Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Director: Charles Barton
Honors:
Take Universal’s best known comedy duo and team them up with
a cast of the studio’s most famous intellectual properties, the classic horror
film monsters, and the result is an all-time classic of American cinematic
comedy. As a low budget feature Abbott and
Costello Meet Frankenstein produced one of the studio’s greatest box office
attractions during a period when Universal attempted an expanded towards a more
sophisticated outlook in their film distribution, but finding success in land
of lower complexity. For many movie fans this silly adventure within the world
of horror film monsters has become a beloved title in the annals of American
comedies, entertaining generations of audiences.
Abbott and Costello
Meet Frankenstein is a horror comedy where the comedy duo find themselves caught
in the middle of a evil plot between Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, and the
Wolf Man. Two railway baggage clerks, Chick (Bud Abbott) and Wilbur (Lou
Costello), deliver the coffin of Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and the body of
Frankenstein’s Monster (Glenn Strange) to a house of horrors attraction only to
find themselves the center of a devilish plot to rejuvenate themselves. A mysterious
man named Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.), better known as the Wolf Man, makes himself
known to Chick and Wilbur in effort to stop the return of the destructive
monsters. The more skittish Wilbur has trouble convincing his straight man
college in Chick that these creatures are real paranormal beings, only to discover
Dracula’s plot to replace the Monster’s deteriorating brain with Wilbur’s. The
two run amuck within an island castle of Dracula as he and the Monster chase down
our hero’s, but with the help of the Wolf Man they escape never to be accosted
by monsters again. Or so they think.
From the very mention of the title we all know this picture
is simply a screwy comedy mixed with classic Universal monsters, which is
delivered from the very beginning of the credits to the closing moments. This
was never to be high art or revolutionary by any means, so from the onset
audiences immediately must leap into the suspension of disbelief and just allow
the movie to do its thing, and it does so in wonderful fashion. Downright
silly, but with plenty of laughs and charm this motion picture is a send off to
some of the greatest names of the Universal monster movies, staples of many
years of box office drawing at the studio. Despite the film’s low budget, this picture
handles its key assets, both the comedians and the monsters, with care and
respect so perfectly that it forms a feature that may never be duplicated as masterfully.
Bringing authenticity to the production, players from the
monster movie past return to reprise the roles they helped make famous:
For the first time since the original Dracula way back in 1931, Bela Lugosi returns to the role of the
famed vampire. Following the most famous role he portrayed in his career, many
would be shocked to discover Lugosi had not portray the Count in the various sequels/spin
offs that featured the famed blood sucker. Lugosi would portray other like dark
characters, but he would not see the himself cast as Dracula again until now.
Like sliding into a custom fitted glove, Lugosi falls right into place as Count
Dracula, a character he helped form with his gestures, costuming and signature
accent. The work starved and type-casted Lugosi may have done the role due to a
need for employment, in his performance he chews the scenery every moment he
can as he never liked to be upstaged by his fellow cast.
Lon Chaney Jr. despite attempting to branch out into roles
beyond the Universal monsters is pulled back into the character the Wolf Man
and his troubled human persona of Talbot. For years he had donned the heavy
makeup of the Wolf Man, the creature he was most known for, among other
monsters, including Frankenstein’s monster. Beyond the original 1941 Wolf Man picture, Chaney continued to
reprise the creature numerous times, inducing the various monster movie mash up
pictures Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
(1943), House of Frankenstein (1945),
and House of Dracula (1945). For Chaney
to return to the famed werewolf was just a natural casting for the studio.
Glenn Strange dons the bolted neck and flat topped makeup of
Frankenstein’s monster for his third go around as the creature. Director
Charles Barton and studio wished to have returned Boris Karloff to the role
that he first made famous, however Karloff despised the idea of the picture,
turning the opportunity down. Strange portrayed the monster in House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, and would do so once again
in this picture. Despite Karloff declining to work on the picture he would
appear in the studio’s publicity to help promote the picture upon release.
Strange’s performance is nothing more that awkward walking, slow moments, and a
couple of “yes master” lines, but he was a name attached to the mythos of the
character, which was important to the picture. The casting here showed great
care in protecting the mythos of the character’s connection with the studio’s
past, as when Strange sit out more physical scenes due to injury he would be
replaced with Chaney, who had also portrayed the famed monster in the past as
well.
The production originally entitled “The Brain of
Frankenstein” initially found friction from one of its leading men in Lous
Costello who absolutely hated the script and the idea of the picture. The
thought of mixing comedians with Universal’s monsters would sound like an
absolute failure from the beginning. Unlike Boris Karloff dismissing the idea
of the picture, Costello could not be replaced in the film as he exclaimed that
his young daughter could write a better movie. Nevertheless he was a main component
to the project and forced to move forward with filming. In time and being given
a loose leash to create comedy on the fly through production his attitude
warmed up to the feature, helping to make it one of his best known motion
picture performances.
The running gag of the picture is Lou Costello, the
simpleton of the duo, discovering himself to being the unlikely attraction of
not one, but two beautiful ladies that follow him into this adventure. The
small time Slavic-American actress Lenore Aubert finds herself in her most successful
role as Dr. Sandra Morney, the Dracula’s seductive assistant used to lure the
man whose brain will replace that of the monster’s. Jane Randolph, a B-movie
actress of many Universal films including Cat
People, portrays Joan, an insurance inspector assigned to Chick and Wilbur for
possible mishandling of the house of horror objects, she too utilizing her
seduction of Wilbur to get close to their information. Wilbur is the butt of
the joke that the two women that appear to be close to him are doing so to
either get him arrested or kill him.
What makes this silly comedy work so well is how earnest monster
characters take on their roles in this picture. The movie is not burdened with
being directly sequels to the prior monster movie collaborations, but with
established background stories the monsters the audiences are already aware of
what they are getting into while the monster remain true to form. For Abbott
and Costello to spin their comedic magic around these characters allows them to
be even sillier as it is like playing with Universal’s biggest and most popular
toys on screen. With the monsters never breaking character the film is nice mix
of classic, but cliché monsters playing up to the comedic stylings and timing
of the witty duo.
The film was produced with the very light budget just north
of $750,000, but packed a huge draw with the named stars and the popular
monsters. Despite Universal’s recent business handling more sophisticated
productions including the importing of European prestige pictures, this appears
to be an odd backwards step for the studio. However upon releases Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
would be one of the biggest draws Universal saw in 1948. The low budget comedy
would help the studio fund future endeavors and entice a pair of Abbott and
Costello monster films in hopes of repeat success.
Abbott and Costello
Meet Frankenstein was a success for 1948 and beyond. Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man
(1951), were results of the film’s financial success. In the years since its release Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein has
been beloved by multiple generations of film fans for its fun nature and
classic comedy. When the AFI composed its list of greatest American comedies of
all time in 2000 it was no doubt that Abbott
and Costello Meet Frankenstein found its way on the list of 100 pictures.
The following year the National Film Registry would add the picture to it own
list of culturally significant American pictures as well, and the film continues
to discover new fans with every passing generation. The feature is nothing new
or spectacular, but in it Abbott and Costello do what they do best, make
audiences laugh, and that is why it has lived on all these years.
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