Think About It Halloween Party: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
It's time for a real classic here at the Think About It Central Halloween Party, friends. All of us have found films in our own personal library that become traditions, and this is one of mine. It is impossible -- im-freaking-possible -- for the month of October to pass for me without at least once watching one of the greatest comedies ever made: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
I have always felt that Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were the greatest comedy team ever, and this is their best film. Bud and Lou play a couple of movers who unwittingly get hired to transport two exhibits to a wax museum -- Dracula and the Frankenstein monster. Unfortunately, their charges aren't statues at all -- they've got the real thing! They wind up encountering a werewolf who has chased the monsters all the way from the old country in the hopes of exterminating them before they wreak more havoc. The boys are in real danger, however, because Dracula needs a new brain for the monster... and the brain he wants is Lou's!
This movie is really special for many reasons. First -- it's just really, really funny. Some of Bud and Lou's greatest bits are in this movie -- the sliding candle routine, for instance, the argument when Lou seems to have two dates to the costume party while Bud has none... You'll notice here that I refer to them as "Bud" and "Lou" rather than the names of their characters. That's because the character names are immediately forgettable and irrelevant. These guys played Bud and Lou in every movie they ever made (with the notable exception of Little Giant), and that's what we wanted. We wanted their unique brand of comedic genius, and when you're that funny, there's no point in trying to be anybody else.
Second, it was the first big movie to ever blend elements of horror into a comedy, and it's still done it better than practically anyone. Without this movie there would never have been a Beetlejuice or a Ghostbusters or a Scary Movie. Okay... so we can hold the last one against them. But these days, when that sort of cross-genre experiment is pretty commonplace, it can be easy to forget it had to begin somewhere else. The title is actually a little bit of a misnomer, as the boys meet Frankenstein's monster, not the good doctor himself. What's more, both Dracula and the Wolfman get more screentime than the monster does. Abbott and Costello Meet the Monsters probably wouldn't have been quite as snazzy a title, though, so you can forgive that one. The movie also deserves credit for really launching the "crossover" genre... Freddy Vs. Jason? Alien Vs. Predator? The Flintstones Meet the Jetsons? Bud, Lou and the Universal monsters did it first.
The other thing that makes this movie great is the chance to see all the classic Universal Studios monsters together, and mostly played by the men who made them great -- Dracula is portrayed by Bela Lugosi and the wolfman is the incredible Lon Chaney Jr. The only person absent is Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein monster, but Glenn Strange does a great job in his place. Karloff must have felt left out, because the very next year he teamed up with the boys in Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (a good film, but with one of the most unwieldy titles you'll ever find). This is also a rarity -- seeing actors of this caliber willing to have fun with their own greatest successes. It should be noted, though, that although the film is a comedy, the monsters themselves are usually played quite seriously. Except for a scene or two where Dracula toys with the boys, they seem as menacing and dangerous as they ever did in their own films. Chaney begs Bud and Lou to lock him up as the full moon approaches, the Frankenstein monster stalks them through a blazing wall of fire -- we even get a few classic animated transitions of Bela Lugosi transforming from vampire to bat. The filmmakers put all of the care and attention they did into the classic monster movies and all the sharp dialogue, wit and sight gags that make Abbott and Costello the greatest comedy team ever. The combination is pure brilliance.
I do watch this every year around Halloween, and you should do. Round up the kids (once they get past the black and white, kids love these monsters) and get ready to laugh -- nearly 60 years later, the movie is still as funny as it was when it was first filmed. Also recommended are Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) -- all of which are good, but none of which are quite on-par with the first.