Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., Glenn Strange, Lenore Aubert, Jane Randolph, Frank Ferguson, and Charles Bradstreet.
Directed by: Charles Barton
Written By: Robert Lees (Screenwriter), Frederic I. Rinaldo (Screenwriter), John Grant (Screenwriter)
Running Time: 83 minutes
Rating: None (Suitable for all audiences)
This frightfully fun Abbott & Costello monster mash up was a smash hit for Universal studios in 1948, it turned out to be
their 2nd highest grossing film that year, but it almost didn’t happen, more on that later. It featured almost all the classic Universal Monsters in one film…Frankenstein’s monster (Glenn Strange-Gunsmoke), Count Dracula/Dr. Latos (Bela Lugosi-Dracula), The Wolf man/Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr-Son of Dracula), even the Invisible man (Vincent Price, voice only).
Chick Young (Bud Abbott-Hold That Ghost) and Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello-Buck Privates) are working as freight handlers when they receive two large freight crates from Europe bound for McDougal’s House of Horrors exhibit in Florida. The crates contain the real bodies of Count Dracula and a weakened Frankenstein’s monster. Mr. McDougal (Frank Ferguson-The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms) shows up at the freight office and insists that Chick and Wilbur deliver his crates right away. While delivering McDougal’s packages to his scary House of Horrors exhibit, Wilbur is left alone with the bodies. Wilbur sees Dracula rise out of his coffin, when he brings Chick to show him, there is no body and Chick doesn’t believe him. When Chick is elsewhere, Dracula comes back to get Frankenstein’s monster out of his crate while hypnotizing Wilbur and then escaping with the monster. Mr. McDougal arrives to inspect his crates, discovering there are no bodies inside, he accuses the duo of stealing them. Meanwhile, Dracula takes the monster to his castle on a remote island.
Lawrence Talbot arrives from England to try and convince Chick and Wilbur what Dracula is up to and enlist them to help stop him. Sandra Mornay (Lenore Aubert-The Catman of Paris) is helping Dracula and pretends to be the girlfriend of Wilbur. Dracula has plans to use Wibur’s simple brain to put into the monsters body, so he can use him to carry out his diabolical plans. The fun really begins when Wilbur is kidnapped by Dracula and taken to his island castle so he can operate to transplant his brain into the monsters. Chick and Talbot go to rescue Wilbur and hilarity ensues as the full moon rises and the monsters all come together fighting it out at the castle.
This movie is so much fun and made such a huge profit for the studio that they tried matching Abbott & Costello up with more monsters in subsequent pictures…, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff (1949), Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953), Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955), none of which were as profitable or as good.
In an interesting bit of trivia, it is widely thought that Bela Lugosi played the role of Dracula in many films, in reality this was only the second and last time that Lugosi played the role. It was a welcome back to a major studio role for Lugosi who was 65 years old at the time and had been playing low-budget roles for previous years. Lou Costello initially did not want to make this movie, calling it “crap” and that his little girl could write a better script than this, but the director eventually talked him into making the picture. One final bit of trivia about this film is that during the shooting of one scene, Glenn Strange playing the monster tripped over an electrical wire, breaking his ankle. Chaney who was not in the scene decided to play the monster for that shot, so 
Chaney actually played two monsters in this film.
There is so much to love about this film; it is widely considered Abbott and Costello’s best film. The monsters roles were so well written, they were treated with dignity and not spoofed, and making this a glorious finale since this was the last movie the monsters would be in. The movie really delivers the goods; there is plenty of monster action here. One of the reasons this movie works so well is the monsters are played straight, working well against Abbott and Costello’s brand of comedy. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a great film, it is the best horror/comedy of all time, and has not been matched even to this day. I highly recommend this film.
Watch the trailer for Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,
