Young Frankenstein (1974)

Start here, because this is the one where the jokes and the filmmaking pull in the same direction. Brooks and Gene Wilder wrote it as a loving send-up of the 1930s Universal Frankenstein pictures, and Brooks shot it in black and white, a rarity in the 1970s, using lab equipment Kenneth Strickfaden built for the 1931 original. It looks like the real thing, which makes every gag hit harder. You need no homework to enjoy it. Marty Feldman's Igor, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman and Peter Boyle's Monster tap-dancing through "Puttin' on the Ritz" are funny on sight, and the whole film is warmer and less abrasive than Brooks at his rowdiest.