"Young Frankenstein": An Analysis of 5 Elements of the Movie

Mel Brooks' 1974 popular comedy Young Frankenstein, a parody on the classic series of Frankenstein horror films, presents all of the elements that make this hilarious film about a scientist who aims to reincarnate the dead a work of art to be studied as much for its cinematic aspects as to be enjoyed for its lighthearted entertainment. This analysis focuses on the Foley artists, visual effects, mise-en-scene, setting, and character types.

Foley Artists

Foley artists are highly important throughout Young Frankenstein. After all, menacing claps of thunder, a constable's ratcheting arm, neighing horses, creaking doors, and clomping shoes are heard throughout the movie. Clearly, in Young Frankenstein, the sound effects are less horrific and, like the movie, more comical even in and of themselves.

It can be said that a significant part of the humor in Young Frankenstein stems from the sound effects, which add to the movie's spoofy campiness. One can only imagine the wild arsenal of sound-producing devices the Foley artists used when they added their audio track to the film.

In fact, a running gag throughout the film relies almost completely on Foley artists. Whenever somebody calls for Frau Blucher, a sinister maid tending Frankenstein Castle, horses in a nearby stable whinny with fear. The multitude of thunderclaps throughout the film hearken to the dramatic thunderclaps which pepper any authentic horror film of yore, and in Young Frankenstein they provide a vital element which completes the thrilling ambience surrounding the darkness-cloaked Frankenstein Castle.

Foley artists complete the comical picture with Inspector Kemp - a police officer whose wooden arm moves about mechanically - thanks to the brilliantly humorous ratcheting sounds that accompany his right arm's every movement.

Visual Effects

Visual effects in Young Frankenstein are fairly limited in comparison to many of today's films, which are filled with a complicated series of post-production additions. However, Young Frankenstein does have a few important visual effects that bring to this film a well-rounded sense of both humor and campy thrill.

The lightning that almost ubiquitously strikes during exterior shots of the Frankenstein castle as well as scenes involving Frankenstein's laboratory becomes a character of its own. With intense flashes during the scene in which the exhumed corpse is given life to become Peter Boyle's "Monster," the lightning has been added through what appears to be either cartoon animation effect or perhaps streaks in the celluloid.

Another particularly comical instance of visual effects occurs in the scene where the Monster encounters the little girl. When, at the little girl's insistence, the Monster hops onto the see-saw to give her a ride, the little girl is flung through the air, in through her bedroom window, and into her bed - where her parents (worried about where she is as they cannot seem to find he anywhere else in the house) stumble into find her safe and sound.

Mise-en-Scene

Perhaps the black and white filming technique of Young Frankenstein is one of the most essential elements to creating the film's vintage horror mise-en-scene. The choice to use black and white filming to produce this movie is distinctive, perhaps, in that it provides an air of authenticity to connecting this film to the earlier Frankenstein movies which young adult viewers in the mid 1970s grew up watching during television showings of the series of films.

In general, the mise-en-scene in Young Frankenstein is theatrical. The bulk of the film takes place in a large, aging, and dark castle. The laboratory, too, is an exaggerated world very much unlike what most people could ever conceive of stepping into. The large props in the laboratory exude the dangerous electrical experiments Frederick Frankenstein and his grandfather conduct.

There is also the eerie cloak of knowing that these instruments supposedly are capable of instilling life in the bodies of the dead. Even the Transylvanian village itself embodies much theatrical mise-en-scene. The Old World-styled buildings in the village cast an antiquated ambience to the film. This is a place seemingly unto itself and unattached to the contemporary world in which the film otherwise takes place.

Naturalistic mise-en-scene makes a couple appearances throughout the film. One of the earliest scenes shows Frederick Frankenstein holding a university lecture in a very contemporary-looking auditorium filled with a diverse cast acting as bright-eyed medical students. This scene looks very much like any university lecture that the common person might encounter either in real life or in the media. This scene is also very important in establishing a sense that the action is taking place in the modern day.

Also in Young Frankenstein is the scene where the Monster encounters the little girl. This outdoor scene could take place in any serene park in any part of the world and should strike a sense of calm familiarity with most anybody watching.

Setting

Young Frankenstein has the primary setting of Transylvania during a time roughly three to five decades after the original Frankenstein movies. Transylvania appears quasi-agrarian, though the village typifies a bustling, if small, central economy.

While the movie is set in the modern day, the aura in Transylvania is very classically Old World Western European and feels much earlier than the modern day - which seems essential to separating the very grounded world in which the audience lives to the mysterious and out-of-reach realm where much of the storyline unfolds in Young Frankenstein. However, the village scenes in Transylvania do bring a very human sense to the film that helps bridge the gap between the (comically) thrilling fictional events in the bizarre, shadowy Frankenstein Castle and the world where the concerned, ordinary residents of Transylvania live and work.

There is also the setting during the scene featuring the modern American university, where Frankenstein teaches.

While this scene is not where most of the action occurs, this aspect of the setting is important because it signals to the audience that the story is taking place during contemporary times. It also serves to separate Frankenstein from his grandfather - which is something Gene Wilder's character clearly is taking great pains to do, even furiously insisting at some points that his name is to be pronounced "Fronk-en-steen"!

Certainly, the university scene also suggests the younger Frankenstein's occupation of a practical element of applied science, versus the mad scientist traits that the elder Frankenstein practices in the original Frankenstein movies (though the younger Frankenstein quickly evolves into quite the mad scientist himself).

Character Types

The powerful cast of famous actors in Young Frankenstein bring life to a group of several characters which, by and large, follow a common set of stereotypes and traits. While the most complex sense of character development in the film has to be that of Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder), even his profile fits that of many of the scientist figures which are found in the movies.

Frankenstein is a serious-minded scientist who is initially quite practical in both his work and day-to-day life. Frankenstein rapidly evolves into the archetypal mad-scientist upon discovering his grandfather's library and laboratory.

Igor (Marty Feldman) is the loyal and obedient assistant who clamors to the aid of Frankenstein whenever called upon. Feldman's naturally bulging eyes are an asset to the role for a character who walks with a terrible limp and has a humped back (comically, the hump switches places during the film). Igor is fairly ungainly at times and it is that clumsiness that results in his picking up at the brain depository an abnormal brain for the exhumed body.

Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) is a wealthy-beyond-words woman who is Dr. Frankenstein's fiancée. Elizabeth is the embodiment of a socialite who is a ball of nerves. Her tenseness comically is played out when, at the train station waiting for Frankenstein to depart to Transylvania, she becomes rattled when he hair and jewelry get gently roughed up while she and Frankenstein lovingly embrace. When visiting Transylvania, she rejects all of Frankenstein's romantic advances until after they are married and "legal."

Teri Garr plays Inga, a voluptuous beauty, who fills the role of Frankenstein's assistant. Inga acts as a device for Frankenstein's explaining many of aspects of the plot to the audience and also serves the role of delivering a fair dose of romantic tension to the film during many of the Frankenstein Castle sequences. Inga embodies the role of helpless maiden and is involved in her share of sexual references - either directly or indirectly.

Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman) is a stern and seemingly villainous servant. Fear-stricken horses cry out whenever her name is spoken, and all the other main players in the film regard her caution. Frau Blucher acts as a foil to Frankenstein when she helps release the angry (but harnessed) Monster from the operating table. Frau Blucher's character adds a degree of creepiness to the film and is necessary in prompting the Monster's raid on the village.

Peter Boyle's Monster is the hideous-looking beastly creation that can just as quickly pull at the heart strings as scare. While the Monster has a penchant for strangling and seems highly uncontrolled before the transference process at the end of the film, there is a certain depth to the Monster character. He can show romantic passion, sadness, joy, and sensitivity at times, he loves violin music, and he has a terrible fear of fire. His scene with Frankenstein during the pair's dance routine to "Puttin' on the Ritz" at the theater also shows that the Monster possesses some rudimentary learning ability.