I love...Young Frankenstein. 

What is, to me, the crowning creative achievement between Brooks and Wilder's interminable
and ornate careers; I struggle to imagine a grander or more playful expression of love
for both Mary Shelly's timeless work and the brilliant adaptations that James Whale once wrought
from it. From its opening crawl to its closing seconds, it is without a shadow of a doubt the
most visually striking and tenderly constructed comedy that I've...ever seen. Its brilliantly intimidating set pieces, many of them originals constructed by the legendary Kenneth Strickfaden for Whale's 1931 "Frankenstein", along with Brooks' careful use of iris outs, wipe transitions, slow-fades and low key lighting - breathes a shade of life into Young Frankenstein that renders it  uncanny to the titanic monster horrors of Universal's past - ones with names like The Mummy, The Invisible Man, and The Black Cat. And - although it is a beautifully shot film, its greatest use of framing can be found in Gene Wilder...himself. His performance as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein is a masterfully executed waltz between dazzling, screen-dominating dramatics and immeasurable refinement and subtlety, allowing not  him but his
supporting cast to deliver on nearly every comedy noise and dramatic beat throughout the film.
The mispronunciations of his name, his continuous disbelief with Igor, the rapid-fire misunderstandings between him and Inga, and even his presentation of The Monster - are all bits that - although dependent on him to exist in the first place - are nontheless carried by every other character on the screen. As much as it is Wilder's film, it is seldom Wilder's frame -  and - as a testament to his  indomitable command of script and screen, he allows even the horses to deliver the punchlines that he sets up. Brooks and Wilder's mutual love of Broadway has never been so unmistakable as it is in Young Frankenstein's careful comedic timing, every step foward and every call-back placed as diligently as a bass note in the climactic musical number of a play.
Teri Garr and Marty Feldman are a perfectly balanced comedic duo whose charisma and quickness are nearly impossible to match, Madeline Kahn's short stretch of screen time is her at her most exquisite and animated, and Peter Boyle's performance as The Monster is nothing short of superb; his eyes alone enough to elevate us to childish laughter with his joy and devastate us to tears with his pain. If La La Land should be crowned as the paramount love song to the many musicals of Hollywood's golden past, then Young Frankenstein is elatedly stood beside it; a gleaming epitaph to the grandest feats and ghastliest monstrosities
that cinema has ever seen - and to the modern Prometheus - with the deepest of loves, from two of the most
abnormal brains to ever film a horse being knocked out before a pie fight.

It's...electrifying - and I love it.
Thanks Mel.