This brief audiobook takes a
fond look back at the making of 1974’s Young Frankenstein,
arguably the finest and funniest film Mel Brooks ever made.
Filled with quotations from the major players involved in
the movie, audio clips, interview and review excerpts, and
memories of the director himself, the book offers more information
about the writings, the acting, the directing, the music,
the special effects, the makeup, and the sound. A PDF also
provides rare photographs most fans have never seen.
The goal here seems to be celebrating a special time and project
in the director’s life, not about airing any dirty laundry
or spilling any long-kept secrets of the past. We learn the
movie began with an idea by Gene Wilder, who was working on
the original screenplay. A life-long fan of James Whale’s
Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein movies, Brooks
jumped at the chance to direct and co-write the screenplay
with Wilder, who had recently co-starred in his comedy Blazing
Saddles.
Brooks discusses how he selected each actor, and what challenges
they faced in recreating an authentic black-and-white horror
film that contained outlandish comedy spoofs. His stories
about the creative contributions of the late Gene Wilder are
especially poignant.
The narration includes a variety of different voices, which
is helpful when reading quotations from articles, interviews,
and reviews. Brooks’s highly distinctive rasp is used
to full advantage when recounting his own stories in his own
words, rather than the words of others. The strangely self-deprecating
foreword written and read by Judd Apatow (comparable to a
modern-day Mel Brooks) serves to bridge the generations and
perhaps usher in this comedy classic for younger folks who
may never have seen it.
Brooks is known for directing full-length feature films that
come in under two hours – sometimes well under two hours.
Likewise, this entertaining book says all it needs to say
and nothing more. Readers might dawdle over the photographs,
but can race through the text faster than lightning strikes
on a dark and stormy night.
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Reviewer
Leslie C. Halpern is the author of Passionate About
Their Work: 151 Celebrities, Artists, and Experts on Creativity,
Rub, Scrub, Clean the Tub: Funny Children's Poems About
Self-Image, and Shakes, Cakes, Frosted Flakes: Funny
Children's Poems About Table Manners. |