Thanks to everyone that joined us for zis funderful evening. As promised, please find below our wines, trivia and gallery.
Wolfgang's Wúnderbar Romanian Wines from Castle Frankenstein
Sorcova Pinot Grigio – Waitrose £8.99
A refreshing start to the evening with grapefruit and peach aromas. Melon, apple, citrus on the palate. This delightful wine from Cramele Recas was the perfect curtain raiser.
Atlas Range Feteasca Regala - Asda £6.00
Is this the best value wine in Britain? Bursting with tropical fruits, this off dry white is a real crowd pleaser with an average score of 4.8 out of 5 by Asda shoppers.
Paparuda Rose £7.99 - online at Adnams £7.99
A blend of Feteasca Neagra and Cabernet Sauvignon offering aromas of Raspberry and flavours of forest fruits. This wine is from the Banat region, bordered by Serbia to the South and Banat mountains to the East. Romania's coolest and smallest wine region.
Paparuda Feteasca Neagra - online at Wines of Townend £8.99
This is a special wine made from Romania's premier grape. This grape was native to Moldova and Romania but over time the grape diminished in Moldova, leaving 90% of all Feteasca Neagra in Romania. On the nose a heady mix of violet, black cherry and tobacco bog, on the palate red berries, dark cherries and forest fruits.
Solonomar Reserve Red - Majestic Wines £8.99 / £10.99
Solomonar is considered the great sorcerer of storms and winds, master of all lakes, tall mountains and deep caves, and the creator of frost, mist and hail.
Feteasca blended with Cabernet and Merlot. Dark violet, with notes of ripe plum and blackberry on the nose, this full bodied wine is packed with dark fruit flavour- blackcurrant, plum and blueberry with a gentle hint of vanilla spice. Rich and soft and juicy. Our most popular wine of the evening and the final drop in our recipe for life!
Dr Wolfgang's Curious Trivia
This year is the 50th anniversary of the film.
Original cut of movie was twice as long, but it was abysmal. Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks were brutal, chopping out 2 of 3 jokes to create what became the Total Film no.28 greatest comedy of all time. This was Wilder’s favourite movie, and Brooks finest but not funniest. He thought both Blazing Saddles and The Producers were his funniest.
Shot in black and white, which was rare in 1970’s, was designed to emulate 1930’s horror, along with opening credits, transitions and fades.
Columbia were due to make the movie but wouldn't meet Mel Brooks minimum budget so they took it to 20th Century Fox.
During filming they were able to use the original lab equipment from 1931 Frankenstein.
Unsurprisingly they had huge fun on set, lots of ad libbing. Brooks even added scenes because they were having so much fun filming. Wilder cracking up would often cause up to 15 takes.
Brooks and Wilder only got into one fight during filming at Gene’s apartment but a big one - "who was that madman you had in your house? i could hear the yelling all the way over here. you should never let crazy people into your house, don't you know that? they could be dangerous." This was Mel's way of apologising.
Aerosmith took a break from ` long night recording to watch the movie in 1974. It inspired them to write 'Walk this Way' by Igor!! They repeated this scene in Brooks History of the World PT1 and Robin Hood, men in tights.
Teri Garr (Inga) originally auditioned for Elizabeth the fiancée, while Madeline Khan was front runner for Inga. Khan chose Elizabeth role. Brooks called Garr to give the bad news but had an idea and asked if she could do a German accent. She said Vell, yes, I could do zee German ackzent tomorrow, or I could come back zis afternoon .. she got the role there and then.
The villagers all have British accents as homage to the original Universal monster movies where everyone had a British accent. One of the villagers was actually a descendant of the German noble house of Frankenstein.
Villagers reference five previous incidents (each of the five was a Universal Monster Frankenstein movie made to that point)
Wilder only agreed to make the movie if Brooks didn’t appear (and break illusion), so he did the provided the howl of the wolf & the shrieking cat off screen (when a dart hits a cat).
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Dr Frankenstein was originally from Naples.
Gene Wilder we know but who else is familiar in the movie? The Monster was played by Peter Boyle (dad in Everybody loves Raymond, shared same agent as Wilder).
Teri Garr who plays Inga was in Close Encounters, won an Oscar for Tootsie and appeared in 140 movies in total, many of which were comedies.
Madeline Kahn (the financee), a comedy actress with four Oscars wins.
Gene Hackman learnt about the movie from tennis partner Wilder and begged for a role to try comedy. His ‘gonna make espresso line’ was ad libbed and filming cut as the crew erupted. This was Hackman’s favourite movie.
Igor’s shifting hump was the result of Marty Feldman randomly moving it around. When the cast finally noticed, it was added to the script.
The scene with the most takes was when Igor bites Elizabeth’s animal wrap, the fluff kept getting stuck in his teeth. Brooks said this day of filming was the best and worst day of his life, good because the cast were delivering comedy gold, but the worst because every line caused the cast to start laughing. Mel Brooks stuffed his mouth with a hankie to stop laughing.
Mary Shelley - Frankenstein was the result of a competition to write a ghost story. The story first came to her in a terrifying dream. Published in 1818 without the name of the author, people doubted a woman could write the world's first ever science fiction movie, but they were wrong.
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