I am currently reading The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett. I also recently watched the DVD of Young Frankenstein.
Both of these wonderful parodies have hunchbacked assistants named Igor. And as we all know, all mad doctors in the Frankenstein vein have hunchbacked assistants named Igor.
Pronounced Eye-Gor, or Froderick, or Fronkenshteen.
Anyhoo, my question is: Where did this Igor tradition originally stem from?
I am not an old-classics-of-horror consumer, so don’t know if there was an Igor in the original book of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or if he’s actually a comedic inclusion in the 3 Stooges version, or what.
Can any esteemed soul assist me in this quest for information?
I don’t believe there was an Igor in the book. In the 1931 movie with Karloff, Frankenstein’s hunchback assistant was named “Fritz” and played by the immortal Dwight Frye. Fritz was killed in Frankenstein, but Frye came back to play the “Karl,” Frankenstein’s new assistant, in Bride of Frankenstein. I don’t think he made it, either. (BTW, Frye also appeared as Renfield – the guy eating flies – in the Lugosi Dracula.)
Finally, in Son of Frankenstein, Bela Lugosi played the part of Frankenstein’s assistant. This time, the character was named “Ygor.” I suspect that this was the origin.
Realioty Chuck has it right!
It only remains to point out that:
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Dwight Frye was so good as the twisted assistant that they brought him back (as a different guy, of course – “Fritz” dies in the original film “Frankenstein”) as a twisted assistant in “Bride of Frankenstein”. Thus was born a tradition of twisted assistants.
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“Young Frankenstein” is often a direct pardody of “Son of Frankenstein”, right down to the title. So it was reasonable to steal “Ygor” from SOF as “Igor” in YF.
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The whole tradition may have started with the dwarf assistant of magician/scientist Rotwang in Fritz Lang’s film “Metropolis”. There’s no assistant in Sheeley’s book “Franlenstein”, nor in the 1910 Edison company silent film Frankenstein.
Thanks, dudes! It’s interesting how the character of Igor specifically seems to have become the mainstay. It must just be a resonant name. Or perhaps Marty Feldman went further to define the character in some people’s minds.
Incidentally, I myself played Igor in a play called ‘Rock On, Frankenstein’ which was written by a friend of mine.
The name “Igor” was cemented in the public mind as the name of Frankenstein’s assistant long before “Young Frankenstein”. Mel Brooks virtually HAD to use that name.
A lot of people seem to have missed the joke about Igor/“Eye-gor”. “Eeee-gor” is clearly the correct pronunciation, but Igor is taken aback by Frankenstein’s pronunciation of his own name:
Frankenstein: “It’s Fron-kon-steen”
Igor: “You’re putting me on!”
Frankenstein “Well, then Igor…”
Igor:“It’s “Eye-gor.”
Frankenstein:“They told me it was “Ee-gor”
Igor:” Well, they were wrong, then, weren’t they?”
Has anyone else seen “The Missing Scene” in Young Frankenstein? I’ve heard about this from several people (including my wife), but I’ve never seen it. At the presentatio The Monster in the heater, before they are to go on stage, Frankensein goes up to Igor. HE HAS NO HUMP. Frankenstein asks:
Frankenstein: “What happened to your hump?”
Igor: “NEVER with a Tux!”
In the existing film, after the Monster stalks off stage, Inga and gor rush to help the fallen Frankenstein, and you can clearly ee that Igor has no hump. But as the film stands, this isn’t explained. I’d hoped that this missing cene would be among the “extras” on the new Young Frankenstein DVD. It DOES include scens that were cut (and you can see why), but this one is not among them. Has anyone else seen the scene? If so, where?
