Young Frankenstein | 1974 | PG | – 5.3.4

Why is “Young Frankenstein” rated PG? The MPAA rating does not include content details. The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes several implied sex scenes, many cleavage revealing dresses, many scenes of expressions of love as well as sexual innuendo, references to male genitalia, and double entendres; several scenes with corpses and body parts, discussions of death and reanimation, a few accidental injuries, a few fights between a creature and authorities, and some yelling; and some strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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Classic comedy, a tribute to 1930s horror movies: The grandson of the infamous Dr. Frankenstein, the creator of the monstrous creature, is a talented neurosurgeon (Gene Wilder), who tries very hard to disavow his familial ties. However, when he inherits his grandfather’s Transylvania castle he’s intrigued and when he finds the original research into reanimating dead bodies he decides to rebuild the creature (Peter Boyle). Also with Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr, Kenneth Mars and Richard Haydn. Directed by Mel Brooks. A few lines of dialogue are spoken in German without translation. [Running Time: 1:46]

Young Frankenstein SEX/NUDITY 5

 – A woman wakes up in a cave and Frankenstein’s monster moves toward her, unfastens his pants and the woman reacts to the apparent size of his genitals as he lies on top of her and she starts singing joyfully (sex is implied); they both smoke cigarettes later. A man and a woman lie on a platform covered to the shoulders with a sheet (we see their bare shoulders) and they are both smoking cigarettes (sex is implied). Two couples climb in bed together and we hear the women joyfully singing (sex is implied).
► A woman kisses a man’s fingers and puts his hand on her bare cleavage. A man and a woman kiss and she tells him, “No tongues.” A woman kisses a man’s hand. A man speaks flirtatiously with a woman and snarls and bites the fur that she wears around her shoulders. A husband carries his wife over the threshold of their room after their wedding. A woman kisses the portrait of a man and says goodnight. A man falls on a woman and puts his face in her chest. A man leans toward a woman to kiss her and she pulls away, he tries to hug her and she recoils again, they touch elbows, and he throws a kiss toward her from a train and she dodges it.
► A woman wearing a low-cut nightgown sits on the side of a man’s bed when he has a nightmare. A wall frieze is shown of male human figures and we see bare chests and legs. A man lifts a woman out of a carriage and with her cleavage near his face, he says, “What knockers,” referring to the large knockers on nearby doors and she thinks he is talking about her bosom. A woman wearing a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage and lying in a hay-filled carriage asks a man if he wants a “roll in the hay,” as she rolls back and forth.
► A man standing close to a woman on a platform tells her to “elevate me,” and she thinks he is talking about sex. A man tells another man, “…if you need any help with the girls.” A woman talks to a creature about having 7 or 8 quick ones and then boasting and bragging to his friends. A reference is made to part of a man’s anatomy being large and a man says, “He will be very popular.”

Young Frankenstein VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 – A man is shown hanging from a rope with a bag over his head and then buried in a cemetery. A man stabs himself in the leg with a scalpel and pulls it back out (we hear a slurp and see no blood). A man stabs himself in the arm (it is wooden) with several darts, and then throws them at a board.
► A creature yells and breaks the chains that hold him in a cell; he picks a man up off the floor by the neck, shakes him and throws him and he then fights with police officers. A creature growls and moans, he gets off a lab table and tries to strangle a man (played for laughs) until he is injected with a sedative and he falls unconscious. A creature walks through a town and is captured in a large net, and then injected with a sedative as three people jump on top of him. A platform with a table and a creature on it is raised out of a laboratory and we hear and see lightning and thunder as a man yells maniacally; the creature on the platform smolders as it is lowered back into the lab and the man pounds on its chest trying to revive it, without effect. A creature gets stuck against an electrical generator and he roars and twitches briefly. A blind man pours hot soup on a creature’s lap twice and he roars in pain. A blind man lights a creature’s thumb instead of a cigar and the creature roars and breaks through a door to get away. A creature becomes angry and shoves a man and then fights with police until they subdue him and take him away. A creature moans when a match flame is put close to him. Many villagers with guns, pitchforks and torches yell, “Kill the monster” while marching in streets. A creature goes to a woman’s room and we hear a scream, and we then see the creature carrying the woman through a dark forest (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details). A creature climbs a thick vine on a tall wall.
► A man lies on a gurney in front of a lecture hall and the lecturer tells him to stand up, then lift his knee, the lecturer then pretends to knee him in the groin and calls him names and the man recoils; the lecturer puts a metal clamp on the back of the man’s head and pretends to hit him again but the man does not move or react (afterward he holds his crotch, seemingly in pain). Two men dig up a recently buried corpse and wheel the casket through streets at night; the cart dumps the casket onto the street at one point and the men are nearly caught by a police officer. Men use another man with a wooden arm as a battering ram to open a castle door.
► When they are stopped by a police officer on a dark street a man gestures with a corpse’s arm when it pops out of a coffin he is stealing. Several brains in jars are seen in a lab and a man drops one on the floor (we see it split in pieces among glass shards on the floor). We see several decaying heads in a laboratory. A coffin opens ad we see a decayed corpse inside with skeletal hands gripping a box that a man reaches in to retrieve. We see a human skeleton hanging from a frame in a lecture hall. A man is shown with a hump on his back that changes sides between scenes and he walks with a limp. A creature is shown with a zipper on his neck, a large scar on his head and heavy stitches on the side of his head. A man puts his glove-covered inanimate hand into a flame and the finger lights; he uses the flame to light a cigar.
► A little girl invites a creature to get on a seesaw with her and when he does, she is launched through the air and through her open bedroom window and she lands in her bed safely. A man is trapped between a bookcase and a wall as it spins around to reveal a secret passage. A man throws a suitcase into the back of a hay-filled carriage and we hear a woman yelp. A man throws a large switch and sparks spray. A man throws several darts and a couple break a window, we hear a cat screech and we see a few stuck in the tires of a car outside later.
► A man yells at a student in a lecture hall. People yell at each other in a few scenes. A man lectures in a lecture hall about the brain and draws a diagram of the brain and the brain stem as he discusses impulses. A man quizzes a professor about his grandfather having used freshly dead corpses from cemeteries for his experiments. A man and a woman argue on a train in a couple of scenes. A woman is frightened by thunder and lightning and grabs a man sitting next to her. A man has a nightmare and thrashes in bed. People talk about a creature being “better off dead.”
► Spider web-covered equipment is shown in a laboratory. Two men spit when they get dirt in their mouths. Horses rear and whiney several times and there are thunderclaps whenever a woman’s name is uttered.

Young Frankenstein LANGUAGE 4

 – 3 sexual references, 4 scatological terms (3 mild), 2 anatomical terms, 6 mild obscenities, name-calling (cuckoo, filthy rotten yellow, mother grabbing bastard, sick, lunatic brain, doo-doo, filthy slimy rat, crude, primitive, grotesque, insane, half-crazed), exclamations (keep your mouth shut), 1 religious profanity (GD), 6 religious exclamations (e.g. Good Lord, For the Love of God, Jesus Chris, For God’s Sake, Oh My God). | profanity glossary |

Young Frankenstein SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man drinks wine. A man smokes a pipe on a train, we see a cigar in an ashtray, a man smokes a cigar, a man lights a cigar and smokes it in a meeting, a creature and a woman smoke cigarettes, and a man and a woman smoke cigarettes.

Young Frankenstein DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Bringing back the dead, scientific experimentation, failure, success, hate, fear, Frankenstein, Charles Darwin, Transylvania, destiny, mortality.

Young Frankenstein MESSAGE

 – With enough absurdity and irreverence, laughter can come from any source.