Young Frankenstein: 12 Tales of Mel Brooks' Iconic Film Coming to Life

      The Mel Brooks classic Young Frankenstein celebrates its 50th anniversary this month. Here are 12 anecdotes about how it came to life…. alive!

      Young Frankenstein Was Inspired by Blazing Saddles

      Cleavon Little (L) and Gene Wilder in Blazing Saddles. Warner Bros.

      Brooks, who celebrated his 98th birthday in June, first connected with Wilder in 1963 when Wilder acted in a play alongside Brooks' future wife, Anne Bancroft. He later cast Wilder in his 1967 film The Producers.

      While collaborating on the 1974 film Blazing Saddles, Brooks became intrigued by a story Wilder was developing. Brooks has shared slightly varied accounts of this moment, but in his delightful 2020 memoir, All About Me!, he wrote:

      “One day on the Western town set of Blazing Saddles, during our lunch break, I saw Gene Wilder leaning against the sheriff's office, jotting something down on a pad resting on his knees. I asked, ‘Gene, how about lunch?’ He replied, ‘In a minute, I have to finish my thought.’ … He showed me the pad, and at the top, he had written ‘Young Frankenstein.’

      Wilder explained that it was a movie concept “about Baron Frankenstein’s grandson. He’s a rigid scientist who doesn’t believe in bringing the dead back to life. Despite being a true scientist, he is just as crazy as any Frankenstein.”

      Mel Brooks’ Initial Payment for Young Frankenstein Was $57

      Mel Brooks (L) and Gene Wilder review a scene in a publicity image for Young Frankenstein. 20th Century Fox – Credit: C/O

      In his memoir, Mel Brooks noted that when he inquired about Wilder’s aspirations for the movie, Wilder responded, “My dream is for you to co-write and direct it,” to which Brooks asked, “You got any money on you?” Wilder then said, “I have fifty-seven dollars.”

      Brooks recounted his reply: “‘It’s a start .... I’ll take it as a down payment for collaborating on Young Frankenstein. If I like what we create, I’ll direct it.” And if this sounds like a typical Mel Brooks skit, Brooks insisted in the book: “This is true.”

      The two began crafting the script at Wilder’s bungalow in the Hotel Bel-Air after their daily filming of Blazing Saddles, “over Earl Grey tea and English digestive biscuits,” as according to Brooks, and they worked on each scene through multiple rewrites “until we were more or less satisfied.”

      Black and White Was a Dealbreaker for Mel Brooks

      Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Gene Wilder, and Teri Garr in a publicity still for Young Frankenstein. 20th Century Fox – Credit: C/O

      Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder firmly believed that the film should replicate the aesthetic of James Whale’s iconic black-and-white films from the 1930s, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, which called for filming in black and white.

      Once the script was complete, Wilder and Brooks approached Columbia Pictures with the intention of selling the film. (“Blazing Saddles hadn’t been released yet, so I hadn’t yet established myself as a hit-making producer,” Brooks wrote in his memoir.) The studio agreed to a budget of $1.75 million. However, as they were leaving the meeting, Brooks informed the studio executives, “oh, by the way, we’re going to film it in black and white.”

      Columbia suggested a compromise, as Brooks recounted: They could film in color for international release but switch to black and white domestically. “I said no, because I knew they would find a way to release it in color anyway,” Brooks wrote.

      Consequently, Columbia withdrew from the deal.

      Young Frankenstein Paved the Way for Star Wars

      Star Wars. 20th Century Fox – Credit: C/O

      On the same day, producer Mike Gruskoff recommended showing the script to Alan Ladd Jr. (also known as Laddie), who had recently joined Twentieth Century Fox’s leadership team. Ladd was enthusiastic about it, supported the black-and-white vision, and approved a budget of $2.4 million.

      Ladd’s promotion to president of Fox’s film division in 1976, as Brooks noted, was largely due to the impressive $86 million box-office performance of Young Frankenstein, which significantly exceeded its budget.

      Brooks wrote that this success allowed Ladd “to greenlight over three hundred films throughout his remarkable career, including High Anxiety (1977), Star Wars (1977), Alien (1977), Blade Runner (1982), A Fish Called Wanda (1988), and Thelma and Louise (1991).”

      Marty Feldman Came Up With ‘the Funniest Retort in the Movie’

      Marty Feldman as Igor in a publicity still for Young Frankenstein. 20th Century Fox – Credit: C/O