Review of Young Frankenstein: Special Edition

Introduction

I`ve always been a fan of both Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder and I`ve loved this film ever since I first saw it. Gene plays a great Frankenstein (I`m sorry I mean Fronkensteen) and the whole things is funny fron start to finish. Marty Feldman as Igor is excellent and Peter Boyle as the monster that wants to be loved.....

Video

The original was filmed in black and white for atmospheric reasons I suspect and it works well. This special edition has been digitally remastered and it shows in both good and bad ways. On the one hand the dust and scratches have been significantly reduced and the shades are nicely reproduced, everything is crisp and easy to look at. On the other hand, there`s obvious speckling on the lighter parts of the print - the labcoats for example which are a result of the digitisation.
Not terribly intrusive but there all the same.

Audio

The audio is faultless for what it is, no surround or anything but it`s in stereo and it works. Voices come across well which is important as there are numerous vocal gags! The music is atmospheric and funny, adding to the humour when needed.

Features

This is why it`s a special edition as a lot of work has gone into the feature list. The menu itself is static but easily navigated. As well as the main feature, we get a great commentary by Mel Brooks himself in classic Brooks style and the usual trailers and tv spots.

The deleted scenes are quite intersting varying from funny (The street violinist) to terrible (most of the others). The bloopers are pretty humourous and entertaining but the funniest extra has to be the Mexican interviews.

These have been conducted in jumbled and confused Mexican and English and have to be seen to be believed!

The `making of` has been specially commissioned and is a nice insight (combined with the commentary) into making films in the early 70`s

Conclusion

A sterling job with an old print combined with a lot of well thought out extra features has made for a really good dvd and they haven`t even slapped on a premium (Paramount take note).

If you are a fan of Mel Brooks commedies (or commedies in general - this isn`t as slapstick as Men in Tights or Spaceballs) they this is well worth adding to your collection.