times he did it because Wilder “never stopped annoying” him. But he said, “We shot it, put it in the picture, and we loved it.”
22. The Mel Brooks cameo
As any Mel Brooks fan will tell you, the cameos he makes in his movies are consistently brilliant. Surprisingly, though, Wilder didn’t want that for Young Frankenstein.
“I said, ‘Am I such a bad actor?’’ Brooks told Parade in 2013. “He said, ‘No, but you’re always breaking the fourth wall, and you’re always surprising, and there’s a lot of anarchy in you. I don’t want it to be a crazy comedy. I want it to be a real movie with natural comedy.’ I said, ‘You’re absolutely right. That’s the way we’ll do it.’”
23. Leon Askin didn’t make the final cut
If you’re a fan of Hogan’s Heroes, then this next tidbit could leave you slightly disappointed. As it turns out, Leon Askin was in Young Frankenstein’s initial cut, taking on the role of an attorney.
Yet in the end, the TV star’s work was left on the cutting room floor by Brooks — most likely a victim of the director editing his movie down from two and a half hours to 90 minutes. Askin still holds the credit of "Herr Walman" on IMDb.
24. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”
During the sequence when Elizabeth is combing her locks prior to getting kidnapped by the monster, she belts out a tune. It’s “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
But why did Brooks go with that track? Simple really – he didn’t have to pay for it! Yep, as he noted on the DVD commentary, it’s part of the public domain. Other songs song or recited in the movie for comic effect include “I Ain’t Got Nobody” and “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.” The song about a “roll in the hay” was written by Brooks.
25. Directing advice
While making Young Frankenstein, Brooks was aware of Wilder’s ambitions to become a director himself. So, he offered various tidbits across the shoot.
The actor once said, “Mel would say, ‘Do you know the trouble I’m in because I didn’t shoot that close-up? Don’t do that.’ I would say, ‘To whom are you talking?’ [He’d reply], ‘You, when you’re directing.’ ‘Directing what?’ ‘Never mind,’ he said.” Wilder went on to direct the musical The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother — which was released just one year after Young Frankenstein.
26. The staircase scene
Remember the scene where Frau Blücher leads Frankenstein up a staircase with an unlit candelabra? Well, Wilder could barely keep it together thanks to Cloris Leachman’s hilarious performance.
As she recalled in an interview with Jake Hamilton, "As I turned to Gene, he'd be laughing, his face was in two pieces laughing. We did about 15 takes. I hear him laughing, and I have not said anything. I just tickled him to pieces... Everything I did in the movie tickled Gene to pieces. And it was so much fun to work with him."
27. Igor’s shifting hump
The running joke regarding Igor’s moving hump is one of our favorites from Young Frankenstein. It’s just so silly!
Yet it wasn’t part of the original screenplay. Instead, Marty Feldman repositioned the prop without mentioning it during the early part of the shoot. Once the other actors picked up on it, it then became an official gag. It became the movie's most enduring line. “I don’t mean to embarrass you, but I’m a rather brilliant surgeon. Perhaps I could help you with that hump,” Frankenstein says in the movie. “What hump?” Igor replies.
28. 1974 was a good year at the box office for Mel Brooks
Young Frankenstein was a huge hit at the box office back in 1974, bringing in over $86 million in domestic receipts. That made it the fourth-biggest film of the year.
To put this in some context, Earthquake made $79 million and The Godfather Part II made a lot less with a little over $57 million. And it wasn’t Brooks’ only success across those 12 months, either. Blazing Saddles topped the 1974 chart by earning close to $120 million as well. Wow!
29. Bringing the monster back to life
As Frankenstein attempts to revive his monster in the movie, the monster’s face lights up thanks to a pretty cool special effect. A prosthetic head was made to resemble Peter Boyle’s.
Then, a bulb was placed inside the prop, which illuminated his mouth and eyes. Simple but effective! It also helped that the filmmakers had chosen to shoot the film in black and white. “We said, ‘If we make the monster green, it’ll be [like] a Halloween mask,’” Brooks told Parade. “It will not have the gravity. It won’t have the depth. It won’t have the power of the James Whale movie.”
30. Protective cup
The monster’s scene with the blind character Harold — played by Gene Hackman — is full of hilarious gags. The most memorable is the moment when Peter Boyle's monster gets a lapful of scorching soup.
But Boyle and the crew didn’t want to take any chances while filming this potentially hazardous sequence. So, he sported a protective cup under his costume. Hackman also wore a protective apron underneath his monk's costume. Better safe than sorry... Although it does make us wonder why they didn't just opt to use cold soup instead...
31. Madeline Kahn’s wardrobe situation
Thanks to the Motion Picture Production Code, Brooks and costume designer Dorothy Jeakins faced a very specific challenge in Young Frankenstein. To heighten one character's attractive nature, Jeakins was tasked to reveal as much of Madeline Kahn’s upper torso as possible without violating the rules of the time.
That must’ve been a very weird process! Kahn may have been left ruing the day she opted for the role of Elizabeth over that of Inga. After all, Brooks had originally seen her in the Inga part before Teri Garr secured the role.
32. “I was gonna make espresso”
While Gene Hackman’s cameo in Young Frankenstein barely lasts for five minutes, he leaves an unmistakable mark on the film. His one scene as Harold is an absolute classic.
We've already covered the classic soup-in-the-lap moment, but there's also the sequence where Harold lights the monster's thumb on fire. Plus, Harold's closing line was completely improvised by Hackman, too. The first take of “I was gonna make espresso” is all they could use as it drew so many laughs from the crew; Hackman struggled to say it again.
33. How many chimes?
Okay, fans, here’s a question to truly test your knowledge of Young Frankenstein. In the opening scene of the movie, how many times does the old clock chime?
Remember, the camera shows it’s 12 o’clock. Well, if you said 12, you’d be wrong – it’s actually 13. It’s probably the easiest joke to miss. Or was it a subtle reference to George Orwell's 1984? The opening sentence of the novel is, "It was a bright day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen..." No, no, we're pretty sure it's just a little joke!
34. Columbia split
Before the cameras started rolling on Young Frankenstein, Brooks was looking to make it with Columbia Pictures. But there was just one problem — the executives weren't on board with his plan to shoot the movie in black and white.
So the director left them and joined up with 20th Century Fox. The director said Alan Ladd Jr., the head of 20th Century Fox, told them, “Make it in black and white. And here’s $2.4 million.” But Ladd wrote in Young Frankenstein: The Story of the Making of the Film, “A lot of theater owners wouldn't take a movie unless it was in color. The truth is, I was worried about it, but I didn't tell them that.”
35. Real skulls... mostly
Are you squeamish? If so, this next secret is sure to test your stomach!
During the scene when Frankenstein and Teri Garr’s Inga discover a collection of skulls on display, most of them were genuine. Yep, the first two skulls — “3 years dead” and “2 years dead” came from real skeletons. The “six months dead” skull was the only fake in the bunch, created especially for the movie. On the director's commentary, Brooks joked that Marty Feldman's skull was one that “only God could make.”
36. Parts of “The Blind Man” sequence were re-shot
Re-shoots can be unavoidable sometimes, and Brooks found himself in that position on Young Frankenstein. Thanks to an issue with make-up continuity, small parts of Harold’s sequence needed to be filmed again.
But Gene Hackman wasn’t available. So, the director stepped up to fill his boots. It’s his hand you see when the soup gets dropped over the monster. There is no research about how Peter Boyle felt about having to re-do a scene in which hot soup is poured on his genitals!
37. It’s part of the National Film Registry
Unsurprisingly, it’s a huge honor when a movie gets added to the National Film Registry. Once it’s on the list, that project will be preserved forever.
Young Frankenstein eventually earned a spot in the line-up in 2003. What an accomplishment! Future generations will now have the chance to howl with laughter like the rest of us. It's not the only Frankenstein movie to make it onto the list, either. The original Frankenstein classic from 1931 is on the list, of course, and so are The Bride of Frankenstein and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
38. “Five times before”
“We still have nightmares from five times before.” That line spoken by an unnamed official during Inspector Kemp’s first scene is quite easy to miss, yet it’s actually a cool easter egg.
As Brooks noted in the DVD commentary, it was a cheeky acknowledgment of the old Universal monster movies. The funny thing is, though, there are actually eight movies in the Universal series of Frankenstein movies. And there are countless other entries into the Frankenstein saga that weren't produced by Universal. So the number five in Young Frankenstein is actually kinda meaningless.
39. Fighting for black and white
Looking back on his talks with Columbia Pictures, Brooks recalled that he thought the execs tried to pull a fast one on him. The director, who spoke to Conan O’Brien in an interview, said, “They said ‘Okay, we’ll make it in black and white, but on color stock so that we can show it in Peru, which just got color.’ And I said, ‘No.
No, because you’ll screw me. You will say this and then, in order to save the company, you will risk a lawsuit and you will print everything in color. It’s gotta be on... black and white thick film.’”
40. Gene Wilder’s favorite movie
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The Producers.
Stir Crazy. Blazing Saddles. Those are just a few of the standouts from Gene Wilder’s impressive body of work, but one movie in particular stole his heart. Yep, the actor revealed that Young Frankenstein was the pick of the bunch in his opinion. “It’s still a smart, deeply intelligent, bright movie. The audience gets it, they appreciate it, and it always works,” Brooks told Parade. “It works to this day... If I go someplace, somebody will always yell, ‘Young Frankenstein rules!’” Is it your favorite?