CIFF Celebrates Halloween with “Young Frankenstein”

Ready for a break from the ever-constant and, oh so brutal election-year vitriol? Well, CIFF has a welcome treat for us all with a screening of the 1974 comedy horror spoof, Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein,” on Wed., October 30, at Coronado’s Village Theatre, 820 Orange Avenue.

Presented by Coronado Island Film Festival as part of the popular monthly Classic Film Series, doors open at 5 pm for a Meet and Greet with complimentary libations, followed by a vintage cartoon and the feature presentation at 5:30. Tickets are $15 and are available at coronadofilmfest.com.

Halloween costumes are encouraged.

The film, a parody of the classic horror films of the 1930s and ’40s, is directed by Brooks and written by Brooks and his friend and frequent collaborator, Gene Wilder, who plays the title character. Also starring are Peter Boyle as the monster, Terry Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn, and Gene Hackman, in a hilarious turn as the Blind Hermit.

Cloris Leachman is her usual fearless self as the intimidating housekeeper Frau Blücher. Those who attended the CIFF Leonard Maltin Celebrity Tribute Award Gala at the Del in 2019 will never forget her as she accepted that year’s Legacy Award, bringing down the house by climbing onto a stunned Leonard Maltin’s lap! That may have been one of her last public appearances before her death in 2021 at age 94.

At Brooks’ insistence (and a firm stand with the studio, who wanted color), “Young Frankenstein” is shot entirely in black and white for vintage authenticity. To make his point, he changed studios from Columbia to 20th Century Fox.

This is a cast of very funny people who obviously “got” Brooks’ brand of comic genius and had great fun working together. Many of the lines are ad-libbed (and left in) and scenes regularly required extra takes because the cast and crew repeatedly cracked up.

Mel Brooks, still active at age 98, considers this the best film he ever directed. It so happens this is the second Brooks film CIFF has screened in this year’s Classic Series (remember “Blazing Saddles” in June?), deemed appropriate because both movies were released in the same year (1974), fifty years ago.

Tickets are available at coronadofilmfest.com. And, while you’re at it, CIFF 2024 badges and individual tickets are now available for our 9th annual festival, Wed. Nov. 6 – Sun. Nov. 10.