ON THE SET OF YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN

The "Young Frankenstein" cast re-created a scene for staff photographer Marianna Diamos. Director Mel Brooks, right, looks on as, from left, Teri Garr, Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman work on the monster, Peter Boyle.

Writer Wayne Warga reported in the April 14, 1974, Los Angeles Times:

The castle looms dark and foreboding, a dead tree in a courtyard leading to outside doors with huge knockers. The kind of place where people must come to die. Frankenstein's place. And this time the devout wish is that we'll all die laughing. It's Mel Brooks' version of Frankenstein's place.

It's impossible to tell how many versions of this classic tale have been made around the world, but certainly this must be the first one in which the monster has a zipper in his neck.

The $350,000 castle, on Stage 4 at 20th Century-Fox, is an inspiration of the macabre, while the goings-on of its inhabitants are inspiringly silly.

Brooks is shooting the film in black and white and is using cinematic techniques prominent in the late 1920s and the early 1930s. "It's not satire, it's a salute," he says. "It says, 'Mel Brooks Presents Young Frankenstein' so the audience will, of course, know the comedy will go an inch or two further than one usually expects. But you can't keep winking because it diminishes the melodrama. The melodrama has to be there."

Brooks at work is intense, serious and determined — in startling contrast to the inspired silliness of his films. Gene Wilder plays Frankenstein and, along with Brooks, is the co-author of the screenplay.

"Gene walked in one day and said he wanted to do a picture called 'Young Frankenstein,' Brooks recalls. "I told him he was crazy. A week later we were writing it." …

"Young Frankenstein" became a smash hit. It’s now highly ranked on many best comedy film lists.

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PHOTOS OF THE DAY: FACES OF THE FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER

During this Halloween season, I wanted to take a look at one of my favorite horror story characters and that is Frankenstein's Monster. Since 1931, he has been played on the screen numerous times, but here are some photos of the famous actors playing the unfortunate monster...

BORIS KARLOFF (1887-1969)

GLENN STRANGE (1899-1973)

BELA LUGOSI (1882-1956)

CHRISTOPHER LEE (1922-2015)

PETER BOYLE (1935-2006)

ROBERT DE NIRO (BORN 1943)

RIP: GENE WILDER

From the mania of Victor Frankenstein to Willy Wonka’s subtle lunacy, Gene Wilder — who died Sunday in Stamford, Connecticut from complications from Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 83, his nephew told the Associated Press — lit up the funniest movies of the 1970s with an irresistible neurotic charm. But off-screen, Wilder’s life was no comedy: The actor was battered by tragedy, including a difficult childhood and the untimely death of his third wife, comedian Gilda Radner, of cancer in 1989.

Born Jerry Silberman in Milwaukee in 1933, Wilder grew up entertaining his sickly mother in the hope that laughter would prevent her death. He began his showbiz career on stage, where he met Mel Brooks while costarring in a Broadway production of Bertolt Brecht’sMother Courage and Her Children with Brooks’ wife, Anne Bancroft. The two became fast friends, and Wilder’s professional partnership with Brooks over the next decade would become the stuff of legend. Their first collaboration, The Producers (1968), garnered an Oscar nomination for Wilder, while 1974’s one-two of Blazing Saddles andYoung Frankenstein (which Wilder co-wrote) established them as the brightest comedy team in the business.

“I started writing about what I would like to see [Frankenstein stories] become,” Wilder told Robert Osborne about the genesis of Young Frankenstein in a rare interview in 2013. “I wanted to make it a happy ending.”

In the meantime, Wilder found his calling-card role, the eponymous candy czar of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971). Over 40 years later, Wilder estimated that he still got five letters a day asking for him to sign his photograph. “It’s all because they saw Willy Wonka,” he told Osborne. “Sometimes it’s someone who’s 12 years old, sometimes it’s 21 years old, sometimes it’s 34 years old. But they want to have it signed.”

Around the same time, Wilder gave an unforgettably wry performance as a doctor who falls in love with a sheep in Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex *But Were Afraid to Ask (1971). Still, the actor’s biggest commercial success came with a string of madcap comedies with comic Richard Pryor — including Silver Streak(1976), Stir Crazy (1980), and See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) — that made Wilder the most bankable star in Hollywood.

Wilder was already twice married when he met Saturday Night Live veteran Radner on the set of 1982’s Hanky Panky. The pair wed in 1984, just five years before Radner’s death, of ovarian cancer, in 1989. “She was always funny, and she loved doing what she was doing,” Wilder told Osborne, recalling how Radner teased him for never having seen any of her “Roseanne Rosannadanna” sketches, then made him watch them all. “And I saw those films, and she was wonderful,” Wilder said. “And then she got sick.”

The tragedy turned the actor — who was himself diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1999 — into an activist, inspiring him to co-found the cancer outreach network Gilda’s Club. Wilder still worked sporadically after Radner’s death, notably in his own NBC sitcom Something Wilder (1994–95) and an Emmy-winning guest spot as Will Truman’s off-kilter boss on Will & Grace in 2003. In recent years, Wilder shifted his focus from performing to writing, producing a memoir (2005’s Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art), a book of stories, and three novels.

While Wilder will be remembered as one of the funniest actors Hollywood ever knew, he insisted otherwise. “When people see me in a movie, and if it’s funny, they stop and say things to be about ‘how funny you are,’” he told Osborne, saying that was the biggest misconception people have about him. “I don’t think I’m that funny. I think I can be, in the movies.”
The movies will miss him... 

MY FIVE FAVORITE FILMS OF THE 1970S

Picking my five favorite films of the 1970s was harder for me than I thought. I never realized how many high quality movies were made in that disco decade. One thing I do know is my favorite film of all time was made in that decade. Here are my five favorite movies of the 1970s, and I have to pick at least five honorable mentions…

5. THE JERK (1979)
This uproarious comedy made Steve Martin a star. Directed by Carl Reiner, the film was written by Steve Martin, Carl Gottlieb and Michael Elias. This was Steve Martin's first starring role in a feature film. The film also features Bernadette Peters, M. Emmet Walsh and Jackie Mason. In the film Martin plays Navin Johnson. He was abandoned as a child and raised by a sympathetic black family. Now grown Navin does not realize that he is white and not black. He longs to find his way in the world so he sets off to find his “special purpose”. Look for Carl Reiner in a small role playing “Carl Reiner the actor” The movie is simple and Martin’s character is idiotic, but I find myself laughing my way through the movie each time I see it.


4. STAR WARS (1977)
The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year intervals. In my opinion, the second movie of the franchise, The Empire Strikes Back, was the best movie in the serious. However, this first movie set the stage for one of the most popular movie series in cinema history. The events depicted in Star Wars media take place in a fictional galaxy. Many species of alien creatures (often humanoid) are depicted. Robotic droids are also commonplace and are generally built to serve their owners. Space travel is common, and many planets in the galaxy are members of a Galactic Republic, later reorganized as the Galactic Empire. I am not a science fiction fan, but this series was one of the biggest things during my childhood. I long for those days.

3. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974)
The comedy scene in the 1970s belonged to Mel Brooks. Hollywood never truly saw the type of movies Brooks directed until he came along. The film stars Gene Wilder as the descendent of Dr. Frankenstein who uncovers his family scientific secrets. Peter Boyle is very underrated as the Monster. The cast is made in cinema heaven and included: Marty Feldman (perfect as Igor), Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, and Gene Hackman (in a scene stealing cameo). The film is an affectionate parody of the classical horror film genre, in particular the various film adaptations of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein produced by Universal in the 1930s. Most of the lab equipment used as props were created by Kenneth Strickfaden for the 1931 film Frankenstein. To further reflect the atmosphere of the earlier films, Brooks shot the picture entirely in black-and-white, a rarity in the 1970s, and employed 1930s-style opening credits and scene transitions such as iris outs, wipes, and fades to black. The film also features a notable period score by Brooks' longtime composer John Morris. Young Frankenstein is easily one of my favorite comedies of all time.


2. THE GODFATHER PART II (1974)
This film sequel is one of those rare sequels, where the second movie surpasses the original film in popularity and quality. The movie is a 1974 American crime epic that Francis Ford Coppola produced, directed, and co-wrote with Mario Puzo, starring Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, and Robert De Niro. Partially based on Puzo's 1969 novel, The Godfather, the film is in part both a sequel and a prequel to The Godfather, presenting two parallel dramas. The main storyline, following the events of the first film, centers on Michael Corleone (Pacino), the new Don of the Corleone crime family, trying to hold his business ventures together from 1958 to 1959; the other is a series of flashbacks following his father, Vito Corleone (De Niro), from his childhood in Sicily in 1901 to his founding of the Corleone family in New York City. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and the first sequel to win for Best Picture, its six Oscars included Best Director for Coppola, Best Supporting Actor for De Niro and Best Adapted Screenplay for Coppola and Puzo. Pacino won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. It deserved every award it received.

1. JAWS (1975)
I personally have to name Jaws as my favorite movie of the 1970s. It is also my favorite movie of all-time. Many people are surprised that this would be an all time favorite movie, but I have converted a few non believers to appreciate and realize what a great movie this is. Jaws is a 1975 American horror/thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. The prototypical summer blockbuster, its release is regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history. In the story, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, prompting the local police chief to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter. The film stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as oceanographer Matt Hooper, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, Murray Hamilton as the mayor of Amity Island, and Lorraine Gary as Brody's wife, Ellen. The screenplay is credited to both Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography. I could write a book just on this movie, even though I have seen the film at least 70 times, I still find tidbits that I miss…


Of course, I had to pick some honorable mentions – and all the films on this list deserve to be on the top list. Some truly remarkable and great films were made in the 1970s: The Godfather (1972), Blazing Saddles (1974), The Towering Inferno (1974), One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), and Network (1976).