A SCREENING of the comedy classic Young Frankenstein is being turned into a charity event in memory of its star Gene Wilder.

Boscombe’s Shelley Theatre will hold a collection for the Alzheimer’s Society after showing the film.

The disease claimed the life of the comic actor last Sunday at the age of 83.

Young Frankenstein, which Wilder wrote with its director Mel Brooks, is an affectionate parody of Universal Pictures’ Frankenstein films of the 1930s and 1940s.

It will be screened on Friday, September 16, at 8pm.

Matthew White, venue manager at the Shelley Theatre, said: “My grandparents died from Alzheimers. We’re a charity ourselves and we do look for opportunities to raise money for other good causes when we can.

“It just seemed to be an opportunity to do something with this film which just happened to be on in a couple of weeks’ time.”

Gene Wilder conceived the idea of Young Frankenstein shortly after his success in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and in Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask).

Mel Brooks shot the film in black and white and sourced props from James Whale’s classic Frankenstein film, made more than 40 years earlier.

It was Wilder’s third film for Mel Brooks, following The Producers and Blazing Saddles.

The Shelley Theatre was once the private theatre of Percy Florence Shelley and his family. He had hoped his mother Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein, would live to join him at his manor house in Boscombe.

Mr White said: “We’ve shown a couple of serious Frankenstein films so we wanted to explore the other side for a change and this is one of the more critically acclaimed spoofs.

“We’ve just got a grant from the British Film Institute so we’ve got a brand new projector. Ironically, the first film we’re going to be screening with it is in black and white.”

Gene Wilder had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's three years before his death but had kept his condition secret for fear of upsetting young fans who knew him for his film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Tickets for Young Frankenstein cost £5 and can be booked at shelleytheatre.co.uk