Turkey Legs

Hello everyone, welcome to my first “blog” concerning all things pertaining to the production of my short film – Turkey Legs. I will post once or twice a month on various topics such as: films that inspired the writing of the screenplay, articles on the film making process, any art or character designs that are developed, so on. It’s not homework, just sharing, read whatever you want or have time for, I know everyone is busy. Please excuse any misspelling or grammatical errors, it’s not my strongpoint. At least you know I did not use A.(bloody)I. to write this. I do think this will be a useful resource to really understand what the origins of this film are and what I am trying to create. And at some point I do have to create a monster, which brings me to the subject of my first blog.

Turkey Legs ( or Atomic Leprechaun Is The Best Wine In The Known Universe ) is a Horror/Comedy short film concept, inspired by classic Horror/Comedies of the past like Young Frankenstein. Most people my age have seen this film, some multiple times, because this film is, beyond a shadow of a doubt…a Classic. If you have not seen this film, and you like comedies, you must see this movie.

Young Frankenstein (1974) was directed by Mel Brooks, written by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder. It starred Gene Wilder as Dr. Frankenstein, Peter Boyle as the Monster, Teri Garr as the beautiful lab assistant and the one and only Marty Feldman as Igor.

Quentin Tarantino has publicly stated that he considers Young Frankenstein to be a perfect movie.

There is a documentary on Netflix called Remembering Gene Wilder, it has some wonderful insights into the making of Young Frankenstein. There is a part in the documentary where Mel Brooks relates how he knew the film was going to be a success. They had a hard time getting scenes done, because the crew kept bursting out laughing during filming. He said, he actually went out and bought 100 white handkerchiefs and gave them out to the crew. And he knew when a scene was working when during filming, he would look back at the crew and there would be a sea of white handkerchiefs held over people’s faces.

Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein is a spoof of the Universal Pictures 1931 horror classic Frankenstein. Brooks wanted to stay as true to the original as possible, filming in black and white, something the studio was not happy about, and even using equipment from the original 1931 film. They pretty much copied some scenes exactly like the original, except Brooks added the comedy elements into the mix.

Brooks even managed to convince Gene Hackman to play the role of the blind hermit who tries to befriend the monster. Another scene taken directly from the original 1935 sequel Bride of Frankenstein. Gene Hackman had just won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1972 for The French Connection, an extremely dramatic portrayal of a hardened New York cop trying to bust up an international heroin operation. So, having Gene Hackman playing the comedic role of the blind hermit in Brooks’ film was bizarre in itself. But Hackman was great. Hilarious. He played it straight against the physical humor of Peter Boyle’s monster. It was one of the funniest scenes in the film.

All the influences and inspiration from Young Frankenstein that may have seeped over into my screenplay were subtle at best. Nothing was directly copied or reproduced, they were mere shadows, hints of references. All but one. I just couldn’t resist paying tribute and showing my great love and admiration for Young Frankenstein in some small, funny way. Those of you who have read Turkey Legs and have seen Young Frankenstein may have caught it.

Without giving away any spoilers from Young Frankenstein, at the end of the hilarious, blind hermit scene in that movie, Gene Hackman ( the blind hermit) follows the monster ( who has just ran THROUGH his front door to escape the hermit’s home) outside. The hermit stands outside alone, blindly searching for his lost new friend, and delivered an ADLIBBED line no one expected –

” Wait….where are you going, I was going to make ESPRESSO”

It was one of those times the cast and crew burst out laughing as the scene went black.

So, in my screenplay, my ” tip of the hat” to this film was when Uncle Pat was standing on his front porch after everyone had ran away from the Turkey-Spider and says:

“Wait…I was going to serve Gelato”

Again, I couldn’t resist.

That’s my story and I’m stick’n to it.

Hope you guys like this blog and find it helpful and entertaining. Again, I will try and get one or two posts out every month, time permitting. Thanks for your time.

Remember, no matter how bad things get…it could be worse….it could be raining.

Ciao for now.

Tom McGarry