Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

 

The words "it's a good new idea for fun" are placed over the words "Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein." At the bottom, two men are shown running away while looking at the title.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein: Summary and initial thoughts

This film gave me the strangest sense of dẻjà vu—but if I've actually seen it before, it didn't leave much of an impression.

Abbott and Costello were never my favorite comedy duo (Laurel and Hardy are where it's at, trust), but they perform reasonably well as a pair of baggage clerks who become entangled with the most popular monsters in Universal's lineup: Dracula, the Wolfman, and Frankenstein's monster.

Lou Costello plays Wilbur Grey, a silly baggage handler who has fallen into an inexplicable relationship with the lovely and exotic Dr. Sandra Mornay. Wilbur's friend and fellow bag-slinger Chick Young (played by Bud Abbott), can't understand Wilbur's good fortune at having attracted such a beautiful woman.

We find, however, that Sandra is not attracted to Wilbur for his dubious qualities as a lover. She is interested in his brain. For the lovely Sandra is actually in cahoots with Dracula (played iconically by Bela Lugosi), who is hoping to procure a more childlike and subservient brain for Frankenstein's monster.

All the while, the miserable Larry Talbot (better known as the Wolfman and portrayed by Lon Chaney Jr.) knows of this plot and is doing all he can (in between painful transformations) to get Wilbur and Chick to help bring it down.

It all comes to a head at the sumptuous masquerade ball held at Sandra's laboratory/castle, which is perched on a remote island surrounded by woods (because Dracula and his crew are not subtle). Talbot transforms into the Wolfman and is of little use, leaving it up to the hapless duo of Chick and Wilbur to foil the plot and save the day.

Why is Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein on the National Film Registry?


Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was inducted to the National Film Registry in 2001, around the same time it earned a spot on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs (#56). It therefore seems reasonable to conclude that at least one factor influencing its preservation in the National Film Registry is its comedic value.

Abbott and Costello were dynamite in the 1940s, and during WWII they were estimated to be the highest-paid entertainers in the world. In the world. Their oeuvre spans radio shows, TV shows, and movies, and "Who's on First" is one of the most well-known and well-loved routines of all time. They made over thirty films together, and their popularity was explosive during their heyday.

However, by the late 1940s, the duo's wartime vogue was fading. MGM decided not to do any more films with them, and their radio show was kaput. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was essentially an attempt to revive the comedy dyad by combining it with Universal Studios' iconic movie monsters.

The result is comedy, there's no doubt about that, and the reviews at the time were generally positive. Modern reappraisals have been less generous, pointing out that combining two entities no longer at the height of their popularity is not a good strategy for producing a glossy or timeless result.

Indeed, time is a factor here. For 1948, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is hardly groundbreaking in its comedy (you might even say it's a bit tired), but as a sort of microcosmic example of an Abbott and Costello movie, it does the job.

It also does the job as a tribute to the iconic success of the Universal Monsters franchise in the first half of the twentieth century. And I have to admit, seeing so many classic monsters in one movie is pretty cool.

Hardly a favorite, but I can appreciate its significance.

Final thoughts on Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

What can I say? Not terribly scary, not terribly funny, this horror comedy was just not terribly impressive to me. Like I said before, by the time this film was released, Abbott and Costello were past their marketability prime. Not yet yesterday's news, they were still fighting for relevance in a changing, post-war entertainment landscape.

The result is this movie, which is just not a favorite of mine. I actually think I've seen this movie at least twice (again, watching it gave me the strongest sense that I'd been here before), but beyond a few flashes of imagery or sound that I remember, there's not really anything calling me back to this film.

It's not a bad movie by any means, and I wouldn't even say it's unfunny. It's just not as funny as it could have been. In the words of Wilbur Grey, "I saw what I saw when I saw it." But I wouldn't make an effort to see it again.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to rewatch Laurel and Hardy's Big Business and laugh my butt off.

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