Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Charles Barton

Writers:

Robert Lees (screenplay) &
Frederic I. Rinaldo (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

15 June 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror | Romance | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

It's a grand new Idea for FUN !

Plot:

Two hapless frieght handlers find themselves encountering Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and the Wolf Man.

Plot Keywords:

Dracula | Monster | Frankenstein's Monster | Full Moon | Island

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Bud Abbott	...	Chick Young
Lou Costello	...	Wilbur Grey
Lon Chaney Jr.	...	Larry Talbot / The Wolf Man (as Lon Chaney)
Bela Lugosi	...	Count Dracula
Glenn Strange	...	The Frankenstein Monster
Lenore Aubert	...	Dr. Sandra Mornay
Jane Randolph	...	Joan Raymond
Frank Ferguson	...	Mr. McDougal
Charles Bradstreet	...	Dr. Stevens

Also Known As:

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (USA) (alternative spelling)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (USA) (alternative title)
Abbott and Costello Meet the Ghosts (UK)
The Brain of Frankenstein (USA) (original script title)

Runtime:

83 min | Argentina:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Canada:G (Quebec) | USA:TV-PG | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:(Banned) (1949) | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #13109)

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Trivia:

As a favor, Boris Karloff did behind-the-scenes publicity work for this film. In several photos taken by Universal's publicity department, he is seen standing in line purchasing a ticket at a theater in New York City where the film is playing, and in other stills, he is shown admiring the poster art for the film outside the theater lobby.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Dracula first appears, he sticks his hand out of the coffin twice.

Quotes:

Wilbur Grey: I've had this brain for thirty years. It hasn't done me any good!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Creature Features: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (#1.14)" (1970)

Scarily Funny!

There are two schools of thought regarding 'Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein'. The first holds that the movie represents the nadir of the Universal Monsters cycle, with three once-great monsters reduced to playing second-fiddle to a couple of Laurel and Hardy wannabes. The alternative view, which I hold, is that this movie is a classic comedy-horror, perhaps the best example of that hybrid sub-genre until John Landis' 'An American Werewolf In London' emerged in 1981.

'A&CMF' warrants classic status because it is probably the best Universal horror film since 'The Wolf Man' (1941); certainly it has a much stronger narrative thread, not to mention a better reason for the three monsters coming together, than either 'House Of Frankenstein'(1944) or 'House Of Dracula'(1945). The problem with those two movies is that Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and The Wolf Man's coming together seemed purely coincidental, with Dracula not even encountering the other two in 'House Of Frankenstein' (which feels like two short films cobbled together, with only Boris Karloff's Dr. Neimann & J. Carroll Naish's hunchback providing a link between them) and 'House Of Dracula' only featuring a few scenes with more than one monster. 'Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein', by having The Wolf Man pursuing Dracula and the Monster, and also having Dracula plan to put Lou Costello's brain into the Frankenstein Monster (with the help of the duplicitous Dr. Mornay) provides an extremely satisfactory reason for the various characters coming together.

As for the acting, it has often been pointed out that this film works because the monster actors (Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr & Glenn Strange) play it straight, and this is very true, with Chaney's tortured soul act contrasting well with Lou Costello's one-liners (especially the famous 'you and twenty million other guys' joke). Lugosi, playing Dracula for only the second time, is wonderfully grandiose and even Glenn Strange, who is basically only required to lumber about, does what he does well, and he has a lot more to do than in the 'House of' movies. Abbott and Costello are very funny, using fewer verbal routines than normal, but doing some highly entertaining slapstick gags, and the supporting cast do very well, notably Frank Ferguson as the blustering McDougal, barely controlling his exasperation at Lou Costello's incompetence. Lenore Aubert as Dr. Sandra Mornay does well, and it's interesting to see a female mad scientist, particularly taking into account when this film was made. Charles Bradstreet and Jane Randolph have less to do in their parts, but neither of them drags the film down

All in all, 'A&CMF' is a movie that deserves a much greater reputation than it has acquired in some circles, and is probably the high point of the Abbott and Costello filmography