Bud Abbott And Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948): Universal milks some laughs from its classic monsters

Bud Abbott And Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein, 1948, directed by Charles Barton, 3.5 stars.

Bud Abbott And Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein was a surprise box-office hit in 1948. It was a movie the two stars did not want to do. Most everyone involved hated working with them. But not much else was happening at the time for anybody, so they all had to suck it up and just do it.

Abbott and Costello were at a career crossroads. They had just lost their long-running radio show, they were in a nasty personal feud with each other, and both were struggling with health issues.

Universal's megahit monster series had petered out, reduced to lame sequels and crossovers during the World War II years.

And the studio was struggling to stay afloat through a succession of desperate mergers and acquisitions. Universal-International, as it was known in 1947, got hold of a script titled The Brain Of Frankenstein that featured several of the studio's iconic monsters.

The plot had Dracula seeking a simpleton brain to transplant into the Frankenstein monster. The studio still had Abbott and Costello under contract, and someone got the idea that Lou would be perfect for the part of the targeted victim.

Costello hated the script and wanted no part of it. Universal dangled a $50,000 cash advance in front of Lou, and he and his estranged partner reluctantly got on board.

Bela Lugosi agreed to play Dracula for the first time in more than 15 years. And Lon Chaney Jr., dumped a few years earlier by Universal, returned to play The Wolf Man.

Glenn Strange, the then-current go-to for the Frankenstein creature, returned to the makeup chair. Boris Karloff later agreed to do a promotional appearance as the monster, but "only if I don't have to see the movie."

Despite all the turmoil, the damn thing worked. Audiences flocked to it, and a bickering comedy team and a struggling studio got their grooves back.

I've watched Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein a couple of times in the past several months. It holds up reasonably well. It's more goofy than spooky, obviously. As far as the monsters, Bela Lugosi's Dracula shines brightest. He's charismatic as hell as the pivotal character.

I give it 3.5 stars on Letterboxd. I found a few good laughs in there -- some of them ironic. Dracula running scared from The Wolf Man and then stopping to conk him on the head with a chair is one of the funniest things ever.