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The modernist's relation to classicism is a complicated one, the overture's lustrous surfaces yield to the decrepit cadaver still clutching the treasure box. Family business will not be denied, the New York neurologist (Gene Wilder) has changed his name to avoid connection to a certain "famous cuckoo," off to Transylvania he goes. Marty Feldman as Igor might be Groucho reincarnated as Anthony Newley, Cloris Leachman's equine-spooking housekeeper formidably caricatures Hitchcock's Mrs. Danvers. The body of a criminal with the brain of a "scientist and saint" is the experiment, the re-animated hulk instead gets gray matter from one "Abby Normal" and runs amok, with Peter Boyle's puckish-poignant eyes rolling in the stitched dome. "For what you are about to see, we must enter, quietly, into the realm of genius." In his closest approximation of a polished film, Mel Brooks dismantles the showbiz monster elegantly, con amore. (He has the subterranean laboratory from Whale's original on display, plus cultivated recreations of Mitteleuropa's misty woods and cobblestone corners.) The centerpiece is the Creature's brush with the blind hermit starved for companion, with Gene Hackman luxuriating in the slapstick of wandering soup ladles and thumbs lit like cigars. "Where are you going? I was going to make expresso." The local inspector (Kenneth Mars) wears a monocle over his eye-patch, his Dr. Strangelove arm makes for a handy battering ram. Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers is the model for formal smoothness and lowdown laughter, though the "Puttin' on the Ritz" soft-shoe is pure Brooks, a "balance and coordination" showcase that spirals into King Kong tumult. Prissy fiancée (Madeline Kahn) and devoted assistant (Teri Garr) make anatomical discoveries of their own, "oh sweet mystery of life..." Reiner is a friendly rival (The Man with Two Brains), Lynch a prodigy student (The Elephant Man). With Richard Haydn, Danny Goldman, and Liam Dunn. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |