Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein: Amazon.ca: DVD: DVD

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Universal Pictures made a great deal of money from its monster movies in the 1930s. In the early '40s, the burlesque team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello kept the studio's coffers full. When the two franchises were combined in 1948, the result was another windfall--despite the apparent oil-and-water mix of subject matter. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was the first of these summit meetings, although the title is a misnomer. Actually, Bud and Lou bump into most of the Universal heavy-hitters, including Count Dracula (played by Béla Lugosi himself), the Wolfman (Lon Chaney Jr.), and the Frankenstein monster (veteran monster Glenn Strange). There's even a token appearance by the Invisible Man, whose disembodied voice is recognizable as that of Vincent Price. Sure enough, the film is funny, especially since it gives the portly Costello multiple opportunities to do his wide-eyed, quivering scaredy-cat routine. Audiences ate it up, and in future installments Bud and Lou would run into Boris Karloff, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Invisible Man, and the Mummy. But the first was the best. --Robert Horton

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Customer Reviews

59 Reviews

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3 star:		(1)
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4.6 out of 5 stars (59 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Little family gratitude for all your kind reviews, May 28 2004

By

Richard Lees "rl" (Altadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (DVD)

Hello All
I was just wandering through amazon and came upon this section and was just delighted to find "A&C meet Frankenstein" getting such nice compliments.
I would like to let you all know that my father Robert Lees and his writing partner and an old family friend, Freddy Rinaldo, wrote this film.
Freddy is no longer with us but my father is still, all of 92 years old, and is thrilled that after all these years you all like the film.
A little addenda:
You all must remember that A&C were essentially radio comedians,
and it was from his training in radio that Costello had the bad habit of coming unglued if he didn't consistantly get laughs from the crew for each gag each take, no matter how many takes were involved in getting a scene right.. For him the crew was a live audience, so if he didn't take the house down, he would put in another piece of business and reinvent the scene on the spot until he did - and he was very inventive! I don't know how successfull they were, but they tried to take him aside and explain how important it was to actually follow the script!! Dad said that Lugosi enjoyed this aspect of Costello very much although I'm not so sure whether the director did, or the writers either for that matter.
Both Dad and Fred respected the "horror/terror" genre in literature very much noting to me when I was younger how complex and interesting the form had become in the hands of writers like Dunsynane Tolstoy Lovecraft Saki,or Poe to name a few.
Tolstoy wrote some strange and luminous things in this old form, once a short story about a Vampyre.
But in those days and by the time Universal Studios got through exploiting it all, "The Wolfman meets Dracula, meets Frankenstein,meets the Mummy, meets the Andrews Sisters" well, lets just say that the bloom was well off the rose.....
And so the object for them was not to parody the genre (at least the serious part) but to parody what Universal Studios had by this time done to the genre....
One of my favorite parts in the film is that sublimely dysfunctional chase scene at the end.
And its true, they had a blast writing the movie.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all-time favorites!!, April 28 2004

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John Cannon (Chesterfield, MO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (DVD)

I can't remember exactly when I first saw this movie, but I know I must have been about 10...and that was 33 years ago. This still rates as one of my all-time favorite movies and Abbott and Costello's best film; the movie is so much fun. As most of the reviews have stated, the key element to the film's success is that the monsters played it straight and the comedy was left to Lou Costello - and what a wonderful result. One of our family traditions now is to set up a tent in the backyard in October and bring our portable television set inside and watch "Abbott + Costello Meet Frankenstein." My kids LOVE this movie!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars a loving tribute and A& Cs best!, April 26 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (DVD)

kudos must still go tO the universal exec who came up with this.
the film is a loving sendoff/tribute to the universal horror icons and A&Cs best film by far.
Lugosi actuall gives a bette rperfromance here as the count than he did in the original Dracula, which was static and over acted. A lot of crititcs have said that Lugosi played it straight here, but that's not quite true. he draped his cape over his nose
(something, despite the cliches, he never did in the original) and has several great comedic lines ('what we need is young blood and brains'). Lugosi always considered himself a comedian and for once he is given that opportunity, thus blowing away the prevelant attitudes that he was a not so bright actor that didn't know a lick of english and thus 'accidentally' gave an eerie delivery.
Chaney too is very good. he was and remains an underrated actor. watch him tear up in the macabre 'spider babay' or his performance in ' high noon' 'the defiant ones' and 'of mice and men' (of course) to see how great an actor he could really be.
and everything with A & C is perfect here. sadly, they would go way down hill and become tiresome shortly after.
ONE MAJOR COMPLAINT:
the make up of Bud Westmore doesn't hold a candle to Jack pierce.
Universal uncerimoniousely sacked Pierce because he was no longer 'quick enough'.
oh, Westmore was quicker and it shows!

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Service
My purchase was delivered promptly and the item was in very good condition just as I had expected. I would buy from this seller again.

Published 17 months ago by Harmony

4.0 out of 5 stars Richard Lees thanks for your incite
I just acquired this A&C DVD so I checked into amazon to see what the other customers thought and I enjoyed Richard Lees' comments and I'd like to invite him and all Abbott... Read more

Published on Jun 8 2004 by Bliggick