Blucher! [insert whinny here] Walk this way over to the Transylvania station (pardon me boy, is this the Transylvania station) where they’re just giving away copies of Young Frankenstein on Blu-ray. Perhaps you’ll stay for a roll in the hay, but Fox is Puttin’ on the Ritz as it releases the film to Blu-ray with some great new features.
Frederick Fronkensteen (Gene Wilder) isn’t particularly proud of his heritage. You see his last name really isn’t Fronkensteen he just pronounces it that way to avoid talking about his family heritage, the Frankenstein’s [insert thunderclap here].
A lawyer arrives to inform Frederick that he’s inherited the Frankenstein estate in Transylvania. He bids his chilly finance Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) goodbye and heads for the old country. When he arrives he’s met by Igor (Marty Feldman) and his hot new lab assistant Inga (Teri Garr) at the train station.
He arrives at the foreboding castle, and the creepy housekeeper Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman) [insert whinny here] shows Frederick to his room. When he inquires where his grandfather’s private library is, Blucher says she doesn’t know anything about it. Later in the evening Frederick hears violin music emanating from behind one of the bookcases.
With the help of Inga he discovers a secret passage behind a bookcase and they encounter Igor (it’s pronounced Eye-gor) in the passage. The passage leads to the infamous Frankenstein lab and Frederick finds his grandfather’s diary on how he brought the dead back to life.
The inspired Frederick thinks that he can make the process work and he and Igor gather the bits necessary for revivication, including an enormous schwanstucker. Because of Igor’s bumbling the creature (Peter Boyle) is given an abnormal brain and soon Inspector Kemp (Kenneth Mars) and the torch carrying villagers are storming the castle again.
I always want to pop one of them in after watching Young Frankenstein, preferably House of Frankenstein – more monsters bang for the buck.
It almost didn’t happen though as both Brooks and Wilder made a pact that the film was to be shot in glorious black and white. Columbia Pictures scoffed at the idea of no color, Brooks’ budget proposal, and passed on the project.
Luckily Alan Ladd, Jr. (aka Laddie) had just been named the head of Twentieth Century Fox and said that Fox would do whatever it took to make the film. Grain haters will not be impressed with this release, but I noticed some definition in some of the sets that I don’t recall noticing in the DVD release.
Mel Brooks has a funny bit about Blu-ray in some of the new interview footage. This new release features something old, something new, something borrowed, and something Blu.
Young Frankenstein is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1). Special features include the Mel Brooks commentary from the previous DVD. New special features include a picture-in-picture set of interviews that if you’ve got a BonusView enabled player you can watch it during the movie, if not Fox has included links to each segment so you can still get them - a nice touch from Fox.
The film also has an isolated score and a new pop-up trivia track. A new high definition 31 minute documentary “It’s Alive: Creating a Monster Classic” has some new interviews with Brooks, Garr, and Leachman, and also some thoughts from the cast members of the new Broadway musical version amongst others. Some hilarious footage in the new documentary is a clip of a scene from the movie in Spanish! El Blucher! [whinny]
You get the same 16 minutes of deleted scenes from the older DVD in standard definition, but this Blu-ray adds some 25 minutes more of deleted and extended scenes in high definition. The 42 minute “Making Frankensense of Young Frankenstein” documentary (in standard definition) is also from the previous release. There are 5 minutes of outtakes in standard definition.
A new high definition featurette called “Transylvanian Lullaby” runs 10 minutes and pays tribute to composter John Morris. Another new addition is the Blucher button that has a horse whinny when you press it; I was expecting a bit more from it.
You also get the Blu-ray “Brain Game.” The following are in standard definition and come from the old release: 6 minutes of interviews for Mexican television with Feldman, Leachman, and Wilder, 3 minutes of TV Spots, 7 minutes of trailers, and production photos.
He vas my boyfriend! Well, not really but I do love Young Frankenstein (but not in THAT way). The Blu-ray looks good, but don’t go expecting to be blown away by the picture.
However, it still reminded me of those wonderful, classic Universal Frankenstein flicks so I assume that delicious grain is on purpose. What is fantastic is the new special features. Gene Wilder and Ken Mars are noticeably absent, but there’s still some fantastic stuff to be found. My name is Frankenstein!
Young Frankenstein [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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