If you're reading this review, it's probably a fair assumption to make that you've seen ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN many times as a youth. It's one of the funniest movies ever made, and even though it stars one of Hollywood's greatest comedy duos (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello succeeded in just about every entertainment arena there was at the time: on stage, on radio, on motion picture theater screens, and on television), there are moments in the film that are extremely frightening, especially to a young child. I was roughly six years-old when I first saw it in my cousin's basement. He had a Castle Films Super 8mm 400' excerpt of scenes from the film on a single reel. 

Being so long ago, I don't recall if the movie even had sound. It didn't matter however; the scenes involving the monsters gave me nightmares and my cousin got a scolding from my mother at Thanksgiving. It also didn't help that he had a black light poster of the Frankenstein monster hanging right next to the screen:

As I got older and realized that it was just a movie, I really grew to love the film. Every Sunday morning at 11:30 AM, WPIX-TV in New York used to show the Sunday Morning Movie which consisted of one of eighteen Abbott and Costello films that they made for Universal International in the 1940's and 1950's. Some were terrific, some weren't so great, but Sunday mornings weren't the same without Abbott and Costello.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN is ranked number 56 on the American Film Institute's list of top 100 comedies.  I believe that ranking to be quite unfair, as it should instead be in the top ten. No matter how many times I've seen this film, it never fails to make me laugh out loud. It was Jerry Garcia's favorite movie, for heaven's sakes!  Filmed in February and March of 1948, the film was released on Tuesday, June 15, 1948. The budget was just under $800,000.

The premise works perfectly because the duo and the monsters play the material straight. Lon Chaney, Jr. sells the movie in his portrayal of Larry Talbot, a man who knows all about the Frankenstein monster and Dracula since he himself is the Wolf Man.  He attempts to stop the shipment of the exhibits of Dracula and Frankenstein's monster to McDougal's House of Horrors (nice plug!), fully believing them to be real monsters. Naturally, his attempts to convince Chick Young (Bud Abbott) do not go according to plan, however Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello), through his own gullibility, begins to believe him.  Wilbur's girlfriend Sandra (Lenore Aubert) initially appears innocent, though she proves to be in on the plot to replace the Frankenstein's monster's brain with a dim-witted one, namely Wilbur's. This sets into motion some of the funniest antics that Abbott and Costello have ever performed on screen.

When reading about the history of the making of this film, one comes to learn that the original script was entitled THE BRAIN OF FRANKENSTEIN. Lou Costello was not a fan of this script, and even commented that his five-year-old daughter could have written better.  Learning this fact later on truly astonished me. The title of the film was also changed to avert confusion to the audience who might have assumed that was a legitimate Universal monster movie.

The film has been released on just about every home video format that has existed thus far. The biggest upgrade came to the film when it was first released on DVD twelve years ago this week. Now, thanks to the availability of Blu-ray, and as part of Universal Films' 100th anniversary, the movie has been upgraded and released in a combo set containing a Blu-ray, a DVD which replicates the 2000 DVD release, and a digital copy.  If you're wondering about the presence of the Realart Pictures logo title card that found its way into the subsequent DVD releases of the film, the answer is no.  These discs contain the Universal International title cards, and I can honestly say that the Blu-ray is definitely worth the upgrade.  The picture is much clearer and sharper as one would expect from such an upgrade. The extras from the previous edition have been ported over to the Blu-ray and give insight into the making of this classic film. 

New bonus features available on the Blu-ray include two short promos. The first is called 100 YEARS OF UNIVERSAL: THE LOT which features sound bites from Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann, Ron Howard, John Landis, Dan Ackroyd and others talking about their love of making films at Universal on the famed back lot.  This promo runs just under ten minutes.  The second is called 100 YEARS OF UNIVERSAL: UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS that covers the gamut of the classic monsters, Al Pacino's turn as SCARFACE, and BACK TO THE FUTURE to name just a few.  This runs just over eight minutes. 

Click here to order it from Amazon.com.