REQ: Frankenstein Junior
Guido Toschi
All of you will certainly remember Mel Brooks's great masterpiece
"Frankenstein Junior". Well, I saw it dubbed in Italian and would like to
know what's the original sentence told by Igor (M. Feldmann) when Doctor
Frankenstein (J. Wilder) has just arrived in the Transilvanian village and
is going to his castle on the hill. They are in a forest and hear a wolf
growling, so Doctor Frankenstein's assistent screams frightened (in
Italian):"lupo ulula" and Igor answers:"lupo ulula', castello ululi'". If
we try to explain the Italian pun in English, the humor is based on the
difference of accent of "ulula" and "ulula'" and on the fact that the
Italian for "there" is "la'" or "li'"; so "ulula'" and "ululi'" sound like
regional deformations of "la'" and "li'".Anyway, the two sentences without
the pun mean "a wolf is growling" and "for the wolf is that way and for
the castle this way".
I would be much obliged to anyone who could give me the original version.
THANKS IN ADVANCE,
GUIDO
David G.
First of all, the English title of the movie was "Young Frankenstein". I'm
surprised that they were actually able to translate the pun into something
that made a bit of sense.
In English, Gene Wilder (Dr. Frankenstein) hears a wolf howling. He says
"Werewolf". Igor (Marty Feldman) replies "There. There wolf". The joke
being that Igor thinks Dr. Frankenstein is asking (in poor English) "Where
wolf?". So, Igor answers, in equally poor English, "There wolf."
If you don't know, a werewolf is a mythical monster wolf. I think the
classical werewolf was just a monster wolf, but now it's come to mean a
monster wolf that is a human until he sees the full moon, then he turns into
a werewolf and goes around killing people.
Guido Toschi wrote in message ...
Robert Gaimari
: Hi everybody,
: "Frankenstein Junior".
In English, it is called "Young Frankenstein".
: Well, I saw it dubbed in Italian and would like to
: know what's the original sentence told by Igor (M. Feldmann) when Doctor
: Frankenstein (J. Wilder) has just arrived in the Transilvanian village and
: is going to his castle on the hill. They are in a forest and hear a wolf
: growling, so Doctor Frankenstein's assistent screams frightened (in
: Italian):"lupo ulula" and Igor answers:"lupo ulula', castello ululi'". If
: we try to explain the Italian pun in English, the humor is based on the
: difference of accent of "ulula" and "ulula'" and on the fact that the
: Italian for "there" is "la'" or "li'"; so "ulula'" and "ululi'" sound like
: regional deformations of "la'" and "li'".Anyway, the two sentences without
: the pun mean "a wolf is growling" and "for the wolf is that way and for
: the castle this way".
That's actually a pretty good translation, considering that it's a pretty
language-dependent joke. The original went:
<HOWL>
Assistant: Werewolf! <a monster which is half man/half wolf;
<pronounced "where wolf">
Igor: There wolf! There castle! <in response to what he thought was
<her question>
- Bob