Young Frankenstein (1974)

Total Film
"...With sterling support from Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman and the superb Marty Feldman..." 09/01/2000 p.102

Sight and Sound
"...[With] some inspired comic performances from Peter Boyle and Gene Wilder..." 12/01/2000 p.63

Uncut
"[Brooks'] funniest movie. Gene Wilder as Frankenstein's grandson is all repressed hysteria, Marty Feldman a superbly deformed Igor..." 02/01/2006 p.105

Movie Magazine International 8 of 10
"Undoubtedly the funniest movie ever made. You won't be able to look at O. P. Heggie & Boris Karloff in 1935's ""Bride Of Frankenstein"" without shrieking from the side-splitting memory of Gene Hackman & Peter Boyle's hilarious satire of the Blind Man & the Monster. Mel Brooks lovingly recreates the look & feel of Universal's ""Frankenstein"" films of the 1930's, but with the addition of the wickedly funny Oscar-nominated screenplay he dreamed up with Gene Wilder." - Monica Sullivan
 
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
The moment, when it comes, has the inevitability of comic genius. Young Victor Frankenstein, grandson of the count who started it all, returns by rail to his ancestral home. As the train pulls into the station, he spots a kid on the platform, lowers the window, and asks: "Pardon me, boy; is this the Transylvania station?" It is, and director Mel Brooks is home with "Young Frankenstein," his most disciplined and visually inventive film (it also happens to be very funny). Victor is a professor in a New York medical school, trying to live down the family name and giving hilarious demonstrations of the difference between voluntary and involuntary reflexes. He stabs himself in the process, dismisses the class, and is visited by an ancient family retainer with his grandfather's will...In his two best comedies, before this, "The Producers" and "Blazing Saddles," Brooks revealed a rare comic anarchy. His movies weren't just funny, they were aggressive and subversive, making us laugh even when we really should have been offended..."Young Frankenstein" is as funny as we expect a Mel Brooks comedy to be, but it's more than that: It shows artistic growth and a more sure-handed control of the material by a director who once seemed willing to do literally anything for a laugh. It's more confident and less breathless...That's partly because the very genre he's satirizing gives him a strong narrative he can play against. Brooks's targets are James Whale's "Frankenstein" (1931) and "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), the first the most influential and the second probably the best of the 1930s Hollywood horror movies...From its opening title (which manages to satirize "Frankenstein" and "Citizen Kane" at the same time) to its closing, uh, refrain, "Young Frankenstein" is not only a Mel Brooks movie but also a loving commentary on our love-hate affairs with monsters. - Roger Ebert
 
Apollo Movie Guide 9 of 10
"I'd rather be remembered for my own small contributions to science and not because of my accidental relationship to a famous... cuckoo." So says the young Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder), a physician and educator who is not proud of his famous grandfather -- Dr. Victor Frankenstein -- the guy who dug up dead bodies and assembled their parts to create Frankenstein's monster...Before long, this brilliantly realized satire is sending up pretty much every Frankenstein movie ever made. Director Mel Brooks has constructed a well-paced comedy that delivers laughs from start to finish. It's a great mix of physical humour, punnery and playful takeoffs of scenes from old films. Too add to the effect, it's filmed in black and white...Wilder spends at least half the movie shouting desperately, but it's not the least bit irritating. He's funny and delivers a well-thought-out performance that involves a lot more skill and restraint than it might first seem...When the monster makes his appearance, he too is funny. Peter Boyle plays the big guy as a loveable, goofy creation who sits still while hot soup is poured in his lap, but can't handle so much as a glimpse at a lighted match. The rest of the supporting cast is also very good, particularly Feldman, Garr and Kenneth Mars, who plays Inspector Kemp, who's reminiscent of a melange of Peter Sellers' characters in another great comedy, Dr. Strangelove...Clearly, Brooks and Wilder (who co-wrote the script) have a soft spot for old monster movies. And the comedy here is refreshingly restrained. Sure, it's silly, but there's little call for bathroom humour, excessive violence or other staples of more recent comedies...Granted, Young Frankenstein probably would have worked even better if ten minutes or so had been trimmed from its 106-minute length, but this is a minor quibble with a classic comedy...Mary Shelley might not have been amused, but we sure are. - Brian Webster