Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
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- Release Date: June 15, 1948
- Directed by: Charles Barton and Walter Lantz
- Written by: Robert Lees, Frederic I. Rinaldo and John Grant
- Runtime: 1 hour 23 minutes
- Series: Universal Classic Monsters
The 1940s were an interesting time for the Universal Monsters. A lot of the monster movies released in the first half of the decade were lower-budget sequels to the 1930s hits of Dracula, Frankenstein and The Invisible Man, along with a slew of in-name-only "sequels" to The Mummy. The only monster of the time that I consider original was Larry Talbot in The Wolf Man. After throwing sequel after sequel at the audience, including mashup movies like Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, and House of Dracula, the monsters had devolved from horrific creatures of the night into cheap fodder to entertain kids. So Universal just figured, "Screw it. Let's make a comedy!"
If you couldn't already tell from the title and poster for the movie, it's extremely entertaining. It follows Abbott and Costello as two bumbling clerks who are tasked with delivering some boxes to a museum. These boxes contain Dracula and the Frankenstein monster, while the Wolf Man decides to jump in to try to stop them. This movie knows exactly what it is and isn't afraid to get goofy and have a good time. Abbott typically plays the straight man while poor Costello is constantly getting terrorized. You've got scenes of him casually walking around a room while the Wolf Man sneaks right behind him, spinning through secret wall panels to be ambushed by the Frankenstein monster, being held captive by Dracula, and many others. Describing the plot in writing doesn't do justice to this movie's sense of timing and physical humor. For such an old movie, it still gets a lot of laughs out of me.
In terms of the monsters themselves, there's a lot to enjoy here. It's notable for being only the second time that Bela Lugosi played the role of Dracula, and he looks and sounds just as good as he did in 1931. Lon Chaney Jr. plays the Wolf Man in the same exact way he did in the original film and its mashup sequels. It doesn't feel like he's dumbed down to be in a comedy. It feels like he walked off the set of The Wolf Man and onto the set of a goofy comedy, and didn't realize he was on the wrong set. As for the Frankenstein monster, Glenn Strange was never my favorite actor to take the role. I don't really hold that against him though, as the movies he was in never really gave him much to work with in the script. There's also a cameo from one final monster at the end of the movie, and it's one of my favorite jokes in the whole thing.
If you're expecting something on par with the 1930s originals, you're clearly going into the wrong movie here. But if you want a goofy, spooky time, pop this on and laugh it up.