Tag Archives: Monster

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Comedy and horror can be tricky. Comedy has to hit you as a surprise. Horror is often the result of surprise. Typically comedies and horror films have difficulty “holding up” over the years. Taste in comedy and horror is typically a contemporary affair and adapts to the times that surround it.

So how, oh, how has Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein held up after all these years?

The real Monster Squad assembles!

Was it the cast? This is one of the few appearances of Bela Lugosi as Dracula for Universal (he was often passed over for various reasons) despite being the iconic figure for the character. The incredible Lon Chaney Jr. is here as the classic Larry Talbot Wolf Man. Even Glenn Strange does an admirable job in the boots that Boris Karloff first made famous as Frankenstein.

Yes, Bela really is holding his cape up like that. And here you thought that was just a trope.

It is the comedy? Bud Abbott and Lou Costello typically recreated old vaudeville routines on the screen, but this movie is lighter than air. No set routines, but plenty of the wheezy fear takes of Costello shouting for “Chick!” to point at something that inevitably went away by the time Abbott returns.

Lon Chaney juggles his roles as Talbot and the Wolf Man with his usual expertise.

Is it the horror elements? I remember as a child being mesmerized by the classic transformation of the Wolf Man with Jack Pierce’s iconic makeup design. I was also impressed with the transformation of Dracula into a bat animated by Woody Woodpecker creator Walter Lantz. The hypnotic scenes of Dracula with his victims are chilling and the destructive feats of strength by Frankenstein are thrilling.

Sleepwalking monsters are always a favorite

Is it nostalgia? Perhaps. Certainly references to the Lucky Strike ad campaign (So round. So firm. So fully packed.) are not landing as jokes in 2020 as they did in mid-century America. But there is something disarming with the mix of wordplay, slapstick bumbling and a straight on classic Universal horror film. While Abbott and Costello play for laughs, the rest of the cast were playing things absolutely straight; sometimes ignoring things no human could ever truly ignore in service of the film.

It’s just crate film!

I think this combination is what brings us one of the greatest Halloween movies of all time. It was actually banned in some territories upon original release and still could scare an uninitiated child and illicit laughs even after you’ve seen every sequence and know every line of dialogue.

Grade: A-

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Brides of Dracula (1960)

Yeah. I hear ya. That’s a Hammer film. It has a gothic castle. It has really beautiful women in the lead. It has Peter Cushing for goodness’s sake! It’s a Hammer film.

True. But it is also a Universal film. That’s the logo at the top of the flick (Universal distributed many, if not all, of Hammer’s classic monster output) so I am calling it.

I watched Brides of Dracula on Svengoolie on Me-TV that was lurking on my DVR for literal years. I guess I have always been mixed on Hammer films, because they are nostalgic, but I always found the original Drac and Frankenstein much more charming. Hammer was always attempting to be “gritty” with the most gorgeous color ever committed to film. Just look at those reds pop!

This was Hammer’s second vampire movie. It was a followup to the classic “Horror of Dracula” which featured Christopher Lee as the Count. In this one, Peter Cushing reprises his role as the great vampire killer, Van Helsing.

Also returning is Terence Fisher who was responsible for many of the top Hammer horror films and gave up his career concurrently with the fall of the house of Hammer.

Freda Jackson steals most of the scenes she is in as the deranged mortal protector of our fanged friends. This is where I change gears….

Brides of Dracula (1960)
Yvonne Monlaur and David Peel give performances fit for a corpse

Yvonne Monlaur, as the our female lead, is a very beautiful woman…and not much else. If she didn’t fill out a shirt so well, I’d declare her an empty one. No fire or life is in her performance. And how can we get behind her…she causes this whole mess! After warnings from the townfolk and the mistress of the castle (who lets her stay the night for free in her magnificent home), she still stupidly releases David Peel, the vampire, Baron Meinster.

Now, the Baron is a bore. Peel appears to have mainly been a TV actor. In this flick….he’s mainly absent. Now, that’s fine since Peter Cushing is the real draw of the piece, but when your female lead (who has no sparks with Van Helsing as per usual) and your antagonist literally just lie there, that’s a problem with your film.

Brides of Dracula (1960)
Andree Melly brings the fangy fun in “Brides of Dracula” 1960

In fact, all the scares come from the fetching Andree Melly, who is beautiful…until she flashes that fangy smile. Those fangs, alone, change the entire shape of her face along with her emoting makes her from beauty to beast in the speed of a smile.

The flick features the usual uber-red gore of Hammer and an exciting final reel, but the middle act is a crashing bore. It’s here where you really miss Christopher Lee. Lee was, of course, killed off in the last Dracula film, but apparently was offered the role. Lee declined because he didn’t want to get typecast. Can you say….too late? It was even then! He returned to the role naturally and if I remember correctly played Dracula more often than any other actor.

What’s odd about this slow second act is that’s when Van Helsing/Cushing shows up. You are already a third into the movie before he shows himself. Unfortunately, as good as Cushing is, this is also the point where they decide to TELL the story instead of SHOW the story. The whole proceedings crash to a grinding halt.

Peter Cushing praying for a good review on OWC

To add to it, the worst flying bat prop you have ever seen shows up about halfway through the film. I mean, you have a better bat prop that you bought at Halloween Express for $5 last October. This is on top of the previous Hammer vampire entry scoffed vampire transformations into animals to try to give the vampire a more “realistic” feel. Well, one flappy, flappy and that was gone.

The staking scenes are top notch, as you would expect from Hammer. The showdown between the Baron and Van Helsing, which dominates much of the final reel of the film, has many great touches and worth sitting through the seven years in the wilderness you get in the middle of the flick.

This is where watching this on Svengoolie or a similar show can really help. At least you have the break in’s to wait for!

A decent, if not my favorite, vampire entry in the house of Hammer and worth a viewing the next time it comes on Me-TV or watch it on Prime today!

Grade: B

Brides of Dracula (1960)

Tarantula (1955)

It was inevitable that one of my first Universal reviews in this new column would be a classic Universal horror picture.

One of the things people forget when revisiting a film like this, be on Amazon Prime, or Svengoolie on Me-TV, or at a revival film series at a local cineplex is these movies were made for kids. At matinees.

So it shouldn’t be a shock that the movie moves along at a breakneck pace. It should be no shock that the love story is subdued in lieu of action (though the leading lady is a knockout for the boys in the audience a little bit older and able to appreciate such details). The characters are stock. The device by which the spider grows and gets out is a little creaky…

But the effects were state of the art for its time. Universal knew this was a B picture…heck, the lead is John Agar, a Chicago born actor that came from a family that sold ham. Think about that. An actor. Coming from a family of ham. His most notable role, frankly, was as the husband of Shirley Temple and from what I read, he wasn’t too invested in that role.

The effects, though, despite some of the goofy looking giant robot spider stuff, mostly was mattes of a real ugly, scary tarantula on small sets and overlayed on the action. Frankly, they almost hold up. They certainly look better than some of the CGI junk we see on the SyFy channel these days.

Leo G. Carroll (TV’s Topper and Chief from The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) is a mad scientist type that develops a super nutrient that causes little tiny animals to become big, scary monsters. The titular spider escapes after a mishap in the lab and the customary chaos ensues.

Until I had revisited this, I forgot how much this film shares with one of my favorites, Tremors. The small town setting in a desert, the mysterious loss of cattle and endless debating of the creature by the characters would have fit right into Perfection. I would not be surprised that this film highly influenced that incredible film.

Probably most people know, this is one of two Jack Arnold directed Universal thrillers to feature an unbilled cameo by Clint Eastwood. The longer part was in Revenge of the Creature, the sequel to one of the finest Universal horror films, The Creature from the Black Lagoon. In a turn of fate, Clint Eastwood has used the lead of Tarantula, Mara Corday, in cameos in a number of his films recently in his career. Funny how things turn over the years!

You should check this flick out. It really is the template for a giant monster run amok film and it really holds up nicely over the weight of over 65 years.

Grade: B+

Tarantula (1955)

Tim reads…How to Care for Your Monster

Originally recorded April 13, 2020

Tonight, Tim reads one of his favorite books, from when he was a little shaver. For all you kids in quarantine, here’s a book you are going to love. Sit back and enjoy Norman Bridwell‘s masterpiece, “How to Care for Your Monster.”

This book is a kid’s guide to how to capture (or purchase) a monster and care for it like any good pet. You get all the greats here. Frankenstein. Dracula. Wolf Man. Mummy. They are all here and ready to come home with you. But what about Mom and Dad? Are they ready?

You can find this book on Amazon at https://amzn.to/3bmgUm8

Tim reads…How to Care for Your Monster