Gene Wilder Young Frankenstein Interview (1996)

[Music] to remember being nine years old and seeing all this equipment and uh electrical things going off all over in circles and bangs and and then i'm the doctor and it's all happening again [Music] a yellow legal pad and a blue felt pin and i wrote down on top young frankenstein i didn't know what it meant then and i went upstairs to just amuse for a little while and uh for maybe half an hour i i put down [Music] what i thought might happen to me if i were the great grandson of bullfort von frankenstein that's frankenstein and i asked myself then why did you say young frankenstein i think it was because i was influenced by young edison that i saw as a little boy why frankenstein because when i was a little boy i was scared to death of frankenstein movies the original one and bride of frankenstein i was influenced by a ghost of frankenstein and son of frankenstein and the little little bit of return of frankenstein but mostly the biggest one was the bride of frankenstein i knew it was fertile ground to do a satire but i also wanted to have it end my way and not the way it did in the movie and um i mean originally when i wrote it i had i had dr frankenstein being thrown off the precipice and the monster and my fiance getting together about three months later my new agent mike medevoy he said how about a film with you and marty feldman and peter boyle i said that's great what made you think of that he said because i now represent you and marty and peter i said well with a wonderful artistic basis like that it can't go wrong and i said actually i do have something that might be right he said send it to me i said um give me a little time i want to work on it and i took two days and i wrote out four pages the transylvania station scene where i meet marty is just about verbatim the way it is in the film now dr frankenstein two days later he calls up said terrific terrific maybe we can get mel brooks to direct this i said i don't think mel will direct anything that he didn't conceive of but if you can it would be wonderful the next day mel calls and says what are you getting me into i said nothing that you don't want to get into i don't know i don't know i don't know i was having lunch with uh an agent mike matavoy at the time and and he told me that he received a treatment from a client of his gene wilder on a spoof on frankenstein and he said would you like to see it i went up to his office i read it it was only like 12 pages and loved it we called gene we agreed on the type of movie that he was going to write and said he would like that mel brooks go write it he was preparing blazing saddles that hadn't come out yet so when they offered him young frankenstein and i would be doing the writing and he would supervise it was very tempting and he said yes and colombia had this thing that the budget was 2 million 250 000 and they said 1 million 750 000 and not a penny more and mel said to them on one historic day you guys are cracker jacks you're right down to the penny so i guess we have to compromise and you have to compromise so let's meet at 2 million well the budget came in and it was 2.3 and mel said i can't make it for any less than 2.3 and i said fine then let's look elsewhere colombia doesn't want to do it and i gave it to uh a friend of mine who had been stunning at 20th century fox allen jr and he said great we'll make this movie and so i shifted the project from columbia to fox mel and i met in my apartment in new york for about two hours and 45 minutes on this first day to do with young frankenstein and the first hour was spent with how to make the coffee what kind of coffee what to have with the coffee he had brought a bag of schnecken which figures prominently later on in young frankenstein in the script we talked about everything but the script and after we'd had our talk about all little nothings which was sort of mel's way of working to so slowly creep up on whatever you're gonna do that's important we started talking about the script from a to z wild things things that i knew in my heart weren't going to be in but to touch all the bases you know it was gene's eye then once he came up and worked with gene on the script he he took it over mel and uh it was a blessing because he's very funny he's very talented it allowed us to get the cash that we wanted it allowed us to get the extra money that we needed to pull this off his whole vision he taught me the greatest screenwriting lesson that i ever had which was that the first draft is just a concept and then you have to take a sledgehammer and just knock the pillars as hard as you can if they hold up you keep it in and if they start to crumble you have to rewrite because the structure is everything the blind man pours soup into the monster's soup bowl in the bride of frankenstein i thought it means to me wouldn't it be wonderful if he misses and hits the crotch sometimes in our conversation there was almost an equivalent for each thing that happens food good friend good it wasn't that we were doing a burlesque it wasn't the three stooges except the soup came close to that but it was still in control and then the cigars and the thumb being lit don't inhale until the tip glows it was really a parody of that beautiful scene in the bride of frankenstein i thought it would be a wonderful theatrical experience for the audience to see the monster in me dancing as a test of how far i had as dr frankenstein brought the monster along towards sophistication i thought mel would burst into tears when he read it especially irving berlin and tophat and tales and he says are you crazy what kind of a conceit is this the audacity you're going to have all of our work go down the drain with singing and dancing and putting on a show like we're doing some musical i was close to rage and tears i argued the ins and outs of why it was not a conceit but it was valid i had turned from red to purple and right in mid-sentence mel says okay it's in and i didn't know if he was joking or not and i said what do you mean he says it's in what why did you put me through this thing and he said i wasn't sure if it was right brilliant and right or terribly wrong i didn't know and i wanted to see how hard you'd fight for it and i knew if you fought hard enough it was right and you did so it's in and it was never mentioned again i saw it as a possibility for some really great comedy casting gene had already had the idea of peter boyle for the monster marty feldman for igor and madeleine kahn and mel directing since i had liked his previous films i thought that we had the potential to make a very funny movie madeleine didn't want to play the lab assistant she wanted to play the fiance i thought she must be nuts because i thought the lab assistant was a much better part well it was until madeleine put her own stamp on my fiance would you want me like this now so soon before our wedding so near we can almost touch it then terry garr walked in and read with a german accent the lab assistant and then that became really a major part i thought it was a good part but i didn't know it was going to be such a good part in other words his veins his feet his hands his organs would all have to be increased in size exactly he would have an enormous schwannstucker the monster was great on paper but we didn't know if it would work till peter came in i don't know how many people have seen peter in real life but he is so childlike so innocent you know he doesn't say words for about an hour and 25-30 minutes but he started doing catching butterflies that was his idea to catch butterflies it brought the part to life i think that this cast was blessed in a way i don't say blessed by god but blessed by something because everyone found themselves frau blooker was a good part of crazy lady but when cloris leachman brought the reality to it she was tutti frutti i am paul blucher i wanted the audience to know that even though they don't know why yet the horses know that this is a terrifying woman and god knows what she does to them when no one's watching marty was just the sweetest man he was just a lovely cooperative funny talented comedy genius what he brought was his interpretation of those old frankenstein dracula monster movies and his interpretation of igor no it's pronounced igor but they told me it was igor well they were wrong then weren't they for me he is probably the heart and soul of the film i'll be someone abby someone abby who happy normal the bizarre world that we all entered into when we walked onto that set was epitomized by marty feldman now gene hackman asked me privately because i knew him is there some little part that i could play he meant like the second officer or something you know just to walk through say a line and go out i said uh well i'll talk to mel we'll see we were in pre-production then i talked to him about it we both agreed that there was only one part and that was the blind man you see how heaven plans me a poor blind man and you you uh a mute an incredibly big mute gene hackman's name came up you heard people say oh i knew it was gene hackman or i didn't know who it was it was uh to me that was a real surprise that people did not realize who it was during during the show and then afterwards they got a big laugh on the roll-up knowing who it was heightened that bit kenny mars brought an insanity to inspector kemp that had to be um listened to adjusted to as far as the script was concerned my thought was that it should begin in black and white to replicate the original young original frankenstein but that we could segue into color when it became the modern day or the young frankenstein doing it in black and white was a big thing because no studios around that time were making films in black and white in fact we were pressured to make it in color because they said they wouldn't buy black and white films in europe 20th century fox who was releasing the picture weren't very happy about it they wanted a shot in color because they were thinking of the sale to television and mel was very adamant about the fact that if they're going to do it in color he wasn't going to direct it but we stuck by our guns and we said no this is how we want to make it this is the vision behind the film and they said okay go go ahead as i viewed the dailies though the first couple of weeks i realized that mel was really right there was a quality of the black and white that really supported the story and he was 100 correct in doing it mel and gene both had me look at the original frankenstein and the bride of frankenstein and i was going to replicate this look for them and that's what i started to do until after about the first week and a half mel took the after daily he said stay a minute i want to talk to you and he said you know what did you think of the dailies i said well i thought they would look pretty fine i said they're one or two shots that maybe could have been printed a little darker he said well it's not what we want at all and i i was shocked and i was wondering what what are you saying he said we want to satirize that look we really want it to to be more than the original and i said well you never told me that and fortunately gene was there gene wilder was there and he said mel you know he's right we never spoke to him but we wanted to do more we wanted to satirize a look he said he's replicating the look but we want it we want it to be more so so i told him i said well i'll we were doing night photography then i said i'll try several things tonight and see if you like it better and i did several things and the dailies would come up and the first scene comes on he's ah that's more like it and then another couple came out and i changed things a little bit oh that's even better and finally we came to an understanding the other thing i did was to have the lab process the film in a specific way that supported the look that i wanted and this was a problem because at this particular point in time the labs hadn't done any black and white films for some time six or eight years i remember going along with the mel on the scouting trip and we went to strict fans garage and all the equipment was sitting on there from the original frankenstein i just looked at this in awe and wonder and amazement and uh he came on the set whenever we were doing the lab he was there all the time and not only did he bring his old equipment and keep it running properly but he was designing new things at the same time you know i had a lot of sense memories from having seen it in the original films when i was a kid and i wondered what would happen when i was actually playing with it as the doctor and to see it in the lab it was hard not to smile dale hennessy put up beautiful sets with some of the most beautiful sets i ever worked on in the best of worlds the production designer is a part of the script if they can bring the script to life but it was as if he was writing doing his part in writing the script because some of the scenes were actually better because of his concept of what it looked like it was a mammoth set when you walked in the ceilings were like 30 feet high it was just huge and everything was solid we shot it on the lot at fox we for the exteriors we used the backlot of mgm and for transylvania station and a number of other scenes the bedrooms were fantastic the you know the revolving bookcases hand me that candle will you put the candle back and what jerry hirschfeld did in the lighting of dale hennessey's sets was a adding it was like another writer working on it oh my dearest love i'll count the hours that you're away oh darling not on the lips walking down that staircase after having found the secret passageway it was pretty simple just spraying cobwebs all over the place but the way it was lit and i i had a candle with a light in it shining for my face in terry's face and it was spooky the little room the library the the secret library finding um the notebooks of victor frankenstein such strange goings-on 10 designers would have of course done it 10 different ways but this designer dale hennessy and this director photography jerry hirschfeld it is we're completely in tune with what the script was about which was not how can we make fun but how can we make it real which will make it more fun [Music] when mel would just pull lightly on the reins for madeleine or me or cloris if he wasn't getting what he wanted he would start tugging and marty didn't respond well to the tugging i don't mean that there was anger or fights or anything like that but as soon as the rains were loosened marty would respond like anyone with freedom now that means that maybe he would go off half cocked in the wrong direction but the next take he'd go off full cocked in the right direction i'll never forget my old dad when these things would happen to him the things he'd say to me what did he say what the hell are you doing in the bathroom day and night why did you get out of there give someone else a chance we knew we were getting what we wanted we were getting beyond what we wanted because after every take it'd be laughter and you know it would be it was just gelling you know it's when you work with an ensemble cast like that and the gels you know it's it's marvelous i think this was mel's most brilliant day but madeline khan arrives my fiance mel improvised this on the spot and marty says okay you take the blonde i'll take the one in the toy bin how it came to toybin i don't know you take the blonde i'll take the one in the toy bin and mel told him to bite the head of the fox fur that she was wearing stop that it took i would say conservatively eight or nine takes because every time he bit the fur there was always fur left in his mouth and we couldn't not laugh i tried i tried after the first or second i said well what do you expect but the third fourth fifth sixth uh igor would you give me a hand with these bags certainly you take the blonde and i'll take the one in the tubing [Music] stop that monster may i go in [Music] we finally did as i say either the eighth or ninth and i i held it it took great moral strength i held on i held on it looked as if maybe i was holding back some kind of anger at him but it really was holding back the quivering mouth from not wanting to laugh we all laughed we all left and marty was so funny doing it let me smell your breath i had a problem with my camera operator it wasn't a bad problem it was a good problem and the problem was that there was so much hilarity i mean what was going on was so funny that he would uh he'd sit on the camera and he he'd start laughing and in laughing he would shake the camera well look you haven't even touched your food there now i've touched it [Laughter] if you're going to laugh do it on the rehearsals but please when we're shooting the picture don't laugh you're jiggling the camera thank you heavens it was a great ensemble piece no problem whatsoever they were all laughing their way through this film it was terry's like first real film it's terrible the price society demands in the name of fidelity isn't it i mean what is fidelity after all not fooling around cloris you know provided lots of laughter for us all follow me please [Laughter] cloris was straight as an arrow which made it so funny but as soon as the take was over she'd burst into laughter because she knew it was so funny what what she was doing oh does that include the key to the laboratory you means a laboratory there was no problem on this movie at all it was the only problem was i had to stay out you know away from the set because i was laughing too much during the filming of the piece now listen to me very carefully i stopped production a couple of times not to leave because it was hilarious the interaction amongst the group ah doctor see is that strange music again it seems to have stopped the big fellow in his tracks that music yes that quaint all right i tried hard not to laugh they're up on the roof and the the lightning is flashing in the sky and this this big electrode is arcing to the body and they cut to a close-up of the head and a lot of people have wondered well but they know that it wasn't peter boyle because the head begins to glow we begin to see the teeth of the skeleton he said how was that created it was a model had been made of peter boyle's head and bill tuttle who was the makeup artist and created the whole design for the monster had replicated his head in plastic and inside he had by some magic put rows of teeth and a little brain tissue and whatnot and a light and we just brought that light up on a dimmer and the head would glow and we take it down it would un-glow and it was pulsing in other words and it was a it was a highlight of the creation we would do is assemble a reel he would go around and invite all his secretaries from the lot to come down to the theater and run it he'd go around a lot and say can you come to a movie can you come and see see see a reel or two and listen to the the laughs and and rework the real he really pioneered that because he didn't want studio executives exactly he wanted people that as close to being off the street as he could on short-term notice i would see things in the first screening that i didn't think mel would want in the final but he's the director and i'd say i'd say he said i know i know but let me try it out again to see if the audience and we'd have a second screening with secretaries and butchers and bakers and candlestick makers to see what the reaction was editors went to previews they really people went out and sat in the audience and felt the audience more so than the day where people go through psychologists come in and give people forms and this is what people wrote down so this is what it means that uh you really learned how to feel an audience and if they're getting bored in the story you look 10 minutes prior to that not right where they're getting bored before the wrap party he fought with the the heads of studios and everything and he had every cast member and everybody walk out of this they were shooting up upstairs and come down we're going to end the movie with it he said he had to have that shot grand titles for end titles i don't think it ever went in the show anyway but he got that and and uh i don't know what it was but i know it was a big fight but he went out and that's how they all walked down we started the wrap party from there well we had some previews so we knew that people really liked the film there's no doubt in our mind that people liked it but you never know you know until the day the film opens if the public is going to come to see it see mel brooks young frankenstein starring gene wilder as the doctor peter boyle is the monster marty feldman is the hunchback cloris leitchman is the lady with a cigar kenneth mars is the inspector terry garr is the woman madeleine khan is the other person young frankenstein containing such classic cinematic moments as young frankenstein rated pg we opened it up around christmas time in 74 and there were a lot of very big movies and so the competition was going to be really really tough and there we were you know doing business like blazing saddles which was also a big hit so because of those two films mel became a major player in town and prior to blading saddles he couldn't get arrested for three years i think it's the best thing mel did as a filmmaker not just as a comedian or or comedy i i think it's a total film i think the thing that makes frankenstein live as a concept mary shelley's frankenstein a creature this formed who has love in his heart wants to be loved and is misunderstood is a classic theme people have tried it in in other ways but it's always worked best i think in the the frankenstein frame and even though we were doing a comedy a ridiculous comedy that classic theme is still there and i think that's why it lives [Music] you

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Keywords: gene wilder, gene wilder 1996 interview, gene wilder frankenstein, igor young frankenstein, madeline kahn young frankenstein, making of young frankenstein, marty feldman young frankenstein, mel brooks, young frankenstein, young frankenstein 1974, young frankenstein documentary, young frankenstein feature, young frankenstein film, young frankenstein gene wilder, young frankenstein interview, young frankenstein making of, young frankenstein movie, young frankenstein teri garr

Id: lwgKbjZPNaU

Length: 31min 3sec (1863 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 09 2022