Young Frankenstein, arguably Mel Brooks best film, had a terrific cast, headed by Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman and Kenneth Mars; Gene Hackman was cast in a memorable cameo role.
Brooks’ voice can be heard as the cat sound when Gene Wilder accidentally throws a dart out the window in a scene with Kenneth Mars.
Frequent collaborator composer John Morris again provided the music score.
Universal Monsters film special effects veteran Kenneth Strickfaden worked on the film.
Young Frankenstein was the third-highest-grossing film domestically of 1974, just behind Blazing Saddles. It earned $86 million.
The movie received two Oscar nominations, for Writing Adapted Screenplay and for Best Sound.
More importantly, the movie earned some of the best reviews of Brooks’s career. The New Yorker critic Pauline Kael liked the film: “Brooks makes a leap up as a director because, although the comedy doesn’t build, he carries the story through…Brooks even has a satisfying windup, which makes this just about the only comedy of recent years that doesn’t collapse.”