Frankenstein Junior

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Frankenstein Junior
Original title Young Frankenstein
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1974
length 106 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Mel Brooks
script Mel Brooks
Gene Wilder
production Michael Gruskoff
music John Morris
camera Gerald Hirschfeld
cut John C. Howard
occupation

Frankenstein Junior (original title: Young Frankenstein ) is a comedy by director Mel Brooks, who specializes in film parodies , from 1974. The film pokes fun at horror films from the 1930s. So the film was shot in black and white; the original setting from the 1931 film adaptation of Frankenstein served as the location for the laboratory scenes. On November 8, 2007, a musical version of Frankenstein Junior, written by Mel Brooks, premiered on Broadway.

action

The neurosurgeon Dr. Frederick Frankenstein distances himself (for example through a different pronunciation of his name, "Fronkensteen") from his grandfather, who once tried to breathe life into dead matter. When the lawyer Gerhard Falkstein told him one day after a lecture that he had inherited the old family castle, Frederick traveled to Transylvania . There he meets the hunchbacked Igor (who carries his hump on the left and on the right) and the pretty laboratory assistant Inga. At the castle, the three of them are received by the housekeeper Mrs. Blücher, whom Dr. Frankenstein in his grandfather Victor's room.

During the night Frederick, Inga and Igor discover a secret passage behind the bookshelf that leads them to Viktor Frankenstein's laboratory and private library. From one of the books there (whose title “How I did it” from the original English version is translated by the German dubbing with “How I did it”) Frederick is enthusiastic about his grandfather's ideas and soon digs one with Igor in the cemetery Corpse out. Igor is supposed to steal the brain of the genius Hans Delbrück in a brain bank , but accidentally drops it and instead gives Frankenstein an "abnormal" brain, without mentioning it. Frederick's attempt to bring his creature to life with the help of a thunderstorm seems to fail at first.

At the same time, displeasure with Frankenstein's presence rose in the village. Police inspector Kemp, whose right arm is a prosthesis, promises to pay a visit to Frederick and find out whether he really wants to continue his grandfather's work. When Frederick is already on the verge of desperation during dinner, he and Inga and Igor hear the creature growling, which has meanwhile come to life. The three storm into the laboratory and Frederick releases his bonds. When Igor lights a match, the creature panics and attacks its creator. Igor then has to confess to angry Frederick that he has taken an abnormal brain with him. In the middle of this conversation bursts with the arrival of Police Inspector Kemp, whom Frederick can reassure during a game of darts that the villagers' fears are groundless. When Frederick and his two assistants return to the laboratory, they find Mrs. Blücher there, who helps the monster to escape and confesses that she was Victor's lover and has arranged that Frederick continue his work.

On his escape, the monster gets to know a little girl who plays with him and a lonely blind hermit who tends the monster. Frederick catches the creature again, calms it down and performs with it in public: Frankenstein and the creature in tails perform a step and music number from Puttin 'on the Ritz . A burst headlight panics the creature and a commotion develops. The monster is then captured and chained. Just at the moment when Frederick and Inga are distracted from his grief, Frederick's fiancée Elizabeth announces her visit.

When the guard on duty lights a match, the monster panics again, breaks its chains and flees. It kidnaps Elizabeth, revealing itself to be a fiery lover. Lured by playing the violin, it returns to Frankenstein. When Frederick connects himself and the monster to the machine in order to stabilize his creature with his mind, the villagers storm the castle, but are soothed by a speech by the monster, who suddenly appears speaking and cultured. The film has a happy ending : Frederick marries Inga, Elizabeth marries the monster. On the wedding night Inga is pleased to find that certain well-dimensioned body parts of the monster have evidently passed on to Frederick during the transfer procedure.

Awards

Home theater initial evaluation

As early as 1978, a so-called “Selected Scenes Edition” appeared for the then popular Super 8 home theater . The storyline of the well-edited 18-minute version contains the uncut sequence with Gene Hackman as a blind hermit.

Reviews

“'Young Frankenstein' ('Frankenstein Junior'), like almost all of Mel Brooks' films, a somewhat too loud and flat slapstick parody of a film genre, paid homage to James Whale's theatricality and, above all, to the almost perfectly reproduced , in nostalgic black and white and with obvious respect Backdrops by Herman Rosses . "

- William K. Everson : classic horror film (OT: Classics of the horror film ). Goldmann, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-442-10205-7 , p. 66

"A parody of the Frankenstein myth that was quite successful thanks to many witty ideas."

- Lexicon of international film

Trivia

  • The three chords when the film title was faded in were used as an underlay for the widespread YouTube video Dramatic Look or Dramatic Chipmunk .
  • The actor Gene Hackman , who plays the role of the hermit in the film, is strangely not mentioned in the opening credits , but is mentioned in the credits.
  • The motive of the descendants who sees his ancestor strikingly similar, inherits the castle and there repeated its terrible practices, already appears in the horror flick The torture chamber of the Witch Hunter ( The Haunted Palace ) by Roger Corman from the year 1963rd

publication

  • DVD: Frankenstein Junior . Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment 2001
  • Blu-Ray: Frankenstein Junior . Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment 2008

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frankenstein Junior. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used