David Perlmutter on AutCasts

Mel Brooks is one of the most influential creative figures in my life, and this film is one of the reasons for that. He reminds us constantly here that comedy and tragedy are two sides of the same coin, and that it can take only a few changes in context, knowledge and empathy for the picture to change. We start by fearing the monster when he first appears, but we eventually come to appreciate what positive qualities he has... (Significantly, Brooks was the executive producer of the 1980 David Lynch film "The Elephant Man", dealing with the real-life case of John Merrick; a tragic counterbalance to "Frankenstein" 's comedy).