Night 31 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

Well, my lovely ghouls, we have made it to the end of the Film Fest. Hope you had fun reminiscing about some favorites and maybe found a few new ones. While watching these movies I couldn't help but think about...

What have we learned from watching horror films?

1. Only the skinny survive! If you can't fit through small openings you will never escape.

2. If you leave your window/doors unlocked or open then you should not be surprised when the killer appears in your house.

3. If you hear something outside at night don't go out and offer yourself up to it.

4. Never trust the local sheriff, gas attendants, doctor, etc. They are part of it!

5. Hit him again.

6. Don't sit with your back to the killer with your eyes shut thinking "It all OK now". It's not. You only hit him once and now he's standing up.

7. After the third time #6 happens...learn from it!

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This is the last night to get your comments posted for the pendant giveaway. You can go back and leave a comment on any of the past movies. Since I've had so many wonderful people playing along I've decided to pick 2 winners! Winners will be posted later on Sunday. Good luck and have fun.

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Night 31...."Young Frankenstein"

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Directed by Mel Brooks (The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Dracula: Dead and Loving It) and released on December 15, 1974 by Twentieth Century Fox. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein inherits his grandfathers castle and all it's possessions. Despite his resistance to his grandfather's ideas he quickly changes his mind when he stumbles upon some hidden journals in his grandfather's secret library. With the help of his assistants Igor (Marty Feldman) and Inga (Terri Garr) Dr. Frankenstein will attempt to bring his grandfather's dream to life.

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This is the best of the best. The comedy is so silly it's stupid but at the same time it's really rather brilliant. Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder are at their finest here and it's a treat to watch them. The sets and atmosphere are beautiful and Peter Boyle is such fun as the monster. This is a yearly Halloween staple at my house and I can't wait to watch it tonight!

Madeline Kahn is great as Elizabeth/The Bride of Frankenstein. The best quote of hers...

"Oh. Where you going?... Oh, you men are all alike. Seven or eight quick ones and then you're out with the boys to boast and brag. You better keep your mouth shut. Oh... I think I love him."

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Some trivia about the movie...

1. The film was shot with many of the same props and lab equipment as the original Frankenstein (1931).

2. The howling wolf sound on the ride to the castle was made by director Mel Brooks.

3. The idea of Frederick's dart hitting a cat was ad-libbed on set. When Gene Wilder threw his dart off camera, director Mel Brooks quickly screamed like a cat to create the illusion.

4. The scene in which the creature contemplates throwing the little girl into the lake ("No more flowers. What shall we throw in now?"), is a homage to a scene in Frankenstein (1931). That scene was cut and not restored to the original until its video release 50 years later.

5. Gene Wilder conceived the "Puttin' on the Ritz" scene, while Mel Brooks was resistant to it, feeling it detracted from the fidelity to Universal horror films in the rest of the film. It was only when he saw it with a howling audience that Brooks was confident about the sequence.

6. Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle and Marty Feldman appear together in this film by virtue of the fact that their mutual agent had a deal with the movie studio.

7. The shifting hump on Igor's back was an ad-libbed gag of Marty Feldman's. He had surreptitiously been shifting the hump back and forth for several days when cast members finally noticed. It was then added to the script.

8. Rock band Aerosmith took a break from a long night of recording to see "Young Frankenstein" in 1974. Steven Tyler wrote the band's hit "Walk This Way" the morning after seeing the movie, inspired by Marty Feldman's first scene, the "walk this way... this way" scene.

9. When Mel Brooks was preparing "Young Frankenstein," he found that Ken Strickfaden, who had made the elaborate electrical machinery for the lab sequences in the Universal Frankenstein films, was still alive in the Los Angeles area. He visited Strickfaden and found that Strickfaden had saved all the equipment and had it stored in his garage. Brooks made a deal to rent the equipment for his film and gave Strickfaden the screen credit he'd deserved, but hadn't gotten, for the original films.

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Rules for pendant giveaway...

(1) comment about a movie per movie.

(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).

(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/1wOVZb -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.

(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.

Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.