STATS: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; 2 discs, 4 sides; CLV, side 4 in CAV; Widescreen (1.85:1); Digital Monaural; Chapter stops; Closed captioned; $89.98.
VIDEO: This new edition of Mel Brooks’ comedy classic 'Young Frankenstein' was mastered under the supervision of cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld. The gorgeous black & white images are deeper and richer, and the heightened contrast lends the film an eerie, otherworldly feel that Mel Brooks was going for; it’s a look and feel that pays homage to the classics 'Frankenstein' and 'Bride of Frankenstein' of the 1930s while being just bright enough to invoke the comic mood of this film. The picture has been letterboxed for its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Compared to the previous full-frame version, the letterboxing here restores just a smidgen of picture information to the sides and blocks out extraneous visual information at the top of the screen. The corresponding widescreen image is repositioned a bit higher on the screen and it’s balance is much more pleasing to the eye than the older version. The quality of the image is remarkable. The old version was awash in grain and the shades were all a bit too pale. Here, the blacks are truly black, the whites are luminous and the picture is grain-free. If you’ve only seen 'Young Frankenstein' on videocassette, you might be surprised at just how beautiful this film is to look at.
AUDIO: The film is presented in monaural. Even without the aid of stereo sound, the movie sounds great. Fox has cleaned up the soundtrack and the annoying "hiss" that was evident during the film’s quieter moments on the previous version has been eliminated.
SIDE BREAK: The film is presented on one disc, in CLV. The side break is well-timed, occurring just before the pivotal turning point in the plot. The second disc is devoted entirely to supplemental materials.
EXTRAS: This Special Edition of 'Young Frankenstein' offers a bounty of extras that will please devotees of the movie. Kicking things off, there’s a newly-produced, hour-long documentary/retrospective of the making of the film titled 'Making FrankenSense of ‘Young Frankenstein’'. Co-writer/director Mel Brooks, co-writer/star Gene Wilder, producer Michael Gruskoff, cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld and editors Stan Allen & Bill Gordean all show up in newly-filmed interviews and offer their reminiscences about making this comedy classic. Many of the supporting cast and some of the crew are now dead, but the absence of interviews with the likes of Peter Boyle, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, Teri Garr and even Gene Hackman makes this documentary less than it could have been. There are five trailers, a collection of TV and radio spots and a short segment of interviews with Marty Feldman, Gene Wilder and Cloris Leachman produced for Mexican television. During the movie, Mel Brooks narrates on an analog channel. He tells just enough about the making of the movie to heighten viewers’ appreciation for it, but the "mystique" of the film is preserved because he doesn’t reveal too much. Mostly, his narration has the appealing effect of watching the film with the comic director plopped right down on your sofa next to you. Additionally, John Morris’ haunting violin score is isolated with the film’s sound effects track on the second analog channel. The supplementary material also includes roughly 15 minutes of deleted scenes, a handful of bloopers, an extensive gallery of over 500 production photographs and, to demonstrate how 'Young Frankenstein' was dubbed in foreign countries, the "Transylvania Station" scene is presented again in English, Spanish, French and Japanese.
COMMENTS: If 'Blazing Saddles' represented the raunchy, manic Mel Brooks, then 'Young Frankenstein' is a more restrained and inspired Brooks. Brimming with terrific, dead-on performances by a perfectly-assembled, closely-knit cast and fueled by a witty, clever screenplay by Brooks and Gene Wilder, 'Young Frankenstein' celebrates Mary Shelley’s infamous story and reinvents it as a fall-down funny comedy. The mad-scientist/monster movie genre was ripe for lampooning, and the genius of "Young Frankenstein" is that the movie makes fun of the classic horror movies while still holding them dearly to heart. Mel Brooks obviously loves and admires this material and it shows—compare this brilliant comedy to his more recent misfires ('Robin Hood: Men in Tights' and the anemic 'Dracula: Dead and Loving It') and it’s clear just how much a filmmaker’s love and respect for the material and its characters translates onto the screen. Mel Brooks has traveled the filmic gamut from anything-goes lunacy ('The Producers', 'Blazing Saddles',) to inspired homages ('Silent Movie', 'High Anxiety'), to crude, juvenile toilet humor ('History of the World') to hit-or-miss spoofs ('Spaceballs') to stale sociopolitical satire ('Life Stinks'). In one of his self-promoted TV spots included on this disc Mel Brooks boasts that 'Young Frankenstein' is the greatest movie ever. It may not be as revered as a "Citizen Kane" or a "Casablanca," but in the pantheon of movie comedies, it’s right up there with the best. In the Brooks oeuvre, it’s certainly the director’s crowning achievement.
S. Damien Segal.
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