Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein

Knowing how it worked back in the day, I'm sure Universal had no inkling that they were creating a comedy classic and the best known Abbott and Costello feature besides Buck Privates. Universal's reputation was built on these Gothic horror classics like Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolfman and their many incarnations. So I'm sure the decision was to give their horror sets some work and combine the genres.

They made a very funny film, but in the process killed the horror genre. Please note that there were very few straight horror sequels done after Abbott and Costello finished with these monsters. By becoming the butt of Bud and Lou's burlesque humor, they somehow lost the power to truly frighten. It took the British Hammer Film Studio to revive the genre in the Fifties with some more up to date special effects.

Bud and Lou are a couple of delivery men, working for what I guess was UPS at the time and they lose a couple of crates consigned to Frank Ferguson's Amusement house of horrors. But they didn't exactly lose them. The crates contained the bodies of the real Dracula and real Frankenstein monster played by Bela Lugosi and Glenn Strange. And they walked off on poor Costello and no one will believe him.

Except of course Lon Chaney, Jr. playing Lawrence Talbot, concerned citizen by day and werewolf at night when the moon is full. After that it's a merry chase after these monsters as Dracula decides that Costello has a brain perfect for the Frankenstein monster's body.

Of course it would be another 30 years or so before Mel Brooks realized the full implication of that. I think Costello might have consented to the operation had he realized.

It's reported by Lou Costello's daughter Chris that her dad wasn't totally convinced this film was going to work out for the team. Everyone around him told him he was never funnier, but Costello didn't believe it until Universal started counting the box office receipts.

So a cheaply made comedy, utilizing existing sets makes a mint. Come to think of it, that was what Buck Privates also did.