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This is Fresh Air. I'm David B. and Cooley.

In 1974, Mel Brooks directed in Co-wrote one of the greatest film genre

parodies in movie history. Actually, two of them. Blazing Saddles, his Western parody, came out in

February of that year, and in December, Young Frankenstein premiered, brilliantly lampooning and

celebrating horror movies in general

and James Wales 1930s Frankenstein movies in particular.

Because until December, it's still technically the 50th anniversary year of that monster movie comedy.

And because today is Halloween, we decided it would be a Halloween treat to devote today's

show to young Frankenstein. Before that film, writer-director Mel Brooks already had cast

Gene Wilder in two of his best comedies, the producers, and Blazing Saddles. While filming that

latter movie with Brooks, Gene Wilder started sketching on an idea

for a movie of his own. It was a comic version of Frankenstein and the bride of Frankenstein,

conceived to have him play the starring role as the grandson of mad scientist Victor Frankenstein.

Wilder asked Brooks to co-write and direct it, and they began work on it immediately.

Young Frankenstein was shot in black and white, and Brooks was so faithful to the pace and look of Wales' original films,

he even tracked down and used the original lab equipment from the Frankenstein movies.

He also assembled an astounding cast in

support of Gene Wilder. Two previous Oscar winners, Cloris Leachman and Gene Hackman, eagerly

accepted minor roles. And also in the cast were Peter Boyle, Madeline Con, Terry Gar, and Marty Feldman.

...