I avoided this movie for the longest time. I mean, Abbott & Costello? Black and white? Frankenstein and Dracula? No thank you. I’m not old.

I know. I grew past that but never got around to seeing this one. I was listening to a podcast, Maltin on Movies, and Leonard Maltin praised it on more than one occasion so I thought, maybe I better check it out, if only to understand all of his references. And I am glad I did.

It’s funny.

And, in this age where they are rebooting all these monster movies to create the Universal Dark Universe, with the remake of The Mummy and plans to remake The Wolfman and, I presume, Dracula and the others, I sit back and think about how they already had a connected universe that centred around Abbott and Costello as two freight handlers who receive a delivery that turns out to be Frankenstein’s Monster and Dracula, played by Bela Lugosi. They escape and Lon Chaney, Jr. shows up as Larry Talbot, the Wolfman, and Abbott and Costello find themselves caught up in a crazy adventure that has all sorts of zaniness that I found myself giggling about all the way through.

It was fun and harmless entertainment. The plot was a bit sticky, a little bit of set pieces stuck together to highlight the comic high jinks of the main character but it was fun and fascinating to watch. For those of you that don’t like black and white movies or less spectacle-focussed films should give it a try. You might be surprised.

Lots of fun.

-all photos via IMDb.com.

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