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Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 8:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

How right you are, sir! That so-called plot is a hot mess, no doubt about it. Rolling Eyes

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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

More Factoids.

Lon Chaney, Jr. was alcoholic and drinking heavily during production of the film. But he always knew his lines and was popular with the cast and crew.

Glenn Strange and Bela Lugosi made live stage appearances in order to promote the movie. Glenn would wear a rubber Frankenstein Monster mask. He always made sure to thank Boris Karloff.

Lou's close friend, Bobby Barber, was paid to hang out on the sets of Abbott & Costello movies. He was the team's target for practical jokes, and Bobby would pull pranks of his own.

Bobby shows up in the scene in the locker room at the masquerade ball. He's the attendant that Talbot asks if he's seen Chick Young or Wilbur Gray.

"Seen them, I don't even know them'' replies Barber in an ironic statement considering his real life relationship to Bud & Lou.

Not all directors were delighted with Bobby's presence. Lou insisted Barber always be around. Costello felt Bobby kept the set lively and fun and took off some of the pressure and monotony of shooting a film.

Pie fights and seltzer water battles on set for this movie were the norm. Lou said it helped keep the energy levels up during production. The costs for these pie fights was reputedly between $3,800 to $4,800.

Lon Chaney would join the fun when he wasn't in his Wolf Man makeup. Glenn Strange was declared off limits at all times due to his heavy Monster makeup.

Bela Lugosi did not wish to participate in the pie skirmishes partly due to his makeup requirements, and partly because he simply did not desire to do so.

Lou was well known for pilfering props from the A&C movies and taking them home. He took the antique clock located on the mantle in Dracula's castle.

He said that his justification was that he & Bud's films saved Universal Pictures from bankruptcy at one point, and furthermore, their movies always made a handsome profit for the studio.

Lou also said that he was well aware of the fact that when the Abbott & Costello movies start to not result in big box office for Universal, the studio would not hesitate in dumping he & Bud.

Well, he was savvy enough about that reality.

The opening animated credits are often attributed to the well known cartoon animator Walter Lantz. However, Lantz had left Universal in 1947.

Grim Natwick or James "Shamus" Culhane most likely did the animated sequence for the credits.

In the MacDougal's House of Horrors sequence the original plan was to feature wax figures of bank robber John Dillinger, Bluebeard, and the ape from Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Lon Chaney, Jr., was concerned that the movie would make fools of the monsters. Years later he said that the film did make buffoons of the monsters and ruined the horror genre.

Boris Karloff felt the same way as Chaney regarding the film. That is exactly why Karloff turned down reprising the Monster for A&CMF. Boris did help Universal in promoting the movie.

Bela Lugosi never expressed such sentiments at all.

At one point in the movie, Talbot mentions having a date with destiny. The original title for the 1941 The Wolf man film with Chaney was "Destiny."

Chick and Wilbur explore the castle dock at one point when Wilbur leans against a stone wall that revolves him into a secret room where the Monster sits.

Edited from the script is dialogue where Chick explains the secret room as a place to hide bootleg liquor during the prohibition years.

Glenn Strange fractured his ankle in the scene where the Monster throws Dr. Mornay out of the laboratory window.
As he threw stuntwoman Helen Thurston who was on wires, she swung back towards Strange. Glenn injured his ankle as he lunged to catch her.

Lon Chaney donned the Monster makeup in order to finish the scene.

In the scene where Chick & Wilbur push the Monster into a room and quickly shut the door, there was another on set accident.

Lou missed his mark in this scene, so when the Monster's fist smashes through the door, he really did hit Costello.
Director Charles T. Barton thought it was funny and did not do another take.

Barton fought quite a bit with Abbott & Costello during filming. Barton later said that dealing with the monsters was easy; dealing with Bud & Lou was a nightmare.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Wow! Mike, your post really paints a wonderful picture of life on the set of this great movie!

I'm glad to hear that things were mostly happy and fun for the crew. We often hear about movies which had problems with the relationships between the cast and crew. But this movie obviously did not suffer from that (with the exception of you last item . . .)

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Krel
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
Edited from the script is dialogue where Chick explains the secret room as a place to hide bootleg liquor during the prohibition years.

They probably figured it wasn't needed, because everyone knows that castles have secret rooms and passageways.

Pow wrote:
Glenn Strange fractured his ankle in the scene where the Monster throws Dr. Mornay out of the laboratory window. As he threw stuntwoman Helen Thurston who was on wires, she swung back towards Strange. Glenn injured his ankle as he lunged to catch her.

Lon Chaney donned the Monster makeup in order to finish the scene.

I've always read that Glenn Strange fractured his ankle when it got tangled in a cable for the lighting. Getting tangled makes sense, if he were trying to help the stuntwoman.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 24, 2020 9:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
I've always read that Glenn Strange fractured his ankle when it got tangled in a cable for the lighting. Getting tangled makes sense, if he were trying to help the stuntwoman.

I wondered what the true story was, so I Googled the statement, "Glenn Strange broke his ankle during A&C Meet Frankenstein."

What I got was variations on Krel's description, although most of them say it was a "camera cable", rather than a lighting cable. However, I think we'd all agree that Pow's statement sounds plumb heroic — he was trying to save a stunt woman who was swinging perilously on wires! Very Happy

Here's what I found.
______________________________________________

"Glenn Strange stepped on a camera cable and fractured his ankle." ~ Wikipedia

" . . . but during shooting one day he tripped over a camera cable and broke his ankle." ~ IMDB

"Strange lost his footing in this bit and fractured his ankle, tripping over a cable wire." ~moviefanfare.com

"Glenn Strange tripped over a camera cable and broke his ankle." ~ https://aurorasginjoint.com

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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 02, 2021 9:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just watched this terrific film on MeTV's Svenghoolie show tonight. It remains one of my favorite comedy/horror movies to this day. Must have watched it a gazillion times.

Some thoughts~ The Wolf Man is incredibly strong, seems like he could have easily burst through the door of the apartment building he's in. Even after Wilbur locks him inside.

How about a window?

~We're never really informed as to how Lawrence Talbot became obsessed with stopping Count Dracula & the Frankenstein monster in the first place. His crusade had always been to find a cure for his lycanthropy. And he was cured in an earlier movie.

~Sandra has images of bats in her eyes when she hypnotizes Wilbur. Dracula never had it when he hypnotized Sandra.

~So Wilbur is hypnotized by the Count, but once at the island we see him in the stockade and he's no longer hypnotized. Joan was hypnotized by Dracula but never snapped out of it until he took the plunge with the Wolf Man off the castle balcony. How does that work?

~Count Dracula is continually on the defensive against the Wolf Man during their fight in the castle. Drac even runs away from him.

Aren't vampires supposed to also be extremely powerful physically? Shouldn't he have been a match against the Wolf Man in that manner?

~MacDougal & another man confront Chick & Wilbur on the island as the monster is chasing after Chick & Wilbur. Just how did MacDougal know where Chick & Wilbur were exactly? There weren't any indications he was aware of this island before.

~At the finale of the movie we see Chick rowing the boat. How come he doesn't use the motor attached to it?
Also, the boat doesn't appear to be moving at all in the water as he rows it.

~When Count Dracula morphs from a bat to his normal form he hypnotizes Chick. I noticed that the image of Chick looked strange as he stood in the background.

~I still wonder how Chick, Wilbur, Joan, and Stevens will explain the next day to the police everything that happened on the island the previous night?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 03, 2021 10:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
Some thoughts~ The Wolf Man is incredibly strong, seems like he could have easily burst through the door of the apartment building he's in. Even after Wilbur locks him inside.

How about a window?

Great obvervations, Mike!

Concerning the one above, when poor Larry is the Wolf Man he doesn't demonstrate much intelligence. Remember when he was stalking Wilbur on the island and got tangle up in some bushes. Not overly bright, I'm afraid. Rolling Eyes

So, being locked in a room would be a tough problem to solve. Dogs can learn to open doorknobs, but if a door is lock I'm not sure the Wolf Man would think of smashing through the wood. Ditto for the window.

Just a thought . . .


Pow wrote:
~Count Dracula is continually on the defensive against the Wolf Man during their fight in the castle. Drac even runs away from him.

Aren't vampires supposed to also be extremely powerful physically? Shouldn't he have been a match against the Wolf Man in that manner?

In the Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man thread I made a whimsical suggestion; would Frankenstein become a werewolf if he was bitten by Talbot during the fight? Laughing

With that in mind, would Dracula worry about being bitten by the Wolf Man and becoming a Vampire Werewolf? That would sure make a great movie, eh? Cool

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 03, 2021 4:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
In the Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man thread I made a whimsical suggestion; would Frankenstein become a werewolf if he was bitten by Talbot during the fight? Laughing

With that in mind, would Dracula worry about being bitten by the Wolf Man and becoming a Vampire Werewolf? That would sure make a great movie, eh?

Now THATS a "thinking outside the plot" I really like!

A great seque . . . WEREWOLF DRACULA VERSUS WEREWOLF FRANKENSTEIN!

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 03, 2021 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Hot damn! I wished I'd thought of that! Shocked

Good one, Gordo.
Cool
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Krel
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 03, 2021 9:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

To kill a vampire/werewolf hybrid, would you need to both shoot it with a silver bullet, and drive a wood steak though it's heart?

It you shot it with a silver bullet only, would that cure it of it's lycanthropy?

Conversely, if you drove a wood steak through it's heart, would that kill the vampirism, but not the werewolf?

What if it was a silver-tipped wood steak, would that eliminate both?

David.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 03, 2021 11:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A silver tipped wood stake might do it....A wood steak would either give him cholesterol or slivers!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 10:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Gentlemen, I think you've come up with a clever defenses against Werewolf/Vampires! Very Happy

________

Now let's just hope that one of them doesn't get hold of Dr. Jack Griffin's formula. An Invisible Werewolf/Vampire could rule the world!

HaHaHaHaHaHa!
Twisted Evil

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johnnybear
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 11:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, considering that both Vampires and Werewolves are Lycanthropes, I'd guess they were both immune to the others particular curse and both had similar powers, as seen in various films and literature over the years!

The Monster becoming a Werewolf or even a Vampire might both be off the cards and be a possibility, as the creature is technically a dead man anyways, brought back to life and energized by an unearthly power from the lab of Frankenstein, or even just a plain lightning bolt attracted to the castle . . . so who knows?
JB
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 11, 2021 6:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Well, heck . . . the complex and "non-scientific" nature of these strange creatures is why I could never get into the Universal horror movies, nor the low-budget variations from lesser studios! Sad

I like movies which present concepts which — despite their flaws — tend to stem from scientific principals. I never cared for movies that scared me . . . I wanted movies that inspired me! Shocked

Obviously my idea for an Invisible Vampire Werewolve is a misguided attempt to turn classic horror characters into a science fiction concepts. Sad

Oh well . . .

But isn't anybody going to comment on my artistic alteration of the great Dracula painting which turned into a Vampire Werewolf! I thought I'd done a good job by altering several key features! Shocked

After all, I stared with one on the left and ended with the one on the right. Please note the hairline, the ears, and the red eyes.




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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Oct 11, 2021 8:08 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 11, 2021 7:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

All good touches Bud....But he really needs more facial hair!
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