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Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 16, 2022 7:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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I couldn't resist dressing up your link to the A&B sketch, just to encourage more of our other active members to watch it!

All three of them . . . Laughing


WHO'S ON FIRST? - Widely considered the best Version


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Oct 27, 2023 1:48 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 9:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks to Abbott & Costello's films and television show we have these hilarious verbal wordplays preserved. Some of them trace their origin back to vaudeville where various comedy teams performed these routines just as Bud & Lou also did on the stage.

But not all of those teams are remembered and never made the successful transition from vaudeville to the silver screen or TV as Bud & Lou were able to do.
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 12:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Always enjoyed the intro to the chapter on Abbott & Costello by Leonard Maltin in his book: Movie Comedy Teams.

They lacked the artistry of Laurel and Hardy; they never captured the insanity of the Marx Brothers; they did not sing or dance like the Ritz Brothers. Why, then, were Abbott and Costello so popular during the 1940's and early 1950's? This question plagues film historians today, who can find no earthly reason for the team's existence. The answer is simple: They were very, very funny.

Maltin on Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein: The result was Abbott and Costello's best film, certainly the best horror-comedy ever made, and in many ways one of the best horror films ever produced at Universal.

The film was a tremendous success in1948, and it remains a first-rate film today.

Spot on Mr. Maltin!
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 16, 2022 12:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have you ever wondered what the repercussions were the day after the events that took place at the castle of Dracula that scary night? And who would believe any of it?

Did Chick & Wilbur call the authorities when they got back to the mainland?

How about insurance investigator Joan Raymond? She also has to file a report with her company regarding her investigation. She saw Count Dracula because he hypnotized her, and she saw the Frankenstein monster on the dock,

I don't believe that she ever encountered the Wolf Man though?

If Chick, Wilbur, Joan, and Dr. Stevens all go to the police department together and support one another, will that still be enough to convince law enforcement about what really happened that fateful evening on the island?

BTW, since this all occurred on the island, what law enforcement agency has jurisdiction? Would the Coast Guard come into play at all? If they did, would it now be considered a Federal crime? Now we're talking about the F.B.I., aren't we?

Once the authorities (whoever that may be exactly) arrive on the island to conduct an investigation, what is the evidence for the stories of the survivors?

Are there any bodies at all?

Dracula & the Wolf Man plunged into the ocean. Where are they? At the bottom of the ocean, carried out to sea?

Could Dracula have sunk to the bottom of the ocean so that he could have survived? Wouldn't he have to surface to breathe?

Could the Wolf Man have made it back to shore?

Or were both smashed & dashed upon the ragged rocks and killed? The Wolf Man certainly had a grip on the Count as they plunged off the castle balcony, but did he actually kill the Count? Both are supernatural being — so can we be sure that they're both deceased and didn't drown?

If one or both managed to survive after their dramatic plunge, were they able to find one another and continue their life-or-death struppge list reptiles?

But if they didn't, were they able to get back on the island?

It so . . . what next? Both have an issue with the sun rising: it'll kill the vampire, but the Wolf Man will turn back into human Larry Talbot!

Dracula knows he's on borrowed time. Does he fly away as fast as he can from the island and reach the mainland? Then he'll have to find a safe and secure location to escape from the sun, the police, and Talbot (if Talbot is alive)

Drac's coffin is still back on the island. Can he survive without it? Or can he find a deep, dark spot to sleep in? He couldn't bring the coffin with him in his bat form — or could he?

After all, he's a supernatural bat and not subject to the laws of nature, like a real bat. Right?

Or is there another boat he could use to flee along with his coffin?

If Talbot is alive, what will he do? I would think he would corroborate the other survivors accounts of what took place that eerie evening.

In a way, he'd be able to offer some evidence by asking the police to lock him up during the next full moon and witness his transformation into the Wolf Man.

Or would Talbot try to see if there's another boat and flee from everyone, so he could continue to be a "man on the run"? Would he scour the island to assure himself that both Dracula & the monster are destroyed?
The monster; burned alive. Can he be killed?

If he did manage to make it through that conflagration, where is he now? Hiding somewhere on the island or in the castle? Is he powerful enough to swim to the mainland in his current state? Once on land, where can he go for safety?

The investigators will certainly see the damages within the castle when they look around. The ruined laboratory and the smashed window that the monster threw Dr. Mornay out of. There's more shattered glass in the castle hallways, a door that the monster put his fist through, the iron gate the monster broke through, the smoldering remains of the dock that was set on fire.

But will any of this convince the authorities that a vampire, werewolf, and a monster were there last night?

The investigation will also turn up the secret passageways leading to the laboratory. They'll find the revolving wall by the dock that leads into the room where Count Dracula's coffin still lays — if the Count hasn't already fled with it in tow?

Back to Dr. Mornay; Dracula turned her into a vampire.

Could she have possibly survived being tossed out of that laboratory window? Did she plunge down to the land below and die?

Could she have morphed herself into a bat before her descent and fly to safety somewhere? Was she supernaturally powerful enough to survive landing on the ground or the ocean?

Cranky Mr. MacDougal saw the Frankenstein monster that night when he arrived on the island. He did not see either Dracula or the Wolf Man.

Will he be a valuable witness to our stalwart survivors? Will he be a skeptic and say that while he saw the monster, for all he knows it could have been a friend of Chick & Wilbur's dressed up as the monster? After all, there was that masquerade ball we saw taking place earlier.

MacDougal might think he's being conned by Chick & Wilbur, even with Joan backing up the boys, since she also saw the monster and helped with setting the dock on fire to destroy it.

Hey, we might have a sequel in all this!


Last edited by Pow on Fri Aug 04, 2023 3:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 13, 2023 9:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just watched this marvelous film again this evening.

Some things I noted along the way. When Chick & Wilbur come into Lawrence Talbot's room the day after Talbot had morphed into the Wolf Man the night before, the room is, naturally enough, a torn up mess. Chick remarks, "Boy, what a bender he was on." Bender is a term for hungover that I don't think is as well known today? The sad irony here being that both Bud Abbott & Lon Chaney Jr were alcoholics.

When McDougal is in the insurance company office we see on the large glass plate window in bold lettering, INSURANCE, but nothing else. Later in the film we see insurance investigator Joan Raymond's identity card that shows she works for Shipper's Insurance, Inc. Why wasn't
all that on the window we saw earlier?

Wilbur tells the Frankenstein monster that "I've had this brain for thirty years and it hasn't worked right yet." Lou Costello was actually forty-two years old at that time.

When Dr. Mornay begins to operate on Wilbur in the castle operating room, Wilbur pleads for anesthesia, she tells him he won't need it. Really? You're about to cut open the man's head! Not that she cares at all about Wilbur's pain but does she really think it'll be a cinch to operate on a screaming and struggling person?

In the same operating room we see the Wolf Man push the gurney that Wilbur is on towards Count Dracula who has just entered the room. Looking closely it appears that for just a few seconds that the count is not Bela Lugosi but a stuntman.


Last edited by Pow on Thu Jan 18, 2024 11:50 pm; edited 2 times in total
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2023 3:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dr. Mornay won't give any anesthesia to Wilbur for this painful & gruesome brain surgery. Okay, then why not use her newly acquired vampiric abilities to mesmerize Wilbur that will place him in a subdued trance? We've seen Count Dracula do this to Wilbur & Chick & Joan earlier. Seems like a surgeon would prefer a patient that would be out of it, so to speak, than one screaming and struggling which would make the operation more difficult.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 27, 2023 1:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Good thinking, Mike! And funny, too! Laughing

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2024 12:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not to be overlooked are the marvelous sets designed for this horror-comedy classic. From the spooky and awesome castle, to the jungle setting for the masquerade dance, it all adds wonderfully to the creepy atmosphere for this classic movie.

Watching how Count Dracula was always on the defense to the Wolfman, it occurred to me that this, and the other early Dracula films, never really demonstrated that the Count possessed superhuman strength. Yes, he could overpower people with his will, transform into a bat, an so forth. But those films don't give---as far as I can recall---any indication that Dracula is physically more powerful than a human being. The Hammer films with Christopher Lee might have started to show Dracula's strength? As vampire movies went on, they clearly established the tremendous physical ability of vampires.

The Night Stalker television movie (1972) was one of the first ones I saw where I saw that a vampire was a force to be reckoned with.
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