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1940's, abbott, abbott and costello, abbott and costello meet frankenstein, abbott and costello movie, abby normal, black and white, black and white movie, boris karloff, brain, bud abbot, castle, classic, classic comedy, classic Hollywood, Comedy, count dracula, crossover, florida, frankenstein, frankenstein's brain, frankenstein's monster, funny, glenn strange, Horror, horror comedy, horror for kids, horror movie, house of horrors, lon chaney jr., lou costello, reanimate, reanimate frankenstein, the brain of frankenstein, transformation, universal monsters, Universal Studios, vampire, wax museum, wolfman
When I was a kid, my dad raised me on a steady diet of Abbott and Costello. Some of my fondest memories of the two of us include him popping in a tape of the classic duo’s capers after many of our intense Mario Kart sessions. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello contributed a lot to comedy in their thirty years together, most notably the famous “Who’s On First” routine, but for many they reached their peak with 1948’s Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The meeting of the two teams sounds like something wouldn’t work in theory but does gangbusters in practice. Bud and Lou’s career needed a boost right around the time Universal’s famous movie monsters were dwindling in popularity, so it was decided to bring the two together. Though some, even Lou Costello, had their doubts, the film was so successful that kicked off a whole series of Abbott and Costello running into other notable monsters and characters (with varying levels of quality). It’s arguably the first mainstream horror-comedy and it’s easy to see why it was such a big hit. It’s a loving homage to Universal’s golden age of horror that knows how to poke fun at the cliches it’s wrought and when to inject terror to up the suspense. Even the contrast between our creature actors’ melodramatic, haunted delivery and Bud and Lou’s rapid-fire responses when played against each other provide just as much laughs as suspense.
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