ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN

US, 20 1948, 83 minutes, Black-and-white.

Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney Jr, Bela Lugosi, Glenn Strange, Lenore Aubert, Jane Randolph, Frank Ferguson.

Directed by Charles T. Barton.

Bud Abbott (the straight man) and Lou Costello (often the patsy) were very popular movie comedians in the 1940s and 1950s, very much of that period. A parallel, more upmarket could be Martin and Lewis. But, though not in the same class as the comedy duo, Laurel and Hardy.

This was the first of their series of Meet the… While Frankenstein is in the title, it refers to the Monster, not Dr Frankenstein. However, the next film was Meet the Killer Boris Karloff. Then there was a series of popular encounters with characters including Captain Kidd (Charles Laughton) Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Invisible man, the Keystone Kops.

This one, in fact, should have been called Meet Dracula because Bela Lugosi reprises his famous role and is central to the film. A subtitle could be Meet the Wolf Man because Lon Chaney Jr reprises his role as Lawrence Talbot, transformed at full moon into the Wolf Man. And, the finale, indicating future horror excursions, Vincent Price’s voice is heard as The Invisible Man.

On the one hand, there is the local story, the bumbling duo unpacking cargo, warned not to open two coffins but, of course, the opening, one, with Dracula, the other with The Monster. While there are a lot of visual references to the famous horror films, there is also a whole lot of bumbling comedy involving the duo, Dracula’s femme fatale assistant, Lou Costello’s girlfriend who is hypnotised by Dracula, a nice doctor, and the frustrated entrepreneur who is exhibiting the horror relics.

Audience response was very favourable, praising the horror aspects of the film, but it was intended as a smaller enjoyable entertainment from Universal Studios for the wide audience.