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HILLSBOROUGH CLASSIC FILM SOCIETY

Young Frankenstein Info

Some GREAT sites…

Stuff you might not know about the film:

https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/20_facts_you_might_not_know_about_young_frankenstein_012524/s1__37661038#slide_1

The film trailer:

https://youtu.be/sO8g8VmFf0M?si=bDfrOX4it1LN-ufG




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SOME HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
All taken from the Wikipedia article "Frankenstein (Film)"
* * * * *
FRANKENSTEIN (Universal, 1931) Boris Karloff as the Monster.
"In a village of the Bavarian Alps, Henry Frankenstein and his assistant Fritz, a hunchback, piece together a human body. Some of the parts are from freshly buried bodies, and some from the bodies of recently hanged criminals. In a laboratory he's built inside a watchtower, Henry desires to create a human, giving this body life through electrical devices. He still needs a brain for his creation. At a nearby school, Henry's former teacher Dr. Waldman shows his class the brain of an average human being and the corrupted brain of a criminal for comparison. Henry sends Fritz to steal the healthy brain from Waldman's class. Fritz accidentally damages it, and so brings Henry the corrupt brain.
Henry's fiancée Elizabeth speaks with their friend Victor about the scientist's peculiar actions and his seclusion. Elizabeth and Victor ask Waldman for help understanding Henry's behavior, and Waldman reveals he is aware Henry wishes to create life. Concerned for Henry, they arrive at the lab just as he makes his final preparations, the lifeless body on an operating table. As a storm rages, Henry invites Elizabeth and the others to watch. Henry and Fritz raise the operating table toward an opening at the top of the tower. The creature and Henry's equipment are exposed to the lightning storm and empowered, bringing the creature to life.
Frankenstein's Monster, despite its grotesque form, seems to be an innocent, childlike creation. Henry welcomes it into his laboratory and asks it to sit, which it does. He opens up the roof, causing the Monster to reach out towards the sunlight. Fritz enters with a flaming torch, which frightens the Monster. Its fright is mistaken by Henry and Waldman for an attempt to attack them, and it is chained in the dungeon, where Fritz antagonizes it with a torch.
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (Universal, 1935) Elsa Lanchester as both Mary Shelley and the Bride.
"Taking place immediately after the events of the earlier film, it is rooted in a subplot of the original Mary Shelley novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). Its plot follows a chastened Henry Frankenstein as he attempts to abandon his plans to create life, only to be tempted and finally blackmailed by his old mentor Dr. Pretorius, along with threats from the Monster, into constructing a mate for the Monster.
"The Monster saves a young shepherdess from drowning. Her screams upon seeing the Monster alert two hunters, who shoot and injure him. The hunters raise a mob that sets out in pursuit. Captured and trussed to a pole, the Monster is hauled to a dungeon and chained. Left alone, he breaks his chains, overpowers the guards, and escapes into the woods. That night, the Monster encounters an old blind hermit who thanks God for sending him a friend. He teaches the monster words like "friend" and "good" and shares a meal with him. Two lost hunters stumble upon the cottage and recognize the Monster. He attacks them and accidentally burns down the cottage as the hunters lead the hermit away


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Watch "From Orson Welles to Michael Fassbender: A Study of Macbeth's Soliloquy" on YouTube

​https://youtu.be/i3p2HnNicug
REVIEWS

​A 2024 review of the film in Slant included this evaluation: “Identifying and magnifying the skeletal nastiness of the text, Welles lays out the blueprint for future revisionist takes on Shakespeare’s works. Both Roman Polanski’s nihilistic rendition and Justin Kurzel’s arty 2015 update pull much from what Welles does here. Olivier may have brought out the fulsome color and hard-won optimism of his adaptations during wartime, but Welles plunges into darkness to reckon with an uncertain postwar world. Shot in less than four weeks, the film has a rugged, spartan nature to it, and though it may be one of the director’s minor achievements, that its enduring unpleasantness lends it a modernity that has yet to



​Review of Welles’ “Macbeth” from The Boulder Weekly, 2024, Michael Casey
https://boulderweekly.com/entertainment/screen/orson-welles-macbeth-colorado-shakespeare-festival/

Slant Magazine review, 2024, Cole and Wilkins:
https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/macbeth-blu-ray-review-orson-welles/

(This is the review that comes with the Olive (not Criterion)-re-release of the film
Jonathan Rosenbaum’s review:
https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2025/07/orson-welless-macbeths-tk/

The New Yorker, Richard Brody, 2015ç
https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/macbeth-10

Online discussion of the movie:
https://youtube.com/shorts/AhCeDebFt0M?si=RIdzpLwlqHT3cUGo





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