Young Frankenstein Trivia
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This Young Frankenstein trivia quiz has 48 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 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Whose 1818 novel inspired Young Frankenstein?
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley began the novel in 1816, after Lord Byron challenged his guests near Geneva to each write a ghost story; it was published on 1 January 1818.
Q 02In Young Frankenstein, what happens whenever someone says Frau Blücher's name?
Horses whinny
Horses whinny in panic at every mention of her. A long-lived rumour, perhaps started by Mel Brooks himself, says Blücher is German for glue; it is not.
Q 03How does Frederick insist his surname be pronounced?
'Fronkensteen'
Frederick insists on 'Fronkensteen': a lecturer at an American medical school, he is desperate to distance himself from his infamous grandfather's work.
Q 04How does Igor say his own name is pronounced?
'Eye-gore'
Igor insists it is 'Eye-gore', answering Frederick's own fussy pronunciation in kind; Marty Feldman played him as the grandson of the original Frankenstein's assistant.
Q 05What comic twist did Marty Feldman add to his Igor?
Moving his hump from side to side
Moving his hump from side to side was reportedly Feldman's own addition; on screen, when Frederick offers to help with it, Igor just asks, 'What hump?'
Q 06Sent to steal Hans Delbrück's brain, whose brain does Igor bring back instead?
One labelled 'Abnormal'
Igor drops Delbrück's brain and grabs one labelled 'Abnormal' from the jar beside it; the mix-up is why the Monster wakes violent and confused.
Q 07Which distinctive feature does police Inspector Kemp have?
A prosthetic arm and one eye
A prosthetic arm and one eye mark Inspector Kemp, along with a monocle; Kenneth Mars gave him a German accent so thick that the village elders make him repeat 'vootstaps' until they hear 'footsteps'.
Q 08Which song do Frederick and the Monster perform for an audience of prominent guests?
'Puttin' On the Ritz'
'Puttin' On the Ritz' is the number Frederick and the Monster perform in top hat and tails; Wilder fought to keep the scene after Brooks doubted it would work.
Q 09Who wrote the 1929 song that Frederick and the Monster perform on stage?
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin wrote it in 1927 and published it in 1929. Wilder wanted the routine to prove the Monster could do more than move mechanically; Brooks called it silly, shot it anyway and judged it the best thing in the film.
Q 10How do Frederick and Igor lure the escaped Monster back to the castle?
Playing violin and horn
Playing violin and horn works because music soothes the Monster: Frau Blücher had already revealed his love of the violin, and the family lullaby draws him close enough to be recaptured.
Q 11Why did Mel Brooks shoot Young Frankenstein entirely in black-and-white?
To evoke 1930s Universal horror
To evoke 1930s Universal horror, Brooks held out for black-and-white even though the studio feared it would hurt television and European sales.
Q 12In Young Frankenstein, what sends the newly awakened Monster into a strangling rage?
A lit match
A lit match does it: Igor strikes one and the terrified Monster throttles Frederick until he is sedated. The blind hermit later has to coax him with 'Fire is good.'
Q 13The laboratory equipment in Young Frankenstein was the original apparatus built for which movie?
Frankenstein (1931)
Q 21Marty Feldman's famously misaligned eyes were the result of which medical condition?
Graves' thyroid disease
Graves' thyroid disease made Marty Feldman's eyes bulge and drift apart, and a car crash and surgery reportedly exaggerated the look; the part of Igor was written specially for him.
Q 22Marty Feldman died of a heart attack in 1982 while filming which movie in Mexico City?
Yellowbeard
Yellowbeard, a pirate comedy that reunited him with Madeline Kahn, was Feldman's last film; his scenes were all but finished when he died in Mexico City, aged 48.
Q 23What was the birth name of the actor who played Frederick in Young Frankenstein?
Jerome Silberman
The props were Kenneth Strickfaden's original electrical apparatus from Frankenstein (1931), which he had kept in storage in his garage for four decades.
Q 14What did Kenneth Strickfaden get in return for lending Young Frankenstein his old laboratory equipment?
A special screen credit
A special screen credit in the opening titles thanked Strickfaden; hired only as a consultant, he ended up reassembling the machines from his garage and working a full schedule.
Q 15For which two Academy Awards was Young Frankenstein nominated?
Adapted Screenplay and Sound
Young Frankenstein was nominated for Adapted Screenplay and Sound: Wilder and Brooks shared the screenplay nod, but the film lost both at the 1975 ceremony.
Q 16Igor's instruction to Frederick at the train station inspired which Aerosmith hit?
'Walk This Way'
'Walk This Way' got its title after Aerosmith, stuck for lyrics during a 1975 recording session, took a break to see Young Frankenstein and came back quoting Igor's line.
Q 17Who played Inga, Frederick's lab assistant?
Teri Garr
Teri Garr played Inga after first auditioning for the fiancée, Elizabeth; Brooks wanted Madeline Kahn for that part but liked Garr's audition enough to offer her the lab assistant instead.
Q 18Which star makes a cameo as the blind hermit who befriends the Monster in Young Frankenstein?
Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman played Harold, the lonely blind hermit whose hospitality nearly finishes off his guest: he ladles hot soup into the Monster's lap and smashes his wine mug in a toast.
Q 19Who played the Monster in Young Frankenstein?
Peter Boyle
Peter Boyle played the Monster and met his future wife doing it: Loraine Alterman came to the set as a Rolling Stone reporter, and they married in 1977.
Q 20The Monster's actor later played grumbling Frank Barone on which sitcom?
Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond made him an Emmy nominee year after year as the crusty Frank, yet he was the only one of its leads never to win for the show.
Jerome Silberman of Milwaukee built his stage name from two writers: Gene from the hero of Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel, and Wilder from the playwright Thornton Wilder.
Q 24For which film did Frederick's actor receive his only acting Oscar nomination?
The Producers
The Producers made him an Oscar nominee as the hysterical accountant Leo Bloom, a part Brooks had promised him years earlier after they met through Anne Bancroft, his co-star in a 1963 Broadway play.
Q 25Frederick's actor's third wife, with whom he made three films, was which comedian?
Gilda Radner
Gilda Radner married him in 1984 and co-starred in Hanky Panky, The Woman in Red and Haunted Honeymoon; after her 1989 death from ovarian cancer he co-founded Gilda's Club.
Q 26Young Frankenstein's leading man made his 1975 directing debut with a comedy set in which detective's world?
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes' insanely jealous brother Sigerson was the part he wrote for himself, and he brought Madeline Kahn and Marty Feldman along from the Frankenstein cast.
Q 27Cloris Leachman, who played Frau Blücher, won her Oscar for which 1971 film?
The Last Picture Show
The Last Picture Show won Leachman the supporting-actress Oscar for a part far from her comic roles, an embittered small-town housewife she played again in the 1990 sequel Texasville.
Q 28Cloris Leachman's Phyllis won Emmys on which sitcom?
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show brought her two Emmys as the self-absorbed Phyllis Lindstrom, and the role led in 1975 to a sitcom of her own, Phyllis, which won her a Golden Globe.
Q 29What does Frau Blücher reveal about her relationship with Victor Frankenstein?
She was his lover
Frau Blücher confesses she was his lover, bellowing 'He vas my boyfriend!', which explains why she guards Victor's memory and leads Frederick to his hidden laboratory.
Q 30Kenneth Mars, who played Inspector Kemp, had earlier played which character in Mel Brooks's debut film?
Franz Liebkind
Franz Liebkind, the deranged Nazi playwright who insists the Führer was a terrific dancer, was the first of Mars's two thick-accented Germans for Brooks; Inspector Kemp was the second.