The career of Mel Brooks is much like that of Woody Allen in that both of them did their best stuff in their earlier years when their films were just plain funny. After a few films, Allen's got too introspective and artsy and Brooks' became so juvenile and cheap that both "geniuses" became intolerable to watch to many past fans.

Young Frankenstein is one of Brooks' earliest films and like THE PRODUCERS (his first and best),it is so hilariously funny that I don't mind seeing them again and again. So why did I like YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, exactly? Well, the acting was superb. I particularly loved Gene Wilder (particularly during his speech while holding a scalpel) and his sidekick, Marty Feldman,...though Cloris Leachman was also terrific as Frau Blücher. And while the film lacked the subtlety and grace of THE PRODUCERS, it was silly and dopey but still restrained compared to later Brooks films. Plus, it had a lovely black & white look that really was a wonderful homage to the Universal monsters of the 1930s.

I know this will ruffle a lot of feathers, but his equally famous BLAZING SADDLES was, for me, the beginning of the end of Brooks' genius. While SADDLES had many wonderful moments, there was absolutely no restraint and the end degenerated into a horrific and stupid mess. Like Jerry Lewis, after a while his films were practically unwatchable, as there was no one on-hand to say "enough" or "perhaps you might want to make this scene a little more subtle" or "doing a comedy about homeless people just can't work".

I am fond of Mel Brooks' films, and for me Young Frankenstein is my favourite of his and also one of my absolute favourites of the genre. It is wonderfully loopy and an ingenious send-up of universal horror clichés. Young Frankenstein is wonderfully shot in a sumptuous black and white, while the costumes, sets and make-up are wonderfully kooky. The story is fun too, while the script is hilariously quotable and Mel Brooks' direction is great. What gives Young Frankenstein real staying power is the marvellously done Puttin' on the Ritz musical number, the brain depository(outrageous to the point of being hilarious),the scene with Igor behind the book-shelves when they were looking the skulls(the facial expression and the breaking into song kills me every time),the old dad speech(then he just starts eating again),the hermit setting the monster's thumb on fire and the performances, with Gene Wilder giving one of his best performances as the infamous baron's grandson, and Peter Boyle almost stealing the show as the monster. The supporting performances are also a delight, Madeline Kahn's bride, Gene Hackman's blind hermit and Marty Feldman's hunchbacked Igor are very memorable. Overall, hysterically funny and kooky. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Mel Brooks set his comic genius to satirizing the horror film genre by taking one of the classic Universal horror characters, the monster created by Baron Von Frankenstein. Young Frankenstein brings the saga of the monster saga into the first half of the 20th Century. After several generations of experimentation with the origin of life, do you think that in Young Frankenstein the current scientist has finally got it right?

Well to find out you'll have to see Young Frankenstein and Gene Wilder's take on the mad scientist, the current 20th century version of that most misunderstood family of geniuses. Fascinating though that some of the same mistakes were made in bringing the monster played by Peter Boyle to life. Didn't they watch any of the old films?

However when physical science fails, psychology takes over as Wilder just thinks it might be a problem of soothing his fevered brain. The monster is also given a sex life in Young Frankenstein as Cloris Leachman finds certain attributes most attractive. In the end though an operation on that electrically charged table seems to solve both Boyle's and Wilder's problems.

Funniest scene in the film is when Wilder decides to take his show on the road after teaching him a few human type tricks. Puttin' On The Ritz was never done better on screen than that song and dance duo of Wilder and Boyle. It all comes to no good though when Mel Brooks borrows from King Kong to turn the event into a disaster.

Kenneth Mars does a marvelous imitation of the maimed Lionel Atwill from Son Of Frankenstein, borrowing a little from his Nazi playwright from The Producers. Listen closely and some of the best lines are thrown away by Marty Feldman as the hunchbacked assistant Ygor, pronounced EyeGor in this film. Teri Garr has some good moments as Wilder's Valley Girl type assistant Inga and Gene Hackman in his one scene as The Blind Man is hilarious.

Fans of the zany humor of Mel Brooks should not let Young Frankenstein get by.