50 Fun Facts About Young Frankenstein

In what year was Young Frankenstein released?

20th Century Fox put it out on December 15, the same year Brooks and Wilder made Blazing Saddles.

Whose idea was Young Frankenstein, pitched to Brooks over coffee on the set of his previous film?

Brooks's first reaction was 'Not another! We've had the son of, the cousin of, the brother-in-law.'

How does Frederick insist his surname be pronounced?

He is a lecturing physician at an American medical school, desperate to distance himself from his mad-scientist grandfather Victor.

How does Igor say his own name is pronounced?

His grandfather worked for the original Dr Frankenstein; Wilder wrote the role specifically for Marty Feldman.

What comic twist did Marty Feldman add to Igor without telling anyone?

When Frederick finally asks about it, Igor replies 'What hump?'; it was Feldman's American film debut.

Sent to steal Hans Delbrück's brain, whose brain does Igor bring back instead?

He drops Delbrück's brain and grabs the jar next to it, later explaining it belonged to 'Abby Normal'.

Which distinctive feature does police Inspector Kemp have?

Kenneth Mars, who played him with a thick German accent, had been the Nazi playwright in The Producers and later voiced King Triton in The Little Mermaid.

Which song do Frederick and the Monster perform for an audience of prominent guests?

Brooks and Wilder argued over whether the scene belonged; it was one of only two sequences shot on location, at Santa Monica's Mayfair Music Hall.

Who wrote the 1929 song that Frederick and the Monster perform on stage?

He wrote it in 1927 and published it in 1929; the phrase refers to London's opulent Ritz Hotel, and Fred Astaire made it famous.

How do Frederick and Igor lure the escaped Monster back to the castle?

In the closing shot Igor is still playing the horn on the roof while Frederick, now growling like the Monster, embraces Inga.

Why did Mel Brooks shoot the film entirely in black-and-white?

He also used 1930s-style credits, iris-outs and wipes; Columbia balked at the idea and lost the picture to Fox.

Which studio originally had a deal for the film but lost it over budget and the black-and-white plan?

Cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld even proposed starting in black-and-white and switching to colour to placate nervous Fox executives.

The laboratory equipment in the film was the original apparatus built for which movie?

Its creator Kenneth Strickfaden was storing it in his garage and agreed to lend it if he finally received a screen credit.

What condition did Kenneth Strickfaden place on lending his equipment?

He had never been credited on the 1931 original; he ended up working on set regularly and building new pieces.

Teri Garr originally auditioned for which role before being cast as Inga?

Brooks was already committed to Madeline Kahn as Elizabeth but was so impressed he offered Garr the lab assistant instead.

For which two Academy Awards was Young Frankenstein nominated?

Wilder and Brooks shared the screenplay nod; Wilder had earlier been nominated for acting in The Producers.

In which year was Young Frankenstein added to the National Film Registry?

The Library of Congress deemed it 'culturally, historically or aesthetically significant'; Roger Ebert had given it four stars on release.

Igor's instruction to Frederick at the train station inspired which Aerosmith hit?

Stuck for material while recording Toys in the Attic in 1975, the band went to Times Square to see the film and came back with a title.

Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way' first appeared on which album?

It reached number 10 in 1977 and number 4 when Run-DMC remade it with the band in 1986.

Which uncredited star plays the blind hermit who befriends the Monster?

The Monthly Film Bulletin, otherwise lukewarm, called the blind-man scene 'very close to brilliance'.

Who played the Monster?

One British critic called him 'the only actor ever to suggest that he might play the part as well as Karloff'; he was later Frank Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond.

How many Emmy nominations did the Monster's actor get for playing Frank Barone on Raymond?

He never won for that role, but did win an Emmy as Clyde Bruckman on The X-Files in 1996.

Marty Feldman's famously misaligned eyes were the result of which medical condition?

He said if he'd aspired to be Robert Redford he'd have ended up 'like every other lousy actor, with two lines on Kojak'.

Marty Feldman died of a heart attack in 1982 while filming which movie in Mexico City?

He co-wrote the 'Four Yorkshiremen' sketch on At Last the 1948 Show, later made famous by Monty Python.

What was the birth name of the actor who played Frederick?

He was born in Milwaukee in 1933; his first film role was as a hostage in Bonnie and Clyde.

For which film did Frederick's actor receive his only acting Oscar nomination?

He was up for Best Supporting Actor as Leopold Bloom in 1967; his other nomination was for co-writing Young Frankenstein.

Frederick's actor's third wife, with whom he made three films, was which comedian?

After her 1989 death from ovarian cancer he co-founded Gilda's Club and a detection centre in her name.

Madeline Kahn won her Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for which 1993 comedy?

She earned Oscar nominations for Paper Moon and Blazing Saddles, both while working with Brooks and Bogdanovich.

Cloris Leachman, who played Frau Blücher, won her Oscar for which 1971 film?

She won eight Emmys from 22 nominations, tied with Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the most acting Emmys ever.

How many Primetime Emmy Awards did Cloris Leachman win in her career?

She had competed in the 1946 Miss America pageant before studying with Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio.

Before her film career, Teri Garr appeared as a dancer in how many Elvis Presley musicals?

She later earned an Oscar nomination for Tootsie and played Roy Neary's wife in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Kenneth Mars, who played Inspector Kemp, had earlier played which character in Brooks's 1967 debut film?

He voiced King Triton in The Little Mermaid and Grandpa Longneck in The Land Before Time series.

Which of these did NOT feature Kenneth Strickfaden's electrical effects?

Young Frankenstein was his final work; he had been Hollywood's go-to electrical effects man since the 1931 Frankenstein.

In which year did the stage musical Young Frankenstein open on Broadway?

After Seattle tryouts it opened at the Hilton Theatre on November 8 to mixed reviews and closed after 485 performances.

How many performances did the Broadway musical run for before closing in January 2009?

Susan Stroman directed; a 2006 reading had featured Kristin Chenoweth as Elizabeth and Sutton Foster as Inga.

Which city hosted the musical's pre-Broadway tryout in August 2007?

It played the Paramount Theatre there before previews began in New York in October.

Which of Brooks's other 1974 films was he finishing when Wilder pitched Young Frankenstein?

Brooks won an Oscar for writing The Producers and is one of the few EGOT winners.

What was Mel Brooks's birth name?

He started as a writer on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows alongside Neil Simon and Carl Reiner.

What is Brooks's one brief on-screen appearance in Young Frankenstein?

He also recorded several voice parts, including animal sounds.

Only two scenes were shot on location. Frederick's opening lecture was filmed at which university?

Everything else was built on the 20th Century Fox and MGM backlots between February and May 1974.

In June 2025 a spin-off television series was announced at FX under what title?

Taika Waititi is set to direct the pilot, with Stefani Robinson writing.

Roughly how much did Young Frankenstein gross on its $2.78M budget?

Brooks had wanted at least $2.3 million from Columbia, which capped its offer at $1.75 million.

What does Igor's mispronunciation of 'Abnormal' become when he explains whose brain he stole?

The line even inspired a translated title for the film in some markets.

The 'Puttin' on the Ritz' number was one of only two location shoots. Where was it filmed?

The Santa Monica venue hosted the scene; everything else bar Frederick's opening lecture was shot on the Fox and MGM backlots.

Where does Young Frankenstein rank on the AFI's list of the 100 funniest American movies?

Total Film readers placed it 28th among the greatest comedies and Bravo ranked it 56th on its 100 Funniest Movies.

What compromise did cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld float when Fox balked at the monochrome plan?

Brooks refused to budge, and the monochrome look became one of the film's most celebrated choices.

Who made Mel Brooks staying off-screen a condition of making Young Frankenstein?

Wilder told Brooks he would do the film only if Brooks was not in it, saying he had a way of breaking the fourth wall.

A village official cites his 'previous experiences' of the Frankensteins. What is this a nod to?

Wilder said the parody drew chiefly on Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein and The Ghost of Frankenstein.

Which Will & Grace star was in the Broadway cast of the Young Frankenstein musical?

She appeared alongside Roger Bart, Sutton Foster and Shuler Hensley in a production nominated for three Tony Awards.

Which critic gave the film four stars and called it Brooks's 'most disciplined' comedy?

Canby of The New York Times was also enthusiastic, calling it Brooks's funniest and most cohesive comedy to date.