The best Mel Brooks film with the finest Gene Wilder performance is this near-flawless horror spoof that’s shot in velvety monochrome and pays loving homage to the original Universal monster movies of the 1930s.

In some ways it can now be considered not as satire or spoof, but a continuation of the Frankenstein genre, a connoisseur development or theme-variation not so far removed from the Hammer or Warhol riffs.

This black-and-white parody of the Karloff classic is the most cinematically assured, coherent and (relatively speaking) tasteful of Brooks's films.

As an homage to black and white gothic horror, and specifically the 1931 original, this film hits dead center on target. However, a resulting downside is that the pacing matches the slow and measured progression of its source material.