Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Horror and comedy have always gone together quite well. One of the first successful combination of the genres was 1948’s Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Taking Universal’s classic creatures, Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, and The Wolf Man, and pitting them against Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, one of comedy’s great duos, is a can’t miss combination.

Abbott and Costello star as Chick and Wilbur, two freight workers charged with delivering two crates to a wax museum in Florida. Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.), aka The Wolf Man, is tracking the crates and attempts to stop their delivery. What Chick and Wilbur don’t realize is that the crates contain the bodies of Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and Frankenstein’s Monster (Glenn Strange). When the bodies turn up missing, the wax museum owner calls his insurance company to investigate. Eager to clear their names, Chick and Wilbur do some investigating themselves and hilarity ensues.

If you’re at all familiar with Abbott and Costello, either through their famous “Who’s on First?” routine or their other films, you know what you’re getting here. Abbott plays the straight man and Costello is the dim-witted goof. Costello’s Wilbur is preyed upon by the two female leads (Lenore Aubert and Jane Randolph) with each of them using his gullibility to their advantage. Abbott’s Chick, of course, remains stubbornly skeptical when his partner claims to see Dracula climb out of his coffin and Frankenstein’s Monster shuffle away.

Abbott and Costello’s verbal repartee and physical slapstick mesh well with the simplistic but fun plot. Modern day audiences familiar with Scooby Doo will find a lot of similarities between this film and virtually any episode of that show. Of course, Abbott and Costello did it better and they did it first.

Fans of the Universal monsters and the actors that played them should also enjoy seeing their favorite creepy creatures interacting with one another. While Abbott and Costello play for laughs, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr. and Glenn Strange all appear tackle their roles with complete seriousness. Director Charles Barton nails all of the trademark aspects of each respective monster. Even Vincent Price gets in on the fun in a great cameo of sorts.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a perfect Halloween film for the whole family as well as fans of classic horror. It manages to garner laughs without degrading what made the classic monsters from Universal Studios so great.