Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

When it comes to classic horror-comedies, the Abbott and Costello monster meetups are the standard, so a month devoted to this niche would be incomplete without them, and this one above all. Not only is this, by far, the most well-known of that spate of movies, I don't think it's a stretch to call it the most well-known Abbott and Costello movie, period. Even though they made tons of popular and profitable movies during their career, do many people nowadays know of Buck Privates, In the Navy, or The Naughty Nineties (even though that does feature the famous "Who's on First?" routine)? I'm not so sure, but just about everybody has at least heard of the title Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. It certainly served as my real introduction to them after having slowly but surely learned of them from references in stuff I watched as a kid, like the Loony Tunes cartoons. After having first read about this and their other "meet the monster" movies in that Monster Madness book I got when I was around ten or eleven years old, as well as seen clips in some old horror film documentaries, I finally saw Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein for the first time one afternoon on Sci-Fi Channel when I was in either late elementary or early middle school. I missed the actual beginning but managed to come in on that well-known scene where Costello first encounters Dracula as he continually tries to rise from his coffin and watched it to the end. Although my memories of that viewing are a bit dim, I can remember enjoying the movie, mainly for seeing Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, and the Wolf Man in the same movie, as I hadn't yet seen House of Frankenstein or House of Dracula, but I did also enjoy the comedy from Abbott and Costello getting freaked out and running for their lives from the monsters. After that viewing, I don't think I ever saw it on TV again, and I never owned on it VHS; in fact, I didn't get it on DVD until many, many years later, when I got it in a set that had their other monster meetups. Watching it as an adult, I do still think it's an enjoyable movie, and it's also a significant one in that, as many have noted, it's the swan song for the iconic Universal incarnations of these classic horror characters. Mind you, it's not my personal favorite of these movies, as I think the story gets a bit bloated and top-heavy from the presence of the three monsters and the side characters, in addition to Abbott and Costello, but it's still a fun one, regardless.

In London, Lawrence Talbot makes a desperate trans-Atlantic phone call to the railway station in La Mirada, Florida, where Chick Young and Wilbur Grey work as baggage clerks. Wilbur, who's positively giddy due to having attracted the interest of a lovely woman named Sandra, receives the call and Talbot warns him not to deliver the two crates that are addressed to the McDougal House of Horrors. Talbot then turns into the Wolf Man, and when Wilbur hears him snarling and growling, he thinks it was a prank call. The very high-strung and irritable Mr. McDougal arrives and demands they give him the crates, and when he sees how clumsily Chick and Wilbur handle one of them, he demands they deliver them personally to his House of Horrors so he can have his insurance agent inspect them. That night, they deliver the crates after hours, and open up one to find it contains a coffin with the Dracula crest on it. When Wilbur, who's already spooked by the creepy exhibits in the museum, is left alone while Chick goes to get the other crate, he reads an exhibit card that tells of the Dracula legend and is horrified when the vampire begins to rise from the coffin. He tries to tell Chick, but Dracula manages to sneak out of the coffin before he can show him. They then open up the other crate, which Wilbur sees contains the body of Frankenstein's monster, but when he tries to warn Chick, he panics and damages one of the displays. When Wilbur is, again, left alone, he comes across Dracula, who entrances him and then revives the monster. The two of them depart and McDougal arrives to find his two prized exhibits missing, leading him to have Chick and Wilbur arrested. Dracula arrives at an island castle owned by Wilbur's girlfriend, Dr, Sandra Mornay, who fled Europe due to some questionable operations. She's conspired with Dracula to restore the monster to life and intends to give him a simple brain that will make him easier to control... namely, Wilbur's. After he and Chick are bailed out of jail, they're visited by Talbot, who's arrived from Europe and tells them he's been tracking Dracula, suspecting he intends to reanimate the monster. Though Wilbur is happy that Talbot confirms his story, Chick is still skeptical and unaware of the danger his friend is in, with Sandra planning to perform the operation when he picks her up for a masquerade ball the following night.

William Goetz

When you read up on the history of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and how it came to be, you see just how much it served as a major turning point for both Abbott and Costello themselves and Universal's cycle of horror films. It came about due to need and desperation, as the studio, which had recently merged with independent company International Pictures and was now going by the name, "Universal-International," hadn't had a major hit since the merger and was facing bankruptcy. William Goetz, one of International Pictures' co-founders, had become the studio's new production chief and also put the kibosh on the studio's horror films, as well as its other "B-level" products, in order to bring in some prestige and also because he felt those movies had given the studio a bad name. But now, he desperately needed a hit. Since Abbott and Costello's career wasn't going so well at the time, either, as their last few movies hadn't been that successful, Robert Arthur, who'd produced two of their previous three films, came up with the idea of having them meet the classic monsters. Though Goetz and others, including Lou Costello himself, didn't think much of the idea, they went ahead with it anyway, and it really paid off for the studio. While it didn't ensure the continuation of the monsters featured in the movie, it did prove that modest-budgeted genre product was still lucrative at the studio, thus leading to the other Abbott and Costello monster meetups and the spate of sci-fi/horror and monster flicks Universal would produce in the 50's. It also gave Abbott and Costello themselves the necessary momentum to keep going for another eight years.

Lou Costello is famously said to have remarked that his little daughter could have written something better than the initial script of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and one of the things that made him agree to do the movie at all, besides the lucrative payday, was knowing that the director would be Charles Barton. Barton was not only a good friend of the duo's but had already directed four of their movies, including 1947's Buck Privates Come Home and their most recent film, The Noose Hangs High. He's often considered the best director they ever worked with, as he allowed them much more free reign than many of the others, and would ultimately direct nine movies with them in total. Before that, he'd done many movies over at Columbia, including 1944's Hey Rookie, the first starring role for Joe Besser, and the year after Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Barton would memorably direct them, along with Besser and even Shemp Howard, in the film, Africa Screams. However, he would only direct one other of their horror-comedies: 1949's Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.

As Chick Young and Wilbur Grey respectively, Abbott and Costello appear in this film as a pair of baggage clerks at a railway station in Florida, with the former, as usual, bossing the other around as he acts like a clumsy, wise-cracking goofball. Wilbur, however, isn't bothered by this at all, as he's over the moon with how the lovely Sandra Mornay has taken an interest in him, something Chick can't understand at all. Chick becomes all the more frustrated later on when the lovely Joan Raymond bails them both out of jail and takes a supposed liking to Wilbur as well, saying it was love at first sight. Not knowing she's actually an insurance investigator hoping to get information about the disappearance of Mr. McDougal's exhibits out of him, Wilbur allows her to come with him to the very masquerade party he's taking Sandra to, prompting Chick to confront him. When he can't scare him into it, he acts all buddy-buddy and asks him to allow him to take one of the girls off his hands. Wilbur seems to consider it, leading to this exchange: "I've always shared with you." "That you have!" "If I had two cigarettes, I'd give you one." "That's right." "And if I had two pairs of shoes, I'd give you a pair." "Don't I know that?" But then, Wilbur suggests to Chick, "Why don't you light that cigarette, put on those shoes, and take a walk for yourself?" Like Joan, though, Sandra also has ulterior motives behind her interest in Wilbur, as she intends to put his simple brain into the skull of the Frankenstein monster so he'll be easier for Dracula to control. Wilbur encounters both of them when he and Chick deliver the crates containing them to the McDougal House of Horrors, becoming terrified when he sees Dracula rising from his coffin and panicking upon seeing the monster's face beneath the excelsior in his crate. Repeatedly, Wilbur tries to warn Chick of this but, each time, he just misses seeing them, and when Wilbur is left alone at one point, Dracula entrances him before reviving the monster and leaving with him. The disappearance of the "exhibits" is what leads to the two of them being jailed, after which they meet Lawrence Talbot, who tells them of Dracula's plan for the monster. While Wilbur is happy to have someone confirm what he saw, Chick thinks Talbot is certifiable, especially when he claims to be a werewolf, and dismisses his story as nonsense.

Unlike the other two monsters, Wilbur has two scenes with the Wolf Man where he has no clue how close he comes to getting mauled to death. The first one, in the apartment Talbot takes across from his and Chick's, has him bringing Talbot's suitcase into the room and wandering around in a carefree manner, leaving a note for Talbot and taking an apple from the fruit bowl, completely oblivious to the Wolf Man as he stalks him. The second is when he and Talbot are

looking for Joan when she disappears at the masquerade party and Talbot, after transforming again, stalks him through the swamp. Thinking it's Chick wearing a wolf mask he brought as his costume, Wilbur yells and even punches and kicks the Wolf Man before the werewolf gets after him. Before that, when Wilbur and Chick go to Sandra's castle, Wilbur gets a call from Talbot telling him he believes they're in Dracula's lair, which almost sends him running out the door. Chick, determined to prove it's not real, decides to search the

castle, but when they become separated, Wilbur, again, runs into Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, but Chick misses seeing them once more. When Dracula introduces himself to the group under his guise of Dr. Lejos, Wilbur initially seems to recognize him but his flattering of him, saying Sandra has told him all about him, erases his fears. Later, at the masquerade party, Sandra, who's been made Dracula's slave and turned into a vampire herself, attempts to entrance and bite Wilbur but Chick and Talbot interrupt her. Following Talbot's transformation into the Wolf Man, he attacks McDougal, who's also at the party, and due to Chick's wolf mask and an altercation he and Wilbur had with him earlier, they're chased into the swamp. There, Dracula uses his hypnotic powers to take out both Wilbur and Chick, taking the former back to the castle.

The following evening, while Wilbur is held captive at the castle and learns of his intended fate, Chick teams up with Talbot and they head there to save him. Though they manage to find him, Dracula uses his influence to call Wilbur back and Sandra nearly succeeds in cutting into his skull, when Chick and Talbot come to the rescue again. Wilbur briefly gets caught up in a fight that breaks out between

Dracula and the Wolf Man, and Chick manages to free him, only for the two of them to get chased through the castle by an energized Frankenstein monster. Eventually, the two of them manage to flee in a boat, and after all the monsters are vanquished, Wilbur tells Chick he'd best believe him the next time he saws he saw something. Chick declares they have nothing left to be afraid of, when the Invisible Man shows up in the back of their boat. They promptly jump into the water and swim for it.

Not surprisingly, because the film's focus is Abbott, Costello, and the monsters, the supporting characters aren't that memorable. The most notable one is Sandra Mornay (Lenore Aubert), the lovely European woman who, much to Chick's confusion, has an interest in Wilbur. Her reasoning for this, his brain, baffles Chick even more, given how dopey and childish he is, but, of course, we learn she's working with Count Dracula and intends to put Wilbur's brain into the skull of Frankenstein's monster so he'll be more obedient. Her motivation for helping Dracula is left a bit vague, but he mentions some "curious operations" that attracted the attention of the authorities over in Europe and also promises her anything she wants if she manages to restore the monster for him. We can guess that those operations were akin to the work of Dr. Frankenstein himself, and she's now studied the good doctor's notes so she has a better chance in succeeding. Initially, she plans on performing the operation the night of the masquerade ball she's asked Wilbur to take her to, but his stopping by her castle with Chick and Joan Raymond throws a monkey wrench into it. She learns Joan is an insurance agent who's been snooping around, and her uneasiness is compounded by her assistant, Prof. Stephens, asking a lot of questions and Wilbur admitting he bumbled his way down into the castle basement, where the monster and Dracula's coffin are kept. Feigning a headache to make everyone else leave for the party without her, she tells Dracula of her concerns in private and says they must wait to perform the operation. Dracula, however, isn't keen on waiting, and when Sandra refuses to budge, he decides to use his hypnotic powers on her. She insists her will is as strong as his but she quickly succumbs to his influence and is bitten. Now a vampire herself, Sandra goes to the party with Dracula, under orders to take Wilbur back to the castle. But, although she's now totally obedient to Dracula, there is a moment where, in attempting to seduce Wilbur into going with her, she comes close to biting him, which I don't think was part of the plan. After she fails to do so, Dracula captures Wilbur himself and takes him back to the island. Sandra remains totally obedient to the Count for the rest of the film and comes very close to cutting into Wilbur's skull for the operation. Chick and Talbot spoil things and, in the ensuing madness, Sandra dies a surprisingly brutal death when the recharged Frankenstein monster throws her out the window.

The other female lead, Joan Raymond (Jane Randolph), initially seems like she's going to be a significant character, as she's an insurance investigator who's been hired to find the "exhibits" McDougal thinks Chick and Wilbur stole from his museum. She posts bail for the two of them so she can come onto Wilbur and get him to lead her to the exhibits. Inviting herself along with him to the masquerade party, Joan then ends up at Sandra's castle. While she and Sandra are getting ready,

she snoops around and finds Dr. Frankenstein's notebook. Before she can find anything else, though, she and the boys head out to the party, along with Sandra's suspicious assistant, Prof. Stephens (Charles Bradstreet). In order to deflect his constant questions about the strange equipment that's been installed in the laboratory, Dracula, in his guise as Dr. Lejos, suggests Stephens accompany the others to the party, and he's so taken with Joan that he agrees. At the party, Dracula ask Joan to dance with him and, some point, abducts and entrances her, imprisoning her on the island with Wilbur. Stephens, on the other hand, gets caught up in the confusion that breaks out when McDougal accuses Chick of having attacked him and the mob chases him into the swamp. By the following evening, he's back at the laboratory, but after finding the entranced Joan and Dr. Frankenstein's notebook, he confronts Dracula. He intends to take Joan back to town and alert the authorities, but Sandra knocks him unconscious and he's taken to the basement. Chick and Talbot manage to save him along with Wilbur, and Stephens gets Chick and Talbot's help in saving Joan. During the climax in the castle, Stephens stays with the still entranced Joan by their escape boat, and after Dracula is vanquished, she's released from his control. At the end of the movie, Stephens saves Chick and Wilbur from Frankenstein's monster by soaking the dock he's on with gasoline and setting it aflame.

Mr. McDougal (Frank Ferguson), the owner of the museum where Chick and Wilbur are to deliver Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, is an uptight, short-tempered, and agitated man whose introduction has him yelling at Wilbur at the baggage office for not getting to him sooner. He becomes all the more agitated when he sees how clumsily Wilbur handles one of his crates, threatening to collect the insurance money if they're damaged, and demands they deliver the crates to his museum personally so he can have his insurance agent inspect them. By the time he and his agent get there, Dracula and the monster have fled the scene and the outraged McDougal has Chick and Wilbur jailed for theft; much to his chagrin, Joan Raymond bails them out. He runs into them again at the masquerade party, assaulting Wilbur and demanding he tell him where his exhibits are. Because of this, Chick plans to have him arrested for but is unable to secure a witness. Later, when McDougal is attacked by the Wolf Man, he accuses Chick, due to the altercation and his costume being a wolf mask, leading to Chick and Wilbur being chased into the swamp. At the end of the movie, McDougal and his insurance agent make their way to Sandra's island, only to come face to face with Frankenstein's monster as he's chasing Chick and Wilbur, forcing them both to jump in the water by the pier.

As has been said countless times, Bela Lugosi will be forever known as having been the actor behind the most famous and iconic depiction of Count Dracula, making it crazy to think that his appearance here was the only other time after the original 1931 Dracula that he played the role on film. It's even crazier to think that, like they did back when they made that film, Universal were initially thinking of casting another actor, but, according to film historian Gregory Mank, Lugosi's manager apparently went to the studio head and brow-beat them into casting him. Although it would have been nice to see Lugosi return as Dracula in another serious horror film (not counting movies like The Return of the Vampire, where he basically is Dracula under a different name), it's great to have him back in the role, period, and his performance here is quite superb. Obviously, he's not going to be as creepy as he was in the originally, but he manages to make the Count no less effective an antagonist. The difference is that, rather than a creeping, demonic presence that must be vanquished, here Dracula is almost like a comic book villain, with his plan to reanimate Frankenstein's monster with a brain that will make him more obedient to his commands. He sees fit that himself and the monster are transported to the United States under the cover of exhibits for McDougal's House of Horrors and then brings him to Sandra Mornay's home, conspiring with her to perform the necessary operation while promising to give her anything she wants in return. He also masquerades as a scientist himself, going by the name of Dr. Lejos, and is pleased when he formally meets Wilbur, knowing that his simple brain will be perfect for his plans. But, just when it seems like the time has come, Sandra gets cold feet and makes up an excuse that allows Wilbur to slip away to the masquerade party with the others. Unwilling to jeopardize his plan, Dracula first tries to use the fact that she's wanted by the European police to make Sandra proceed with the operation, but when that doesn't work, he uses his hypnotic powers and bites her, turning her into a vampire.

Although he was in his mid-60's by this point, and would die just eight years later, Lugosi looks quite good here and manages to carry himself through this comedy with the same dignity and class you'd expect from him. Again, he's hardly at his creepiest, but he does manage to come off as eerie in some scenes, such as when he hypnotizes people, moments that are accompanied by a spooky bit on the soundtrack and him covering the bottom half of his face with his cape. Also, the scene where he uses

his powers on Sandra allows him to be very menacing and that sense grows with his warnings that he can make her do what he wants and then tells her to look into her eyes, culminating in the shot where he goes in for the bite. In addition, he manages to come off as somewhat light-hearted and jokey in the scene where he's introduced to everyone as Dr. Lejos, flattering Wilbur to the point where he becomes bashful, saying, "What we need today is young blood... and brains," while stroking his noggin. He makes

a further, more macabre joke when he says, "Ah, you young people, making the most of life... while it lasts." And when he shows up at the masquerade party in his cape and tux and Lawrence Talbot confronts him, calling him Count Dracula, he laughs it off, commenting, "What an odd hallucination. But, the human mind is often inflamed with strange complexes. I suggest you consult your physician, Mr. Talbot." But after that, when he entrances Joan Raymond and captures Wilbur, Dracula is all business and eager to do the operation, only for it to be spoiled by Talbot and Chick's intervention. The climax finds Dracula fighting off the Wolf Man throughout the castle and attempting to escape as a bat, only for the Wolf Man to grab him and fall into the ocean with him.

This marks Lon Chaney Jr.'s final turn as Lawrence Talbot and the Wolf Man, but it also happens to be his least emotionally charged performance in the role, as his focus throughout the whole story is finding Dracula and Frankenstein's monster in order to destroy them both, rather than ending his curse, as it always was before. In fact, Talbot is something of a Van Helsing figure here in how determined he is to find Dracula, having tracked him and the monster across Europe and also

apparently having had confrontations with him in the past, if what he says to Dracula at the party is any indication. When he arrives in Florida, he attempts to get Chick and Wilbur to believe him but becomes frustrated with how Wilbur, despite knowing he's right, is too scared to help, while Chick thinks they're both nuts. Also not helping are his nightly transformations into the Wolf Man, during which he has to have himself locked up, and his claims about having been bitten by a werewolf and becoming one are done in a very melodramatic manner. Speaking of which, like before, the Wolf Man is just a savage, bloodthirsty beast, but not only does he not kill anyone (although, it's not revealed what happened after he transformed while he was in London at the beginning, and he does attack and badly injure McDougal offscreen), he's the monster who most often gets caught up in the comedy. At the beginning, his snarling over the phone at Wilbur makes him think it's a prank call, he later stalks a completely oblivious Wilbur in his room, and in the second act, tries to get at Wilbur in the swamp, only to repeatedly trip and get caught up in the foliage, as well as get batted around a bit by Wilbur himself. After Dracula captures Wilbur and takes him to the island, Talbot and Chick track them there and attempt to save him, along with Joan and Prof. Stephens. Talbot becomes the Wolf Man again and quickly sets his sights on Dracula, chasing him through the castle and apparently killing them both when he leaps at and grabs Dracula when he tries to fly away as a bat, sending them both tumbling into the ocean.

By this point, makeup artist Jack Pierce was gone from Universal and had been replaced by Bud Westmore and his regime, who made use of newer, faster, and more cost-saving materials like foam rubber, as opposed to Pierce's slow methods of using cotton and collodion. As a result, the Wolf Man makeup in this film is noticeably different from the way it looked before, making use of a foam rubber forehead, nose, and upper lip, and the face itself seems a lot hairier, making it to

where it's harder to see Lon Chaney Jr. underneath it. The hair on the Wolf Man's head seems to be not as poofy as it was before and looks a little more groomed. Chaney, who could never get along with Pierce, is said to have found this makeup much more comfortable, and it was also a lot faster to apply, but it doesn't look as good to me as Pierce's makeups for both The Wolf Man and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, where I feel the Wolf Man looked the best. The same goes for the familiar lap-dissolve transformations, which you see twice.

They're a lot faster than usual, akin to the onscreen transformations in House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, and don't have the same cool, eerie details that some of the past ones, particularly the first in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, did. And the Wolf Man's snarls and growls aren't as menacing or intimidating as they were before, and he never howls.

A sad bit of trivia about Chaney: just a couple of months before Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was released, he attempted suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills following a nasty fight with his wife. His family has never revealed what the argument was about, but in his book, Lon Chaney Jr.: Horror Film Star, 1906-1973, author Don Smith suspects the argument compounded a bout of depression Chaney was going through at the time due to having lost his long and lucrative contract with Universal a couple of years before and having not received the critical acclaim and mainstream stardom he felt he'd earned. Even sadder, while Chaney did recover and would live another 25 years, Smith feels that, when he left the hospital, he no longer had the drive to try to become a mainstream leading man and had accepted his alcoholism. As Smith himself says, "Pain had really taught him no longer to care, at least not as he had before."

Though the movie's called Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, of the main cast of characters, Frankenstein's monster is the one who's focused on the least. It's not nearly as bad as it had been in the previous two movies, especially House of Dracula, where he lied around comatose until the very end, only to lurch around a little bit before getting caught up in a fire, and, in his third time playing the monster, Glenn Strange has far more to do than before, but after his and Dracula's introductory scene, there are still big chunks of the movie where he's offscreen. When he does appear, the monster, as always, is shown to be very childlike, following Dracula around and doing what he says like an obedient kid, even managing to speak a few times and call him, "Master." He's so naive that there's a moment during the climax where Wilbur, by putting a dark cloth over his face's bottom half, is able to fool him into thinking he's Dracula, although he ruins it by lowering the cloth at the wrong moment. Speaking of which, when the monster first sees Wilbur in the House of Horrors, he's actually scared of him, and Dracula has to assure him that he can't hurt him. They don't stick with that gag after that scene and I kind of wished they did, as I think it would have been funny to see the tall, powerful, brutish monster continually terrified of the short, chubby Wilbur. Other than those moments, Strange plays the monster in the same robotic manner as he did before and, until the climax, doesn't have much to do other than sit around in the castle's basement or lurch at Wilbur under Dracula's orders. When he's re-energized for the surgery at the end, the monster goes on a destructive rampage, brutally throwing Sandra out a window when she tries to control him and chasing Wilbur and Chick throughout the castle, smashing through doors and tossing furniture aside like they're cardboard in order to get at them. He even chases them down to the dock, where he's defeated when Prof. Stephens sets the pier on fire while he's standing on it.

Like Chaney, Strange's life was made easier with the foam latex appliances Bud Westmore's team used, including a rubber head and brow piece that was fairly quick to apply, but unlike the Wolf Man, I don't feel the Frankenstein monster looks that different from when Strange played him previously. I can tell that the head and forehead are rubber but, other than that, it doesn't look that different, and it's not just because it's the same actor, as Karloff's look changed considerably during the

three times he played the monster. Maybe it's because Strange didn't have much screentime or close-up shots in the previous movies. Interesting tidbit: Strange broke his ankle while filming the laboratory scene in the climax, so Lon Chaney Jr. took over for him in the moment where he tosses Sandra out the window, meaning he technically played the monster a second time after starring in The Ghost of Frankenstein. And at the end of the movie, when the monster meets his fiery end on the pier, they used an articulated dummy with a fake head of Strange that, while clearly a prop, is kind of cool to see and does oddly work due to Strange's own stiff movements.

When Talbot is searching for Chick and Wilbur at the masquerade party, he stops a waiter and asks if he's seen them, to which he responds, "Seen them?! I don't even know them!" The reason why I bring this inconsequential character up is because the actor, Bobby Barber, was someone who Abbott and Costello often had on the sets of their movies to act as a "court jester," to keep things light by playing pranks, throwing pies, spraying seltzer water, and sometimes even walking into the scene during filming and making everyone laugh. It was part of a routine the two of them had in order to keep their energy levels up, as since they were stage-trained comedians, they found it hard to keep things going during the start-and-stop process of moviemaking. While most people on the set had no problems with Barber's antics, Bela Lugosi would get rather annoyed if he interrupted one of his scenes. He did that once in the scene where Dracula, as Dr. Lejos, walks down the stairs, and there's an outtake of Lugosi turning and seeing Barber clowning around behind him. Although the soundtrack cuts out at that moment, you can hear what sounds like Lugosi starting to yell and, from what you can see of his face and the way his mouth is moving, he looks pretty angry. And, finally, I have to mention how, at the very end of the movie, the Invisible Man shows up in Chick and Wilbur's boat and sends them swimming for their lives. It's especially cool that he's voiced by Vincent Price in sort of a nod back to The Invisible Man Returns, and you would hope that they would have carried through with him when they made Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man a few years later. Not that it's a deal-breaker that they didn't because, as we'll get into, that movie is quite good, but it would have been nice to see Price interact with Bud and Lou after we got to see Lugosi, Chaney, and, in other movies, Karloff do so.

There's debate over whether or not this film is in continuity with Universal's previous Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wolf Man films, especially given how, in the previous one, House of Dracula, both Dracula and Frankenstein's monster were killed off and, most significantly, Talbot was cured of his werewolfism. But, even before this, continuity was never a priority in these movies. The settings and time periods in which they take place are very vague, ranging from probably the time in which they were made to earlier in history,

and anywhere as specific as London or Wales to some vague Never Neverland that, at best, can be placed somewhere in Europe. Therefore, trying to line their stories up takes many leaps of logic as it is. Even though Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man made for a fairly tight and concise sequel to both The Wolf Man and The Ghost of Frankenstein, it's still not perfect, and how exactly Dracula was brought into the story of House of Frankenstein is anyone's guess, as the previous movie in that series was Son of Dracula, the events of which are never

mentioned. In fact, both Dracula and Dracula's Daughter are not mentioned there, either, as Prof. Lampini says he found Dracula's skeleton in the remains of his castle in the Carpathian Mountains, and let's also not forget that all of the Frankenstein movies after Bride of Frankenstein ignore that movie completely. Going back to House of Dracula, it decided to follow up on the fate of the Frankenstein monster at the end of House of Frankenstein, but made no attempt at

all to explain how both Dracula and the Wolf Man were alive again after the former was destroyed by the dawn and the latter shot by a silver bullet. Why would Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, of all films, be expected to do so? Not to mention, this most definitely takes place in the time it was made and is set in the United States, no less, so the timeline is definitely out the window! There are other continuity errors between these films I could bring up but, in the end, it doesn't matter. As David J. Skal says in the documentary, Abbott and Costello Meet The Monsters!, the monsters, "Were back to meet Abbott and Costello, and that was explanation enough."

I've always felt that that would have been a more appropriate title for this movie, given how it features Universal's big three monsters, with Dracula and the Wolf Man getting the most screentime. It was initially intended to feature even more monsters from Universal's past two decades of horror films, like Kharis the Mummy, Lon Chaney Jr.'s character of Count Alucard from Son of Dracula, and the Invisible Man, but it was paired down to the three we have here to make the story more manageable. Even so, this movie is trying to

juggle a lot at once by just teaming this famous comedy duo with these monsters, to say nothing of the insurance investigation subplot, the one centering around Dracula's corrupting Sandra, and the main plot of Dracula intending to have Wilbur's brain put inside the monster's skull, while Talbot is trying to find a way to stop him. It's still an entertaining movie and manages to accomplish

what it sets out to do in a satisfying manner, but, man, does it feel overstuffed at points. It kind of makes me wish they'd stuck with the main story but instead had another mad scientist, perhaps a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein or Sandra herself, be the mastermind behind the plot, and then have Abbott and Costello meet Dracula and the Wolf Man one at a time in their own movies. I know why they did it this way, as they didn't know the movie would do well enough to lead to other such flicks, and the draw of them meeting all three of these monsters in one movie is what led it to become such a big hit, but I feel there was an opportunity for simpler, yet just as funny movies that didn't come to pass.

Even though this movie does, for the most part, treat the monsters with dignity and doesn't mock them, the way they go out is disappointing, considering this is the last time we would see these classic incarnations of them. Both Dracula and the Wolf Man fall into the ocean, which could hardly be called a surefire way of vanquishing a couple of supernatural creatures who, before, needed to be taken out by sunlight, a stake through the heart, or silver bullets and silver-headed canes. Also, this is far from the first time Frankenstein's monster met

his supposed end in a fire, only to rise again. In fact, while you do see Dr. Frankenstein's notebook, which retains the same title it's had in the past movies, and the good doctor's fatal mistake of giving the monster the brain of a criminal is hinted at, the mythology and lore of vampires and werewolves isn't brought up here much. Wilbur reads the Dracula legend and it mentions how he must sleep in his coffin during the day, can turn into a bat, and lives on the blood of the living, but

it says nothing about killing him with a stake through the heart, a detail that would have surely made Wilbur gulp. As for the Wolf Man, Talbot mentions having been bitten by a werewolf and that the full moon causes him to change, but nothing is said of silver bullets. Moreover, even though the Wolf Man attacks McDougal, he himself doesn't suffer from the werewolf curse the way he should. Obviously, they couldn't even begin to consider putting another monster in this late, but the way they just ignore that very important bit of the lore is crazy.

Though it was a fairly inexpensive movie to produce (according to some film historians, it was Universal's second-cheapest of that year), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is very technically proficient. The sets built on the Universal soundstages are quite good, ranging from the mundane, like Lawrence Talbot's hotel room in London, the baggage room office where Chick and Wilbur work, the backroom where the crates and luggage are kept, and Chick and Wilbur's apartment across from Talbot's,

to the more exotic and noteworthy. One of these is McDougal's House of Horrors, which is given the classic atmosphere of a dark and stormy night outside and is full of things that freak Wilbur out, like wax dummies of blade-wielding murderers and creepy characters like hooded executioners, a skeleton in a cage, sarcophaguses and coffins, and a prop guillotine, not to mention the crates containing Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. However, that set is nothing compared to the interior of Sandra Mornay's castle, the enormous front door, foyer,

and large, winding staircase of which may actually be those of Benedict Castle in Riverside, California. While the place does have some elegant bedrooms and a library, it also has a creepy, dungeon-like basement with a revolving section of wall that leads to the outside and to some stairs that go down to the docks, a grated section of floor where light and steam pour through, catacombs that connect it to the castle interior and the outside, and it's where the monster and Dracula's coffin are kept

Upstairs, there's a Frankenstein-like laboratory full of sparking electrical equipment (likely the work of Kenneth Strickfaden), all sorts of operating tables and instruments, beakers and test tubes full of bubbling liquid, and a large door made up to look like part of the wall. Finally, there's the section of swamps and bayous near where the masquerade party is held which, although obviously a soundstage, works for the sequences set there, like Wilbur being stalked by the Wolf Man and his being captured by Dracula.

The film is also beautifully photographed by cinematographer Charles Van Enger, who not only shot some of Abbott and Costello's previous films but, notably, was the cinematographer on the original Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney Sr. The black-and-white photography is nice and stark, and even though the movie is a comedy, Van Enger does give some scenes a spooky atmosphere, like in the House of Horrors, which is initially lit by flashing lightning before the storm knocks the lights out, forcing Chick and Wilbur to depend on

candlelight and giving the scene where Wilbur reads Dracula's legend a memorably eerie look. The same goes for the scenes in the castle's basement, which is almost totally dark, save for the light coming up through the grating in the floor, and in the sequence at the masquerade ball, Van Enger manages to capture the feel of a moonlit night in the swamp and is able to make it go from romantic to creepy when Sandra begins to seduce Wilbur, without changing the lighting at all.

While hardly a special effects tour-de-force, there's some work in this film that's quite good. The miniature used for the wide shots of Sandra's castle on its little isle is very well done, with real actors sometimes placed in front of it in a convincing way, and the prop used for Dracula's bat form, though not used that much, isn't half bad. Speaking of which, the most amazing effects are the use of hand-drawn animation when Dracula turns into a bat and vice versa. Similar effects were used in the previous couple of

movies but here, they're much more sophisticated and detailed, courtesy of animator Walter Lantz, the creator of Woody Woodpecker and Chilly Willy. It is clearly animation, but the tradeoff from the real Bela Lugosi or prop bat to the animation is fairly seamless, with the best moment being when Dracula turns into a bat in front of Wilbur in the swamp. There, you not only see Lugosi transition into animation, his form then shrinking and morphing into that of the bat, but, in the same shot, Wilbur runs off and the bat gives chase, going from

the animated bat to the prop in another well-done transition. In fact, the animated bat is used more often, even in scenes where it's meant to interact with real actors or fly in front of real props, like the aforementioned miniature. There's also a moment where Wilbur sees an image of an animated bat flapping its wings in Sandra's eyes and that's well done, too, as are bits of sparkling electricity in the Frankenstein monster's bolts. The only effect in the

movie that's a bit archaic is one near the end when the Wolf Man grabs Dracula in his bat form and they tumble down into the ocean; the matting of the two of them falling in that shot and their subsequent splash looks very wonky. Also, during those animation sequences, if you look, you can see that the real actors are frozen until the animation is finished, but the animation is so cool-looking that you should be focusing on it. Finally, when the Invisible Man pops up at the very end, you can see a bit of the actor's matted outline when he lights a cigarette but you really have to be looking for it.

The movie has a memorable animated opening title sequence, where you see a cartoon Frankenstein monster knock on a couple of coffins in a crypt, one long and thin, the other short and wide, and inside are two skeletons representing Abbott and Costello, who freak out at the sight of him and crash into each other while trying to run away. Their bones are smashed apart and fall into place to form the title, and then, you get another animated sequence of the black silhouettes

of the Wolf Man, Dracula, and the monster walking over a hill with a moonlit sky behind them, as each actor playing them is mentioned below. Lenore Aubert is also represented by a suggestive, curvy silhouette of a woman who follows the monsters over the hill, running her hands down her sides at one point. The movie proper begins in London, where you see Lawrence Talbot, anxiously pacing around a hotel room and trying to make a call to the express

office in La Mirada, Florida, urging the operator to hurry. It then cuts to the baggage room at a railway station in La Mirada, where we're introduced to Chick and Wilbur as the former repeatedly yells at the latter to answer a ringing phone, only to then tell him to answer someone ringing the bell at the desk, and back and forth. Wilbur answers the phone, telling them to hold the line, and then answers the bell, which is a woman asking to have her bag. Wilbur goes out to take it off the truck, stopping to bark at the fur stole she's

carrying on her arm, and when he finds her bag, it's buried underneath a large mound of luggage. When he yanks it out, it all comes tumbling down on top of him. Chick stomps outside, admonishes him for his clumsiness, and after giving the woman her bag, orders him to clean everything up. Sandra Mornay makes her first appearance and is concerned when Wilbur tells her, "I hurt my poor, wittle head," examining his head to make sure nothing hurts before kissing him and reminding him of their date that night. Chick, dumbfounded as to why someone like

Sandra is interested in Wilbur, orders him to pick everything up and get to work. Once Sandra leaves, he and Wilbur have this exchange: "I can't understand that dame. Of all the guys around here, that classy dish has to pick out a guy like you." "What's wrong with that?" "Go look at yourself in the mirror sometime." "Why should I hurt my own feelings?" The phone rings again and Chick sends Wilbur to answer it.

When he answers it, he's told the call is coming from London and, upon learning it's not a collect call, takes it. Talbot asks Wilbur about two crates addressed to the McDougal House of Horrors and tells him not to deliver the crates until he arrives the next day. But then, Talbot begins to change into the Wolf Man and starts snarling and growling; hearing this, Wilbur says, "Mr. McDougal, will you stop gargling your throat?" Talbot collapses into a chair by

the phone and transforms completely. Continuing to hear the snarling, Wilbur tells him, "Hey, you'll have to get your dog away from the phone. I can't hear a word you're saying." It still doesn't stop, as the Wolf Man now stalks around the room, and Wilbur says, "You're awful silly to call me all the way from London just to have your dog talk to me!", then barks at the growling. The Wolf Man begins tearing up the room, as Wilbur comments, "That's polite conversation: a guy

growls like a wolf!", and hangs up the phone. He goes back to the desk and deals with a man there, who introduces himself as McDougal, much to Wilbur's confusion, since he thought he was talking to him on the phone. The high-strung McDougal yells at him and pounds his fist on the desk, demanding they give him the crates that are to go to his House of Horrors. Wilbur asks him how long he's been there, and when McDougal tells him five minutes, he says, "Well, what are you beepin' about? I've been here for five years. You don't see

me goin' around like that and yellin'..." McDougal gives him the insurance slip and angrily demands to have his crates, but Wilbur tells him to stop yelling, as it's impolite, and then yells for Chick. Sandra shows back up and calls for Wilbur again, but Chick drags him away, saying he's busy. McDougal tells Sandra that in those crates, he has a coffin containing the remains of Count Dracula and the body of Frankenstein's monster, calling them the greatest attraction his house of horrors could ask for. Sandra goes around the

desk and tells Wilbur she has to break their date. She assures him it's not another man, calling him a silly boy while pinching his chin, which leaves him absolutely enamored, saying he's floating on a cloud of love. In response, Chick tells him, "Listen, you little blimp! I'll let the air out of you in a minute if you don't give me a hand!", and shoves a bag into the side of his head. That does nothing but make Wilbur dreamily say, "Thank you," and Chick gives him a rope, telling him to climb up onto the pile of boxes and tie it to the handle of one of the crates.

Wilbur does as he's told, climbing up to where the one crate is standing upright, while still annoying Chick with how sappy he's acting over Sandra. As McDougal watches nervously, Wilbur climbs on top of the crate and, after having tied the one end to the handle, tosses the rest of the rope to Chick. He pulls on it, telling Wilbur to hold still, and the crate perilously rocks back and forth, as Wilbur stands atop it, yelling in a panic, as he seems like he's about to fall over with

it. McDougal freaks out about this and tells Chick that he intends to collect on the $20,000 insurance if the crates are damaged. The crate then falls forward, Wilbur trying to halt the force of the fall by holding onto the latch, but he's unable to stop it from crushing another box below. Enraged, McDougal gets in Wilbur's face and tells him to take the crates to his House of Horrors personally and unbox them, as he wants to have his insurance agent to inspect them before he accepts delivery. Wilbur informs him, "Well, then it's gonna cost you overtime, because I'm a union man, and I work only sixteen hours a day." McDougal snarls, "A union man only works eight hours a day!", and Wilbur adds, "I belong to two unions!" Frustrated, McDougal puffs his lower lip up, which Wilbur mimics, and when he yells, "Get those down to my place!", Wilbur, mocking him, answers, "Alright!"

That night, as a storm rages, Chick and Wilbur arrive at the House of Horrors, the former tossing Wilbur the key to open the delivery entrance. Unlocking the double-doors and opening them, Wilbur sees how creepy the place is on the inside, made even worse by the flashing lightning. They roll one of the crates on a dolly through the door, Wilbur pulling while Chick pushes, when the former stops after backing into something, saying someone has a knife on him. Chick finds the light

switch and flips it on, revealing that Wilbur backed into a weapon held by one of the wax dummies. Chick tells him to turn around and Wilbur slowly does, only to almost faint when he sees the dummy and the others behind it. Chick straightens him back on his feet, telling him it's only a dummy, to which he says, "Dummy nothin'. It was smart enough to scare me." They continue rolling the crate into the place, passing by more creepy exhibits which spook Wilbur, though

Chick tells him there's nothing to be afraid of. Reaching the back of the room, Chick has Wilbur lift up his end of the crate so he can move the dolly out from under it, only for him to continue doing so until Chick tells him he can put it down. Chick gives him a crowbar to open it up, telling him he's going out to get the other crate. On his way out, Chick is stopped when a phone rings and he answers it to find it's Mr. McDougal. After he gets off the phone and Wilbur finishes opening

the crate, the lights go out. Panicking, Wilbur calls for Chick, who comes and lights a candle by the now open box. Wilbur removes the canvas covering whatever was in the crate, revealing it to be a coffin, one with the Dracula crest on the lid. Chick, thinking McDougal is scamming people into believing Dracula is really inside the coffin, goes to open it but Wilbur stops him. Assuring him that Dracula was just a mythical person, Chick, again, goes to get the other crate and tells him to holler for him if he needs anything. Before he can leave, Wilbur does so, asking what took him and then asks him not to take so long the next time.

Once he's alone, Wilbur takes the exhibit card about Dracula's legend and reads a little from it. Initially, he believes Chick is right about it being silly, but to his left, the coffin lid opens and Dracula, after seeing him, closes it back. Hearing the wood creak loudly, Wilbur puts away the card, calmly gets to his feet, and yells for Chick. When Chick walks in, he tells him, "You know that person you said there's no such person?... I think he's in there... in person." He goes

on to describe how he was reading Dracula's legend, when he heard the creaking sound. Chick insists what he heard was the wind and Wilbur comments, "It should get oiled." Chick tells him to stop reading the card and get busy folding up the canvas. Regardless, when he's alone again, Wilbur picks the card back up and reads about how Dracula is able to become a bat. He then starts flapping his hands and going, "Whoo!", when he turns and sees Dracula's hand sticking out from

the coffin, gripping the edge. Once more, he yells for Chick, who comes back in and tells him, "Listen, you're making enough noise to wake up the dead!", to which Wilbur says, "I don't have to wake him up. He's up." He tells him he saw a hand but, when Chick goes to look, he doesn't see anything. Again telling him he's imagining things due to reading the card, he says, "Listen, Wilbur. I know there's no such a person as Dracula. You know there's no such a person as Dracula." Wilbur then asks, "But, does Dracula know it?" Laying

both the card and the candle down on the lid of the coffin, Chick tells him McDougal and his insurance agent will be there any minute and orders him to get to work. Once again, he's left by himself and, even though he knows he shouldn't, he reads some more, just as Dracula again attempts to open the coffin, causing the candle to slide across its lid, before the lid goes back down. When he sees this, Wilbur tries to yell for Chick again but he's so scared that he can barely say anything and, twice, tries to whistle, but nothing comes out. He

then gets his voice back and yells again. By this point, Chick is getting sick of the routine, and Wilbur merely points at the candle and makes a motion with his hand. Realizing what he means, he moves the candle back across to the other end of the lid and tells him to watch it to see if it'll move again (this is a gag taken from their earlier horror-comedy, Hold That Ghost). Of course, it doesn't, and Chick leaves him once more. Still having not learned his lesson, Wilbur goes back to reading, learning of how Dracula feeds on the blood of others and that he must return to his coffin before sunrise. Predictably, the coffin lid moves again and the candle slides back across. Panicking worse than ever, Wilbur grabs the candle and yells for Chick, while behind him, Dracula gets out of the coffin and goes to grab Wilbur from behind, only to flee into the darkness when Chick comes in with the other crate.

Wilbur tells him the candle moved again but Chick takes the exhibit card from him, telling him he told him to stop reading it. Having had enough, Chick stomps over to the coffin and opens the lid, horrifying Wilbur. He orders him to come over and look, and when he does, he sees the coffin's empty. Chick then gets him to open the other crate, all while Dracula watches from nearby. Chick sees and reads an exhibit card for this crate, this one about the legend of Frankenstein's monster, which ends with,

"Frankenstein gave the monster eternal life by shooting it full of electricity. Some people claim it is not dead even now, just dormant." He laughs, asking, "Now, who would be silly enough to believe that?", and Wilbur appears to agree with him, as he laughs and asks, "Who would be silly enough to believe that?", before tapping his chest, pointing at himself, and murmuring, "Me." Aggravated, Chick tells him to go on and open the crate, while behind them, Dracula prepares to

pounce but then decides to slip back into his coffin. Again, the lid creaks loudly, and Wilbur asks Chick if he heard it; Chick thinks it was him pulling the nails out of the crate. They go on trying to open the crate, when Dracula closes the coffin lid, causing another loud creak, which Wilbur knows wasn't him, as he's holding the crowbar in his hands. Chick, telling him he doesn't want to hear any more from him, gets him to help open the crate completely. Removing the lid, they start taking out the excelsior, when Wilbur removes a clump that

uncovers the head of the Frankenstein monster. Yelling, "Wow!", he quickly covers it back up and tries to grab the lid, but an exasperated Chick shoves him, causing him to fall back into one of the exhibits, which is a guillotine display. The blade cuts a dummy's head off and, right then, they hear McDougal calling for them. Chick tells Wilbur to hide the head, while he goes to deal with McDougal. Panicking, Wilbur opens the coffin, only to come face to face with Dracula. Covering half of his face with his cape, Dracula sits up and uses his hypnotic powers on Wilbur, entrancing him, forcing him to back up, and getting him to stay where he is with a wave of his hand.

Dracula walks over to the crate and removes the excelsior covering the monster, before using a small device to send electricity into the bolts on his neck and then touches his closed eyes with it. The monster slowly comes to, opening his eyes and, upon seeing Dracula, murmurs, "Master." He sits up, ripping off the sides of the crate, while behind them, Wilbur awakens from his trance. Seeing Dracula getting the monster to his feet, and then hearing him tell the monster to

follow him, he acts like he's still hypnotized. As they walk by him, the monster turns and actually gasps at the sight of Wilbur, but Dracula assures him there's nothing to fear. Outside, McDougal manages to put in a new fuse, activating the lights again, and he, his insurance agent, and Chick walk inside. As Dracula and the monster hide among the exhibits, McDougal discovers that both of his crates are empty. While he and his agent argue with Chick about what happened to them, Wilbur

tries to tell them what happened but is so scared he's unable to speak, and merely mimes the monster's walk and Dracula's gesturing and covered face. McDougal demands his insurance money, and when his agent says his company doesn't pay until after an investigation, he threatens to call the police on them. He and his agent drag Wilbur and Chick out of the building, and once they're gone, Dracula has the monster carry his coffin with them as they depart as well.

In bat form, Dracula makes his way to a little isle with a castle adorning it, flying towards a large window, behind which is a laboratory. After watching a scientist who's sitting at a desk, doing some work, Dracula flies to the castle's door and changes back into his human form. He pounds the door's large knocker and Sandra answers. Knowing who he is, she allows him in, and he suggests she call him Dr. Lejos so as not to arouse the suspicions of her assistant, Prof. Stephens. He

then tells her that he left the Frankenstein monster outside and, after getting a stole, she heads outside with him. She examines the monster's eyes as he lies motionless on the ground (how Dracula got him there in the first place is never explained) and they discuss their plan to restore him to full strength. Dracula also mentions that he wants the monster to have no will of his own that would lead him to rebel against him, and Sandra informs him, "The new brain I've chosen for the monster is so simple, so pliable, he will obey you like a trained

dog." She adds that they'll be able to perform the operation in two days, mentioning the masquerade party Wilbur is expecting to take her to but that he'd probably rather spend the evening with her instead. She then has Dracula get the monster to his feet and lead into an opening in a rock wall that leads into the castle.

The following night, having been bailed out of jail, Chick and Wilbur are in their apartment and preparing for bed, with Wilbur going on about having seen Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, much to Chick's annoyance. Wilbur imitates the monster's walk and then puts the rim of his robe around his face, imitating Dracula, and walks toward Chick, saying his eyes were like balls of fire and he kept staring at him. After looking at him, Chick acts as though he's been hypnotized and

stares straight ahead, panicking Wilbur, who asks him to act the way he usually does. Chick obliges by smacking him across the face and telling him to stop his nonsense. Outside in the hall, Talbot arrives and figures out which apartment is theirs. He knocks on the door and, after confirming he has the right guys, introduces himself as the man who telephoned Wilbur from London. He goes on to tell them he's tracked Dracula from Europe, believing he plans to revive Frankenstein's monster, and

that they must find and destroy them both. Chick, believing Talbot is just as nutty as Wilbur, suggests he tell the police his story but he says he couldn't, as he'd then have to reveal his identity. Mentioning that the moon will rise soon, he looks out the window, then gives Wilbur the key to his room across the hall from theirs and tells him to lock him inside. Wilbur goes with him, opens the door, and before Talbot goes in, he tells him not to let him out no matter what he hears. He rushes into

the room and removes his suit coat, while Wilbur closes and locks the door behind him. Wilbur walks back into his and Chick's apartment, when he sees Talbot left his suitcase. He steps back across the hall, knocks and call for Talbot, then unlocks the door when he gets no response. Walking in, he calls for Talbot and heads to the open bedroom. At that moment, Talbot, now transformed into the Wolf Man, begins to emerge from the bathroom. Standing in the bedroom doorway, Wilbur wonders where Talbot could have gone and

decides to leave him a note. He walks over to the desk by the bathroom door and writes the note, oblivious to the werewolf watching him. He heads out, unaware that the Wolf Man tries to pounce on him while his back's turned, and he stops and takes an apple from the fruit-bowl, as the Wolf Man prepares to come at him again. Walking out the door and locking it behind him, he doesn't see or hear the Wolf Man's second attempted attack. Wilbur almost makes it across the hall, when he wonders if Talbot counted the apples in the bowl.

At first, he heads back towards the door and starts to unlock it, the Wolf Man hearing this on the other side. Wilbur drops the key, then hits the top of his head on the doorknob, and just as he's about to open the door and walk right into the werewolf's waiting claws, he figures Talbot probably didn't count the apples and heads back to his own room.

The next morning, Chick and Wilbur are still arguing over Wilbur's claims, when there's a knock at the door. Seeing it's Sandra, Chick tells her to talk some sense into Wilbur. They then learn that Sandra wasn't the one who bailed them out of jail, even though the policeman told them it was a woman. She reminds Wilbur about the masquerade party and asks him to come by at sunset... alone. On her way out, Chick asks Sandra what Wilbur has that he doesn't and she says, "A brain," to

which he remarks, "I'd like to know where it is." Almost as soon as Sandra is out the door, there's another knock, and Wilbur thinks she forgot to give him a goodbye kiss. Opening the door, he immediately kisses the person on the other side, only to then see it's a woman other than Sandra. Befuddled, he backs away and sits in a chair, unable to answer Chick's question of who she is. The woman, Joan Raymond, the insurance investigator, tells them she's the one who bailed

them out, mentioning it was a case of "love at first sight." Chick assumes she's talking about him, only to be all the more flabbergasted when she, like Sandra, goes for Wilbur, calling him, "Wilbur, darling." She claims she became enamored with him when she saw him in the baggage room and asks what they're doing that night. Chick pipes up and says, "He's going to a masquerade ball, but I'm not doing anything," to which she says, "In that case, you'll be awfully lonesome," and then asks Wilbur to take her to the ball. Chick calls Wilbur over to the

corner of the room by the window and when he skips over to him, says he wanted to get a good look at him in the light. Joan prepares to leave in order to go get a costume and says she'll meet Wilbur in the lobby, which further annoys Chick. It leads to this exchange: "Look, now you've got two dates. What about Sandra, you bigamist?" "Sandra? I don't know. Joan is awful cute." "All right. You take Joan and I'll take Sandra." "Oh, Sandra sends me." "Well, then, I'll take Joan." "Joan sends me too." "Now, listen, you sawed-off Romeo. In a minute, I'll send you!" "You don't even appeal to me." Chick is literally about to strangle Wilbur over that last bit and then, he tries to talk him into letting him go with one of the girls, but Wilbur makes it clear he has no intention of giving up either one. Still, Chick follows him out the door.

Wilbur tries to lock their door, only for the key not to work, and he realizes it's the key to Talbot's room. They unlock that door and walk in to find the room has been completely trashed, with Talbot asleep on the couch, which has chunks ripped out of it. Wilbur wakes Talbot up, remarking on how awful he looks, and Talbot explains how he was bitten by a werewolf years before and now becomes one himself during the full moon. Wilbur jokes that he's kind of a wolf too, a joke that Talbot

doesn't find amusing, as he jumps up and grabs Wilbur by his coat collar. He tells him he should believe him, as he's seen the living dead, but Chick stops him when he starts to talk about finding and destroying Dracula and Frankenstein's monster again. Wilbur remarks, "I can't go. I've got a date. In fact, I've got two dates," only for Talbot to tell him, "But you and I... have a date with destiny." Wilbur's response to that? "Let Chick go with Destiny. Won't you, please? Huh?"

That night, Wilbur, Chick, and Joan arrive at Sandra's isle via a boat. Wilbur goes to fetch Sandra, telling Chick not to make any moves on Joan while he's gone, but Chick chases after him. He, again, tries to talk him into letting him have one of the girls, when Wilbur reminds him of the two girls they went out with the week before, leading to this exchange: "Yours had teeth." "Look, Wilbur... yours had teeth, too." "Did you see that tooth?" "Yes, I happened to see it." "Mine had so

much bridgework, every time I kissed her, I had to pay toll." Joan gets tired of waiting and asks if they can all go up, which Wilbur is more than willing to allow. They head to the castle's door and Joan uses the knocker. Prof. Stephens answers the door and, although he initially doesn't recognize the name "Sandra," he realizes Wilbur is talking about Dr. Mornay and allows them in. Once they're acquainted, Stephens takes an obvious interest in Joan and asks them to wait in

the library while he finishes up some work. Sandra shows up and questions Wilbur about Joan, reminding him that she asked him to come alone. She goes into the library, intending to get rid of both Joan and Chick, when she questions Joan about what she's doing there and Joan says she's on vacation, as Sandra claims she herself is. She offers to let her powder her nose and leads her upstairs, both of them telling Wilbur they'll be right back, exciting him even more and making Chick want to beat him. Wilbur then realizes the trouble he's in with

two dates, and Chick tells him, "You know the old saying: 'everything comes in threes.' Now, suppose a third girl should fall in love with you?...  We'll say her name is Mary... Now you have Mary, you have Joan, and you have Sandra. So, to prove to you that I'm your pal, your bosom friend, I'll take one of the girls off your hands." Wilbur replies, "Chick, you're what I call a real pal... you take Mary." Just then, the phone on the desk rings and Wilbur answers it. It turns out to be Talbot, who first asks for a Dr. Lejos, and when he recognizes

Wilbur's voice, he tells him, "I just got a line on Dracula and the monster. A certain Dr. Lejos has been receiving a lot of electrical equipment... just the type necessary to revive the monster." Wilbur tells him he has his own problems, but Talbot tells him, "I believe you're in the house of Dracula right now." He starts to ask him to find the monster, but that last bit of info sends Wilbur running for the door, with Chick having to stop him. Wilbur tells him Talbot was the one on the phone, as well as what he told him. Chick drags Wilbur back to the desk and yells at Talbot over the phone, only to realize he's hung up.

Determined to settle things, Chick says they're going to search the place, which Wilbur isn't keen on doing, saying Dracula's going to want "breakfast" since it's after sunset. Chick then says they're going to search the basement, and Wilbur tries to trick him into searching the basement himself while he searches outside, but Chick doesn't fall for it and drags Wilbur along. Coming to a rather small corridor in the back of the place, Chick tells Wilbur to check the door at the very end

while he searches one on the side. Wilbur opens that door to find some stairs leading down to a dock and quickly closes it. He tells Chick it was a broom closet but, since the room Chick just searched was a broom closet, Chick looks himself. Seeing what's on the other side, Chick leads Wilbur down the stairs. At one point, Wilbur tries to tiptoe back up to the door, only for it to close by itself, sending him running back down, where he grabs onto Chick. After he gets him off of

him, they continue on down the stairs, when Wilbur pushes up against a section of wall that revolves, flinging him into a dungeon-like room. Unable to get the panel to open back up, he wanders around the room, glancing at a grated vent in the floor and a lit candle on a small table in the corner, but somehow misses the Frankenstein monster sitting in a large, wooden chair. Like with the Wolf Man, he's totally oblivious and sits down in the monster's lap. He looks around casually, only

to put his hand on the chair's arm and spot the monster's hand just to the side of it. Wilbur glances at his other hand and realizes the one next to his right isn't his. He pounds on the monster's hand a couple of times, and then does so on his own hand, causing him to gasp in pain. He leans back and sees the monster, who stretches his arms out to grab him, but Wilbur is able to slip down out of his grasp. (If you watch Glenn Strange during that sequence, you can see he's trying his best not to laugh, having blown numerous takes before due to

Costello's improvising.) Wilbur runs to a corner of the room and tries to find a way out, only to get cornered there and let out a girly scream. As the monster shambles after him, he runs to the left, only to come across Dracula when he rises from his coffin. He runs back to the wall he came through earlier and tries to go through it again, as both monsters head towards him. At that moment, he manages to swing the panel back around to the stairs and calls for Chick in a panic. He tries to tell him what happened, but is only able

to mime it while babbling nonsense. He then tries to show him the thing with the wall, but while the panel does swing around, Dracula and the monster are on the other side with the coffin and they swing around to the other side without being seen. Not seeing anything, Chick goes to look around, saying he's going to give Wilbur a beating if he doesn't find anything. While waiting, Wilbur goes through the panel again, only to run into Dracula and the monster on either set of stairs outside. They trap him and he desperately tries to go back through the panel.

They're almost on top of him by the time it works again, and when he gets back in the dungeon, he grabs Chick and drags him to the panel. They swing through, with Dracula and the monster, again, doing the same at that exact moment, and Wilbur is once more left with nothing to show the increasingly irritated Chick, who drags him back into the castle.

Upstairs, while waiting for Sandra to get ready, Joan snoops around and finds Dr. Frankenstein's notebook in a drawer and looks through it, while Sandra, seeing this, searches Joan's purse and finds her identity card as an insurance inspector. Putting the card away, she calls Joan, telling her that she's ready. While Chick and Wilbur wait downstairs, Wilbur randomly lets out a scream, not realizing that it was he himself who screamed, and Chick threatens to take him to a doctor and have

him examined. The girls come down and Wilbur tries to tell Sandra what he saw down in the basement, when Dracula, in the guise of Dr. Lejos, comes down the stairs and Sandra introduces him to everyone. When she introduces him to Wilbur, Dracula is quite happy to truly meet him, telling Sandra he approves of her "choice," while making Wilbur bashful. Prof. Stephens appears and attempts ask "Lejos" about the equipment in the lab, when Dracula mentions the masquerade

ball and suggests Stephens go out and enjoy himself. Stephens, being interested in Joan, takes him up on the suggestion. Dracula also suggests he, Chick, and Joan go on ahead, while Sandra and Wilbur follow. However, Sandra suddenly says she has a headache and tells Wilbur he'll have to go without her. Dracula insists it'll pass as soon as it came but Sandra heads back upstairs. He follows her and, when they're alone, she tells him of everything that's going on and that they must wait to perform the operation. Unable to

accept this, Dracula tells her, "I must warn you, my dear Sandra, I am accustomed to having my orders obeyed, especially by women with a price on their heads." Sandra is not intimidated, and pulls out Frankenstein's notebook, suggesting Dracula do the operation himself. Dracula then says he has other ways of making her do what he says and Sandra calls his bluff, saying her will is as strong as his. He gets her to look into his eyes and it doesn't take long for her to fall under his spell, during which he leans in and bites her on the neck (when he does, you can see his reflection in the mirror behind him, which, being a vampire, he shouldn't have).

When the others arrive at the party, Wilbur and Chick go to the locker room to put on their costumes, only for Wilbur to get halfway to it before realizing Prof. Stephens is on the dance floor with Joan. Even worse, on the way to the locker room, they run into McDougal, who's dressed up in a devil costume. Recognizing them, McDougal grabs Wilbur and demands to know where his exhibits are, before slamming him into a screen by the door. Chick threatens to put McDougal into jail for assault but the smug man

tells him he doesn't have a witness. When another man dressed in a suit of armor walks out of the locker room, Chick tells him to watch and baits McDougal into shoving Wilbur again. But, just as he does, the face shield on the man's helmet comes down, preventing him from seeing the assault. When they finally do get into the locker room, they run into Talbot, who quizzes them about what they found on the island. Although Chick tells him they didn't see anything, Talbot asks them about whether or not they met Dr. Lejos, a question Chick gives a

very vague answer to. Wilbur comes up, wearing a sort of Mr. Hyde type of costume, which startles Chick, and he then gives him his mask, which happens to be a wolf mask. Talbot isn't fond of this mask, as he tells them the moon will rise in half an hour and will turn him into a wolf, to which Wilbur responds, "You, and 20 million other guys." Talbot grabs Wilbur and shoves him against the locker, with Chick getting knocked inside it, and tells him he might tear him apart.

Gaining control again, he asks them to take him and lock him in his room, which they reluctantly agree to do. On the way, they spot Dracula and Sandra as they climb out of a small boat and onto the pier. Dracula tells Sandra he'll take care of Joan, while she is to take Wilbur back to the island. When the two parties meet, Talbot addresses Dracula as such, but the Count, pretending to be Dr. Lejos, laughs it off as a delusion. Joan and Stephens rejoin them, with Dracula saying he

decided to have some fun as well, and asks Joan to dance. Talbot tries to warn her that he really is the legendary vampire, but Joan doesn't take him seriously and Dracula offers to explain it to her while they're on the dance floor. Wilbur, meanwhile, notices how strange Sandra's acting, when she asks him to join her on a walk, which he's more than happy to do. Chick asks Stephens if he understands woman and he answers, "I don't even try."

Wilbur and Sandra walk off into the bayou, the former totally happy as he skips along, when they sit down on a loveseat. Sandra asks Wilbur to come away with her to the island, saying, "I want to be the only one in your life. I want to be part of you. I want to be in your blood." Wilbur's elation changes to terror when Sandra says that and, as he tugs at his collar, he asks her if she wouldn't want someone better looking. She says, "You're so full-blooded. So round, so firm," and Wilbur nervously finishes, "So fully packed... and I want to stay that

way." He accidentally pricks his finger on the thorn of a flower he picked before and Sandra becomes enchanted by the sight of his bleeding, though he tells her, "There ain't enough there for the two of us, if that's what you're thinkin'." Sandra decides to tell him what she's thinking, ordering him to look into her eyes. Wilbur is reluctant to do so but she turns his head and forces him to. When he does, he sees an image of a bat flapping in both pupils, a sight that both confuses and scares him, and he looks away, saying he's seen enough. She asks,

"Don't you know what's going to happen now?", and when he says, "I'll bite," she tells him, "Oh, no. I will," and goes in for his neck. The sudden sound of Chick and Talbot calling for Wilbur and Joan sends Sandra running off. Reaching him, they ask Wilbur if he's seen Joan and, after saying he hasn't, he tells Chick he can give Sandra, adding, "But make sure you got plenty of bandages." Talbot figures Dracula lured Joan into the woods, when Wilbur asks Chick, "You know what would happen if I met

Dracula in the woods?" Chick says, "I'll bite," and Wilbur says, "Oh, no. You gotta stand in line." They walk off into the bayou, searching and calling for Joan, when Wilbur unknowingly goes off with Talbot. However, Talbot sees the full moon rising and, knowing what's about to happen, removes his suit jacket and necktie and collapses next to a log, where he changes into the Wolf Man. Hearing Wilbur calling for Joan nearby, the werewolf jumps up and follows the sound of his voice.

Wilbur, realizing he's by himself, then starts yelling for Chick. The Wolf Man tries to come at him but gets caught up in some thick brush between them. Seeing him, Wilbur thinks he's Chick wearing the wolf mask from before, admonishes him for it, and even punches him right in the nose! Yelling at him to take the mask off, Wilbur walks on and the Wolf Man, after freeing himself, follows after him. He tries to get at him again when he catches up but gets snagged by a low-hanging vine and then gets tripped by a similarly low branch, which knocks

him to the ground. As he flails around in some brush, Wilbur gets impatient with him, kicking him in the rear before helping him up. The Wolf Man snarls at him and, after Wilbur yells at him again about taking off the "mask," he chases after him. But then, he stops and heads in the opposite direction, sensing other prey. At the party, everyone hears someone yelling for help, and Prof. Stephens walks out to the edge of the bayou to find McDougal lying on the ground, with marks on his throat. He tells him he'll be alright and he and some onlookers

help him up. Chick happens to walk in just as McDougal says he was attacked by someone in a wolf mask and, seeing him carrying his mask, he accuses him, given the quarrel they had earlier. Wilbur then wanders in and Chick expects to give him an alibi, only to ask him why he tried to attack him just a few moments before. McDougal tells the crowd Wilbur is on it, and when someone suggests calling the sheriff, he and Chick run in opposite directions, with Wilbur

heading back into the swamp, chased by a big part of the crowd. He ducks behind a tree, waits for them to run past, and runs in another direction, only to come across Dracula. He watches as Dracula spreads his cape and changes into a bat right in front of him. Wilbur takes off running, with Dracula flying after him, and yells for Chick in a panic, until he comes across a small boat moored at the edge of the swamp. Finding Joan sitting in it, he tells her they need to get away, when he sees she's

been entranced. Chick arrives in time to see Wilbur get dodged by the bat and then watches as Dracula resumes his human form in front of both of them. Dracula quickly hypnotizes Wilbur, causing him to collapse in the boat, then turns to Chick and does the same. He then takes off in the boat with his two hostages.

The next morning, Talbot awakens in the swamp as himself again, and hears the sound of barking dogs. A search party is shown to be roaming the swamp and Talbot spies Chick sneaking through the brush. He calls to him and then rushes after him. Chick tells him they're looking for him, that McDougal was attacked by a wolf or someone dressed up as a wolf. Talbot then decides to turn himself over to the police to clear Chick, making him realize he was serious about his being a werewolf. Chick tells him that Dracula has

taken Wilbur and Joan to the island, repeating Wilbur's line of, "I saw what I saw when I saw it!" Realizing the search party's getting closer, the two of them run into the swamp and duck down near the water's edge. They watch as the party passes by, and Talbot tells Chick they might come back. He also tells him Dracula won't be able to do anything until after dark, saying they might be able to save Wilbur and Joan by then. Chick tells him, "After what I saw, there better not be any 'maybe.'"

In the castle's dungeon-like basement, Wilbur, his head locked in a wooden rack, futilely yells at Sandra, who stands near him, staring ahead blankly. He then tries to get the attention of the Frankenstein monster, whom he refers to as "Junior," and asks him if he'll let him out. Getting no response, he goes back and forth in calling for both of them, specifically screaming at Sandra and gently whispering Junior to the monster, when Dracula rises from his coffin. Seeing that, Wilbur covers his face with his hand, moving his pinky

over to the other fingers when it falls slightly out of place. Dracula and Sandra prepare to begin final preparations for the operation, but when Dracula uses the same electric device he originally revived the monster with, he sees he's become much weaker. Dracula heads upstairs to deal with Prof. Stephens and leaves Wilbur to Sandra. Sandra tells Wilbur she's going to make him, "Big and tall, and as strong as an ox. And, furthermore, you'll live forever, and never grow old." Wilbur is relieved at hearing this, thinking Sandra does love him, but

then asks how she's going to make this happen. Sandra reveals her plan to put his brain in the monster's head. Wilbur laughs, saying, "For a minute, I didn't know how you were gonna do it!", and then starts panicking. Up in the lab, Dracula prepares the generators, when a very angry Stephens storms in. He tells Dracula he found Joan in Sandra's room and also came across Dr. Frankenstein's notebook. Just as he threatens to take Joan out of there and inform the police,

Sandra, who entered the room through a panel in the wall, sneaks up behind him and knocks him unconscious. Pleased with this, Dracula suggests they take Stephens down to the basement. Outside, Chick and Talbot arrive at the island in a rowboat, and it doesn't take them long to find the hole in the rocks. In the basement, Dracula and Sandra wheel Stephens into the room on a gurney and dump him on the floor. They then wheel it over to the monster, whom Dracula

commands to get up on it. As they wheel him out, Wilbur tells the monster, whom he's now calling "Frankie," that he doesn't want his brain, saying, "I've had this brain for thirty years and it hasn't worked right yet. Ask me how much one on one is, Frankie. Go ahead, ask me. I don't know." Sandra tells Wilbur they'll be right back and Wilbur says, "Okay. I'll wait." Out in the corridor, Chick and Talbot duck up against the wall when they see Dracula and Sandra wheeling the monster back up into the castle.

Chick and Talbot rush into the basement, the former tending to Wilbur while Talbot sees to Stephens. Wilbur tells Chick, "Dracula is Dracula, and Sandra's going to use my brain to make a bigger dummy out of the other dummy." Chick picks up a large rock and starts pounding the rack's lock, only to stop to inspect the lock to see what he's doing wrong. He puts the rock on Wilbur's hand as he grips the rack, not realizing what he did until after a lot of pained gesturing from Wilbur. As Talbot tries to bring Stephens to, Chick manages to

free Wilbur. He then runs blindly into the nearby corridor but Chick yells to him, "Not that way! To the left!" Confused, Wilbur turns to the left in the corridor, slams into the wall, and then staggers back into the room. Talbot manages to rouse Stephens enough to where he can get to his feet and leads him down the corridor, while Chick does the same with Wilbur, albeit much more roughly. Up in the laboratory, Dracula and Sandra finish prepping the monster, while the others reach the island shore outside. Stephens, having finally come

to his senses, tells them Joan's in the castle, and he, Talbot, and Chick rush in to help her, while Wilbur is left behind to start up the motor in the boat. Dracula and Sandra find that Wilbur has escaped but Dracula tells Sandra to tend to the monster, while he deals with Wilbur. Using his hypnotic pull, he commands Wilbur to come back and, while it takes a bit of trying, Wilbur does heed the call, first walking and then skipping back through the entrance in the rocks. When the others

return with Joan, they're shocked to find Wilbur isn't there, when they see lights flashing in the laboratory window. Stephens tells them they've started the operation and Chick and Talbot head out to save Wilbur, telling Stephens to stay with Joan, who's still entranced. Up in the lab, Wilbur awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney next to the monster, with the machines in the lab sparking and crackling with electricity, all as Dracula watches from nearby. Sandra takes a

scalpel and is about to cut into Wilbur's skull, assuring him they don't need any anesthetic, when Chick and Talbot burst in. Talbot grabs Sandra from behind and pulls her away, while Chick grabs a chair and uses it to fend off Dracula as he stalks towards him. Chick goes to smack Dracula with the chair, only to knock Sandra on the head behind him. Chick then runs out of the lab and down the hallway, with Dracula chasing him.

Talbot begins unstrapping Wilbur from the table, when he looks out the window and sees the full moon. When it cuts back, he's already become the Wolf Man, snarling as he stands over Wilbur, who becomes so scared that he starts shaking. Wilbur pushes himself away with his foot, knocking the Wolf Man into some equipment, which sparks when he knocks it over. He rolls over to the entrance as Dracula comes back in and gets caught up in a tug of war between the two monsters, as they shove the gurney back

and forth. Dracula runs off, the Wolf Man chasing after him, while Wilbur spins around wildly on his gurney. The Frankenstein monster awakens and, energized by the equipment, breaks himself free of his own straps, gets to his feet, and pulls out some wires attached to the bolts in his neck. Wilbur is still stuck on the gurney and helplessly yells for Chick as the monster starts to approach him. Sandra awakens, gets to her feet, and tries to command the monster to get back, only for him to scoop her up in his

arms and carry her to the window. Chick arrives and unstraps Wilbur, as the monster tosses Sandra out the window. He turns and starts towards them, knocking a table out of his way as they scramble out of the lab and into a bedroom. They close the door and attempt to barricade it with the bed, as well as brace themselves against its top section. Unfortunately, the door opens the other way and the monster easily gets in. They try to trap him up against the wall with the bed and he falls onto the mattress, Wilbur throwing the bedspread over

him before running out of the room with Chick. They run into another room down the hall and try to barricade it, only for Dracula and the Wolf Man to come smashing through a door on the opposite side of the room as they continue their fight. Chick and Wilbur flee, while Dracula throws a vase at the attacking Wolf Man. Chick and Wilbur end up running right back into the monster and head into another room, but again get caught up in the fight between Dracula and the Wolf Man. Coming

across the monster in the hallway, Wilbur yanks off a table cloth, managing to do so without harming the decorations, and runs into a room with Chick. Using the black cloth as a makeshift cape, he places it over the bottom half of his face and walks out into the hall, telling the monster, "Back. Back." The monster complies, saying, "Yes, master," but Wilbur jokes to Chick, "He thinks I'm Dracula," blowing the whole thing. Wilbur throws the cloth in the monster's face and they run off. The act seems to confuse

him and he walks over to another door across the hall. Chick and Wilbur, hiding in another room, watch him open the door and look inside. They then take the opportunity, sneak up behind him, and shove him into the room. They lock the door, but it proves to be no use, as the monster smashes his hand through the door, grabs Wilbur by the hair, and they run, with the monster smashing down the door and continuing the chase. Elsewhere, Dracula is cornered on a balcony and tries to escape in bat form, but the Wolf Man leaps at him and grabs him. They both tumble down into the ocean, and Joan is freed from Dracula's influence.

McDougal and his insurance agent arrive at the island, as Chick and Wilbur are chased out of the castle and down to the shore by the monster. They try to stop him by closing a gate and locking it, but he easily pulls the gate apart. They run into McDougal and the agent, but before he can have his way with them, they point out the monster as he comes stomping down the pier after them. McDougal and his agent jump into the water, while Chick and Wilbur climb into their motorboat that's moored at the end of the pier. While they try to row

away but can't because they're still tied to the pier, and Wilbur is too panicked to listen to Chick telling him to untie them, the monster throws barrels and oil drums at them, Stephens and Joan sneak up to the head of the pier and Stephens douses it in gasoline. When Wilbur finally does untie the boat and they begin their escape, Stephens lights the gasoline-soaked pier with a match. The monster prepares to throw the pier's ladder at Chick and Wilbur, when he turns and sees the flames. He throws the ladder at the flames and

then stomps towards them, trying to get at Stephens on the other side. He's quickly engulfed in the fire and falls through the pier. Chick and Wilbur see this from the safety of the boat and Wilbur declares, "Well, he won't chase us anymore!", before turning to Chick and telling him, "And another thing, Mr. Chick Young! The next time that I tell you that I saw something when I saw it, you believe me that I saw it!" Chick tells him, "Oh, relax. Now that we've seen the last of

Dracula, the Wolf Man, and the monster, there's nobody to frighten us anymore," when a disembodied voice says, "Oh, that's too bad. I was hoping to get in on the excitement." Hearing that, and turning around to see a cigarette float up into the air, followed by a match to light it, the voice says, "Allow me to introduce myself: I'm the Invisible Man." As the Invisible Man laughs at them, Chick and Wilbur jump off the boat and swim for safety.

After The Wolf Man, nearly all of the horror movies Universal produced in the 40's were scored with a library of stock music, much of which was originally composed by Frank J. Skinner. As a result, on his IMDB page, his name is tied to many, many movies he didn't actually work on, and if you binge-watch many of those movies, the music, although classic and well-orchestrated, would quickly get repetitive. However, when it came time to do Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Skinner was allowed to create an all new score without any of those stock cues, which also adds to the notion that this film is a separate entity from those that came before. Surprisingly, very little of the score is comedic in nature. The opening title theme has some Mickey Mousing tied to the animated Frankenstein monster knocking on the coffins and the music that plays when the Abbott and Costello skeletons panic and smash into each other is very light-hearted and playful, but, other than a lovely, romantic-sounding bit for Lenore Aubert's credit, it's played like what you would hear in a straight horror film of the time. Throughout the score, there are instances of silly music, particularly bits that emphasize Wilbur's dopey, kid-like nature, but for the most part, it's pretty straightforward. There are two themes in this score that stick out the most to me. One is the leitmotif for the Wolf Man, which is a monstrous, pounding horn theme that you hear when Talbot transforms and is also heard in a much subtler form for the scene when he stalks the unwary Wilbur in his apartment. The other is an eerie, otherworldly sound that plays whenever Dracula, as well as Sandra when she becomes a vampire, hypnotizes someone, and sometimes when he becomes a bat, making those moments come off as quite eerie. The Frankenstein monster also has his own motif, which is a combination of brassy horns for his brutishness and a higher-pitched, stringed instrument that hints at his child-like nature. It's hinted at a couple of times during the movie, but you hear it in full force during the climax, when the monster is chasing Chick and Wilbur around the castle. And much of the rest of the score is either spooky or perfectly fits the many chase scenes featured in the film.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is very much a fun movie and works both as a good Abbott and Costello comedy and as an entertaining sendoff to the classic monsters it features. The guys themselves are very much on their game; all three of the monsters are, for the most part, treated with dignity and get their moments, especially Dracula and the Wolf Man, the former of whom has the added bonus of being played by Bela Lugosi; the production values are high, with some great sets, cinematography, and visual effects work, especially the use of animation; the music score is top notch and quite serious most of the time; and there are plenty of enjoyable setpieces and gags. But, despite its classic status, the movie isn't perfect, as the supporting characters aren't the greatest, Lon Chaney Jr.'s final bow as Lawrence Talbot isn't quite up to par with his past performances, the monsters aren't defeated in the best of ways, and, above all else, the film is trying to do so much that it comes off as a little bloated at points and makes you wish they'd decided to pair Abbott and Costello up with all the monsters one at a time. While it's not my personal favorite of these movies, the good vastly outweighs the bad here, and it's a must watch for anybody looking to get in on some laughs and chills.