Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein
If there’s two things that kept Universal Studios rolling in dough throughout the 1930s and 40s, it was 1) their classic stable of Universal monsters which made for a bevy of interlocking sequels and franchises which was not all that different from today’s Marvel Universe complete with its roster of nearly exclusive horror movie stars such as Karloff, Lugosi and many more and 2) the legendary comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, considered by many one of the greatest comedy teams of all time whose schtick was a cross between The Stooges and Laurel And Hardy, with Costello taking on the persona of a blubbery, infantile middled aged fat man for whom much of his onscreen behavior could be construed as being borderline lunatic and Abbott (if nothing else widely considered to be the greatest comedy straight man of all time and very few have ever disputed that) being the more responsible, put upon half of the team whose job it was to scold, talk down to and occasionally even slap around Costello whenever he acted like an idiot which was early and often. Ironically, this resulted in Abbott with his constrained tone of voice actually being the funnier of the two, while Costello onscreen by himself was a more acquired taste until his good buddy would walk over and verbally berate him with maybe a swift kick in the ass for good measure. As The Monsters started mixing and matching with each other in various crossover films (a far cry from the concept of modern horror villains staying exclusive to their own franchises with the exception of the entertaining Freddy vs Jason), it was only a matter of time before an all out premise of them meeting up with Bud and Lou in an outright horror comedy was put on the table, an idea that the duo themselves thought was preposterous, refusing the initial proposal until an increase of salary was offered and then they merrily signed on (even though both of them claimed to have not enjoyed the finished product). At least the casting process was ambitious, utilizing no less than 4 different Monsters to work into the storyline, including Lon Chaney Jr. as The Wolf Man a.k.a. Lawrence Talbott, Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula, Karloff stand in Glenn Strange as The Frankenstein Monster and Vincent Price as The Invisible Man. That’s a lot to work with, but the most fascinating yet least developed aspect here is in the seemingly ongoing blood feud between Chaney’s Wolf Man and Lugosi’s Dracula since the movie portrays The Wolf Man as a semi good guy who teams up with Bud and Lou but when he transforms, is considerate enough to leave his human victims merely wounded but not killed, preferring to use his Wolf powers to counteract Lugosi’s classic and patented abilities to make Drac into a slick aristocrat who is perfectly able to blend into high society even while planning evil schemes that usually extend to the extraction of blood from his hapless victims. The added and obvious fact that Lugosi and Chaney are also two of the all time coolest cult actors ever is virtually palpable every time that they are onscreen together. The film’s plot consists of Dracula taking control of Dr. Frankenstein’s infamous monster, grooming him to be his ultimate henchman protector of sorts, but since Frankenstein’s infamous mistake was to put an abnormal brain into The Monster which had caused things to get out of hand, Dracula intends to use the brain of an infantile idiot who can easily be manipulated. That would be Costello of course, an immature fool who is being set up sexually by a female mad scientist (Lenore Aubert) whom herself is working with Dracula of her own free will as she deftly manipulates Lou into enough of a state of such loving eternal bliss that he soon will calmly lay down on the table as a show of submission in order to have his brain removed and put into the head of The Monster (who oddly enough still walks around and talks even though the actual process has not yet been performed) and when a pretty boy professor (Charles Bradstreet) and a hot blonde insurance investigator (Joan Randolph) also get involved, the stakes get raised enormously as only Abbott and his constant irritation with his buddy’s antics capable of restoring order and saving the day. A big part of how things work here is in having Costello see one of the Monsters in person while Abbott is out of the room, only for Abbott to return and (having obviously heard of Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley) annoyingly explain to Costello that Dracula and Frankenstein are just fictional characters and that he has nothing to worry about with his contemptuous attitude also extending to Chaney whom he considers to be a nutcase as well (although when the cat’s out of the bag in the second half and they’re both being chased, Lou asks Bud if he believes him now to which Bud only curtly replies “yes”). Out of all the big name “guest stars”, Chaney probably comes off the best, imbuing his Talbott with a sort of desperate dignity, trying to save the day while at the same time knowing that he’s really no better than the other monsters while Lugosi (in his last big studio picture before his storied descent into Ed Wood territory) still has everything going for him that made his Dracula so legendary in the original movie and continued through his countless stage performances in the role including working with amateurs in summer stock productions and even running a magic show on any number of California beach boardwalks. But in the end it all comes down to Bud and Lou (and rightfully so), funny as hell when Lou becomes the brunt of his buddy’s unfiltered mouth but not so much when the humor is dependent on Lou’s babylike personality and high pitched girlish screaming, an unusual example of a great comedy team who were at their absolute best when one of them had the other one there to keep him in check…
7/10