Recent from Applause - Blazing Saddles Meets Young Frankenstein

Blazing Saddles Meets Young Frankenstein: The 50th Anniversary of the Year of Mel Brooks

Bruce G. Hallenbeck (Author)

Full details and ordering information at https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/blazing-saddles-meets-young-frankenstein-9781493078004/. 

Description

An in-depth look at the 1974 releases of Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein that will leave cinephiles enthralled.

1974 was a busy year for Mel Brooks. Although still recovering after a series of failed projects threatened his career, he pulled off a one-two punch that saw the release of two of the most beloved American comedies ever made: Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. Although both films are well-known, the stories beyond the making of each movie are less so. How did they come to be, and how did the era’s culture and politics not only permit them to be made, but help them to become enduring comedy classics?

With their riotous parodies of Westerns and classic horror movies, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein were not only hilarious. They played with charged social and cultural themes in an inimitable way, raising the bar for modern comedies even as they reshaped the two genres they were sending up. Blazing Saddles Meets Young Frankenstein: The 50th Anniversary of the Year of Mel Brooks explores in depth the zeitgeist and cinematic alchemy that led to 1974 becoming “the year of Mel Brooks.”

Product details

Published Nov 12 2024

Format Paperback

Edition 1st

Extent 272

ISBN 9781493078004

Imprint Applause

Illustrations 25 Color Photos

Dimensions 0 x 0 inches

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the Author

Bruce G. Hallenbeck is an author, actor, and screenwriter whose films include Vampyre, Fangs, and The Drowned. His many books on film history include The Hammer Frankenstein, Rock’n’Roll Monsters: The American International Story, and Poe Pictures. Hallenbeck has also acted in such features as Shadow Tracker, Edge of Reality, and Project D: Classified. He lives in upstate New York with his wife Rosa, two cats, and several ghosts.

Monster Force (1994)

Monster Force (1994) is a short-lived animated series from Universal. It sets the studio's famous monsters into the near future year of 2020, where a team of heroes, aided by Frankenstein's Monster, face off against a band of evil monsters lead by Dracula. Of note, the 2020 of Monster Force is a highly advanced era compared to our time, and the show is very much a science fiction series full of advanced technology.

The first seven episodes of the series were released on DVD back in 2009. Here's hoping for a full release next year (when we catch up to the show).

Young Frankenstein (1974)

Young Frankenstein (1974), from Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks, is simultaneously a brilliant homage to and send-up of the Universal Frankenstein films. It presents a continuation and recasting of the Frankenstein story that brings a descendant of Victor Frankenstein back to his ancestral home, where (as the musical adaption so matter-of-factly puts it) he joins the family business.