This Young Frankenstein trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers Mel Brooks's 1974 comedy from the coffee break on the set of Blazing Saddles where Gene Wilder pitched it, through the fight with Columbia over shooting in black-and-white, the original Kenneth Strickfaden lab equipment rescued from a garage, and every quotable beat - 'Fronkensteen', 'Eye-gore', 'What hump?', 'Abby Normal', 'Walk this way', the whinnying horses and 'Puttin' On the Ritz'. It also digs into the cast beyond the film - Wilder's Willy Wonka and Gilda Radner years, Peter Boyle's Everybody Loves Raymond, Marty Feldman's eyes and his death on the set of Yellowbeard, Madeline Kahn's Tony, Cloris Leachman's eight Emmys, Teri Garr's Elvis movies, Kenneth Mars's King Triton - plus the Aerosmith song the film inspired, the Oscar nominations, the National Film Registry, the 2007 Broadway musical and the FX prequel series in the works. About a third of the questions are easy warm-ups; the rest are for people who can hum the Transylvanian lullaby. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the primary sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was Young Frankenstein released?
1974
20th Century Fox put it out on December 15, the same year Brooks and Wilder made Blazing Saddles.
Q 02Whose idea was Young Frankenstein, pitched to Brooks over coffee on the set of his previous film?
Gene Wilder's
Brooks's first reaction was 'Not another! We've had the son of, the cousin of, the brother-in-law.'
Q 03How does Frederick insist his surname be pronounced?
'Fronkensteen'
He is a lecturing physician at an American medical school, desperate to distance himself from his mad-scientist grandfather Victor.
Q 04How does Igor say his own name is pronounced?
'Eye-gore'
His grandfather worked for the original Dr Frankenstein; Wilder wrote the role specifically for Marty Feldman.
Q 05What comic twist did Marty Feldman add to Igor without telling anyone?
Moving his hump from side to side
When Frederick finally asks about it, Igor replies 'What hump?'; it was Feldman's American film debut.
Q 06Sent to steal Hans Delbrück's brain, whose brain does Igor bring back instead?
One labelled 'Abnormal'
He drops Delbrück's brain and grabs the jar next to it, later explaining it belonged to 'Abby Normal'.
Q 07Which distinctive feature does police Inspector Kemp have?
A prosthetic arm and one eye
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.
Q 08Which song do Frederick and the Monster perform for an audience of prominent guests?
'Puttin' On the Ritz'
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.
Q 09Who wrote the 1929 song that Frederick and the Monster perform on stage?
Irving Berlin
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.
Q 10How do Frederick and Igor lure the escaped Monster back to the castle?
Playing violin and horn
In the closing shot Igor is still playing the horn on the roof while Frederick, now growling like the Monster, embraces Inga.
Q 11Why did Mel Brooks shoot the film entirely in black-and-white?
To evoke 1930s Universal horror
He also used 1930s-style credits, iris-outs and wipes; Columbia balked at the idea and lost the picture to Fox.
Q 12Which studio originally had a deal for the film but lost it over budget and the black-and-white plan?
Columbia Pictures
Cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld even proposed starting in black-and-white and switching to colour to placate nervous Fox executives.
Q 13The laboratory equipment in the film was the original apparatus built for which movie?
Frankenstein (1931)
Q 21Who played the Monster?
Peter Boyle
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.
Q 22How many Emmy nominations did the Monster's actor get for playing Frank Barone on Raymond?
Seven
He never won for that role, but did win an Emmy as Clyde Bruckman on The X-Files in 1996.
Q 23Marty Feldman's famously misaligned eyes were the result of which medical condition?
Graves' thyroid disease
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'.
Its creator Kenneth Strickfaden was storing it in his garage and agreed to lend it if he finally received a screen credit.
Q 14What condition did Kenneth Strickfaden place on lending his equipment?
A special screen credit
He had never been credited on the 1931 original; he ended up working on set regularly and building new pieces.
Q 15Teri Garr originally auditioned for which role before being cast as Inga?
Elizabeth
Brooks was already committed to Madeline Kahn as Elizabeth but was so impressed he offered Garr the lab assistant instead.
Q 16For which two Academy Awards was Young Frankenstein nominated?
Adapted Screenplay and Sound
Wilder and Brooks shared the screenplay nod; Wilder had earlier been nominated for acting in The Producers.
Q 17In which year was Young Frankenstein added to the National Film Registry?
2003
The Library of Congress deemed it 'culturally, historically or aesthetically significant'; Roger Ebert had given it four stars on release.
Q 18Igor's instruction to Frederick at the train station inspired which Aerosmith hit?
'Walk This Way'
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.
Q 19Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way' first appeared on which album?
Toys in the Attic
It reached number 10 in 1977 and number 4 when Run-DMC remade it with the band in 1986.
Q 20Which uncredited star plays the blind hermit who befriends the Monster?
Gene Hackman
The Monthly Film Bulletin, otherwise lukewarm, called the blind-man scene 'very close to brilliance'.
Q 24Marty Feldman died of a heart attack in 1982 while filming which movie in Mexico City?
Yellowbeard
He co-wrote the 'Four Yorkshiremen' sketch on At Last the 1948 Show, later made famous by Monty Python.
Q 25What was the birth name of the actor who played Frederick?
Jerome Silberman
He was born in Milwaukee in 1933; his first film role was as a hostage in Bonnie and Clyde.
Q 26For which film did Frederick's actor receive his only acting Oscar nomination?
The Producers
He was up for Best Supporting Actor as Leopold Bloom in 1967; his other nomination was for co-writing Young Frankenstein.
Q 27Frederick's actor's third wife, with whom he made three films, was which comedian?
Gilda Radner
After her 1989 death from ovarian cancer he co-founded Gilda's Club and a detection centre in her name.
Q 28Madeline Kahn won her Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for which 1993 comedy?
The Sisters Rosensweig
She earned Oscar nominations for Paper Moon and Blazing Saddles, both while working with Brooks and Bogdanovich.
Q 29Cloris Leachman, who played Frau Blücher, won her Oscar for which 1971 film?
The Last Picture Show
She won eight Emmys from 22 nominations, tied with Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the most acting Emmys ever.
Q 30How many Primetime Emmy Awards did Cloris Leachman win in her career?
Eight
She had competed in the 1946 Miss America pageant before studying with Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio.