There seems like few things quite as antithetical as the
comedy routines of Budd Abbott and Lou Costello and the frights of the
Universal horror monsters. The value of both of these film properties Universal had
its hands on were fading, and in a desperate effort they threw them together.
The result in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was something that
benefited from the mismatched elements of horror and comedy. The funny business
is far funnier because it feels bizarrely out of place and yet uncannily
appropriate. The Universal monsters, Frankenstein’s Monster (Glenn Strange),
Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and the Wolfman (Lon Chaney Jr.), were always a little
campy and recognizing that exaggerated nature and placing it against the
cartoonish charms of the comic duo makes it appropriately amusing. Yet director
Charles Barton doesn’t sacrifice scares in the name of comedy; some good
moments of horror are provided for all the monsters and this became a fitting
swan song for them.
Grade: B+
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