Young Frankenstein: 12 Behind the Scenes Stories of How Mel Brooks’ Monster Hit Came Alive

Mel Brooks’ Initial Payment for Young Frankenstein Was $57

Mel Brooks added in his memoir that when he asked Wilder his dream for the movie, Wilder replied, “My dream is for you to write it with me and direct the movie,” to which Brooks replied, “You got any money on you?” Brooks said Wilder told him, “I have fifty-seven dollars.”

Brooks wrote that he then replied: “‘It’s a beginning …. I’ll take it as a down payment on writing Young Frankenstein with you. If I like what we’ve done, I’ll direct it.” And if this sounds like a Mel Brooks routine, Brooks insisted in the book: “This is true.”

The two began working at the script at Wilder’s bungalow at the Hotel Bel-Air after their daily work on Blazing Saddles was done, “over Earl Gray tea and English digestive biscuits,” according to Brooks, and did rewrite after rewrite on each scene “until we were more or less satisfied.”

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