Young Frankenstein

If this movie consisted only of the short scene with Peter Boyle and Gene Hackman, it would still be one of the best comedies ever. If it only had the scene where Gene Wilder calmly asks Marty Feldman about whose brain was in the Monster, it would still have some of the best comedic writing and acting ever. But it doesn’t just have those. It also has Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, and Kenneth Mars turning in finely tuned performances. It lovingly plays with previous Frankenstein films. It cleverly exaggerates 1930s/40s horror filmic styles. And it has an overload of joke styles: stupid, clever, obvious, subtle, broad, nuanced—sure, a few don’t land (and a couple might be somewhat problematic), but none of them are mean and the hit rate is very, very high. Classic.