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Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 7:14 pm    Post subject: Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) Reply with quote

____

Probably the most well-considered and frequently-watched A & C comedy of them all.

The true beauty of this wild and funny predecessor to 1987's "The Monster Squad" is that it treats its cast of horror legends with great respect — instead of simply exploiting the characters in an effort to squeeze a few shallow laughs out of the concept. The result is a film that puts Bud and Lou into a full-fledged Universal horror movie, instead of putting Dracula, the Wolf Man, and the Frankenstein monster into a slapstick A & C comedy.

If "Abbot & Costello Go to Mars" had adopted the same reverent attitude towards science fiction, it would have been a far better film.

Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Glenn Strange give fine portrayals of the characters they made famous in previous films. Lugosi's transformation scenes (changing from Dracula-to-bat and vice-to-versa) are terrific. Even though Lugosi played several vampire characters after his famous Dracula role in 1931, this was the first time Lugosi actually played Dracula in 17 years!



The climactic battle in "A & C Meet Frankenstein" pits Dracula against the Wolf Man, going at it tooth and nail (a literal reference in this case). Meanwhile, Bud and Lou try to escape from an unstoppable Frankenstein monster who chases them all over Lugosi's mansion. Horror alumnus Vincent Price ("Return of the Invisible Man") makes a brief appearance (figuratively speaking, since he doesn't actually "appear") as the Invisible Man.

A & C Meet Frankenstein is a four-star winner in every way, with great music by Frank Skinner, and fine direction by Charles Barton.

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Krel.
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 12, 2014 11:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tonight, when the moon is full, I turn into a wolf!
You, and twenty million other guys.

A great movie I watch it every Halloween season. What makes it so good is that it was played mostly straight and was filmed like a horror movie.

Lon Chaney also played Frankenstein's Monster in some scenes. Glenn Strange was injured with a broken foot while filming the operating room scenes and Lon Chaney took his place. It is Lon Chaney throwing the barrels on the dock.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 12:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Amazing! I never knew that. Thanks, David.

I've always thought it would be cool if the Frankenstein monster had been turned into a werewolf by a bite he received in the fight during Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman/

Then the next movie could have been Frankenstein IS the Wolfman -- and Chaney could play both monsters in that one. too!



Or how 'bout a movie with a peaceful, music-loving monster that loves to boogie to the beat!


Frankenstein Meets the Walkman!


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 2:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Absolutely one of my all time favorite horror-comedy films.

This movie was such a huge hit that Universal continued by having Bud & Lou meet Dr. Jekyll & Mr.Hyde, the Invisible Man, & the Mummy. All of those films had their moments but never could equal A&CMF.

I wonder if instead of doing these classic horror characters and having A&C meet them one-by-one, Universal should have had Abbott & Costello meet up with them all together in one picture as they had done with A&CMF? Of course at the heart of it they would require a strong script.


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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 3:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Always liked the nifty touch of having Vincent Price do the voice of the Invisible Man.

Not only due to Price's association with horror movies but the fact that he played the IM in the 1940 film The Invisible Man Returns.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 2:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
A great movie I watch it every Halloween season. What makes it so good is that it was played mostly straight and was filmed like a horror movie.

Lon Chaney also played Frankenstein's Monster in some scenes. Glenn Strange was injured with a broken foot while filming the operating room scenes and Lon Chaney took his place. It is Lon Chaney throwing the barrels on the dock.

This is the kind of behind-the-scenes stuff I just eat up, guys. Thanks, David!
_______________________________________

Pow wrote:
This movie was such a huge hit that Universal continued by having Bud & Lou meet Dr.Jekyll & Mr.Hyde,the Invisible Man,& the Mummy.
All of those films had their moments but never could equal A&CMF.

Ditto, Pow! Sometimes the history of a movie and the studio that made it is a big part of our love for the movie!
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 12:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

For fun I imagined how this movie would have worked if you substituted the 3 Stooges for Bud & Lou.

I believe it could have worked quite well for Moe, Larry, & Curly as our heroes.
Although Curly's health was not good by this time & he might even have been hospitalized at this time.

Some folks find it insulting to compare these classic comedy teams.
[size=20]They feel that Abbott & Costello were superior due to their word play routines & the great vaudeville routines that they executed so flawlessly.

By comparison others feel that while the Stooges could be amusing they lacked the slick style of Bud & Lou.
The Stooges were just pratfall comedians not in Bud & Lou's league.

My thought is that does have some truth to it but there is something else to consider.
If the Stooges had the wonderful script to work from for this classic movie, & a decent director like Barton, Moe, Larry, Curly may well have been able to rise to the challenge & do a decent job.


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Rick
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 10:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This was the first (partly) horror film I ever saw. I wanted to watch monster movies for as long as I can remember but my mom always worried that I'd have bad dreams. She never gave any other reason beyond the bad dreams. In later years it made me wonder if maybe she herself had suffered nightmares after seeing some horror film.

But when I was 7 years old, my dad bought a new 19" black and white TV set to replace our old 19" black and white TV set. So the old set was shunted to the parents' bedroom. Somehow the old TV in a new place was more interesting than a new TV in the old spot, so my mom and my two siblings and myself plopped on the bed and turned on the TV, on which ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN was in progress.

I can't remember how much of the movie we saw that day. I know we missed at least the first few minutes, but we may have missed much more than that. The only moment from the movie that I can absolutely, with full confidence, state that I remember from that afternoon was the sequence in which Lou sits on the Frankenstein Monster's lap and discovers he has extra hands all of a sudden.

I remember my mom repeatedly asking if this was too scary, but there was no way that TV was getting turned off. I was in heaven, and my brother and sister seemed to enjoy it too. Well, after all, it was Abbott and Costello and we all loved them.

Surviving that movie and not having bad dreams convinced my mom that I might just survive a real monster movie. So a few weeks or months later, she allowed me to stay up way past my bedtime and watch RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE on the late show.

So, I have to thank this film not just for being vastly entertaining, but for being my gateway into the world of monsters.

By the way, one small correction from the above posts. It's true that Lon Chaney, Jr. did briefly play the Frankenstein Monster in this movie, but not in the dock scene throwing the barrels. In the laboratory scene, when the monster arises from the table and throws Lenore Aubert out the window -- that is Creighton. His final moment is when he turns back from the window and moves toward Lou.

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Pow
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 11:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In the book Abbott & Costello In Hollywood the author writes that Lou hated the script for A&CMF & wanted no part of it at all. He said his little daughter could write a better script.

He ended up doing it due to a salary bump but still didn't think much of the movie while filming.

At the premiere of the film his mom was there & said to Lou at the conclusion of the movie it was the best thing he'd ever done.

From then on Lou was a fan of A&CMF.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 6:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I think I read somewhere that Lou's mother didn't want him to be in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein because she was afraid it would give him nightmares. Shocked

But that was probably just some crazy talk on a message board, so I wouldn't pay much attention to it. Wink

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Rocky Jones
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Come to think of it the success of this film may not have been as much due to the script as to the comedic talent of the stars. The script just kept the horror actors playing it straight balanced by the comedian's antics and it totally worked. I've seen too many attempts at horror/comedy where they made the mistake of trying to make the monsters or killers humorous and it doesn't seem to work as well.
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 12:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In the same vein (pun intended) is The Monster Squad (1987).



Tom Woodruff, Jr. as the Gill-Man; Duncan Regehr as Count Dracula; Tom Noonan as Adam (Frankenstein's monster); Michael MacKay as Kharis the Mummy; Jonathan Gries as Larry Talbot the Wolfman.

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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 2:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bela Lugosi and Glenn Strange having a laugh between takes:


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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 1:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Abbott & Costello would go on to encounter Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, the Invisible Man, & the Mummy individually.

I wonder why Universal did not copy the hugely successful formula from A&CMF by having Bud & Lou meet Mr.Hyde, IM & Mummy all together in one movie?

A strong script would be absolutely needed of course in order to make it into another classic.


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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 2:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh, these old Bud & Lou and 3 Stooges movies were the absolute joy to me growing up!

I always knew that no matter how scary the serious ones were that they were always done with a tongue in cheek.

Thank you Bud and Lou, Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp, for making the trials and travails of youth more able to overcome!
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