Okemo Meets FOLA Starts Dec. 29 with 'Young Frankenstein'

The special four movie series sponsored jointly by Okemo and FOLA (Friends of Ludlow Auditorium) opens Thursday, Dec. 29 at 7 pm at the Ludlow Town Hall Auditorium with Mel Brooks' hilarious film, "Young Frankenstein". The film stars Gene Wilder as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The supporting cast includes Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn and Gene Hackman. The screenplay was written by Brooks and Wilder.The film is an affectionate parody of the classical horror film genre, in particular the various film adaptations of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein produced by Universal in the 1930s. Most of the lab equipment used as props were created by Kenneth Strickfaden for the 1931 film Frankenstein. To further reflect the atmosphere of the earlier films, Brooks shot the picture entirely in black-and-white, a rarity in the 1970s, and employed 1930s-style opening credits and scene transitions such as iris outs, wipes, and fades to black. As a special added treat, FOLA will raffle-off all of the films it exhibited this past year as part of its '1st Thursday' program. These include DVDs and Blu-Rays of Mamma Mia, March of the Penguins, Secretariat, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chariots of Fire, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Harvey, and North by Northwest. The Okemo-Fola series will continue with the following films: Jan. 12, "Some Like It Hot", Jan. 19, "True Grit", and Feb. 16, "The King's Speech". In addition, FOLA will continue its first Thursday of the month series throughout 2012 starting with the all-time favorite, "Casablanca" on Jan. 5. All films are free; donations are appreciated.