Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein | |
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Theatrical release poster
|
|
Directed by | Charles Barton |
Produced by | Robert Arthur |
Written by |
Robert Lees Frederic I. Rinaldo John Grant |
Starring |
Bud Abbott Lou Costello Lon Chaney Jr. Béla Lugosi Glenn Strange Lenore Aubert Jane Randolph |
Music by | Frank Skinner |
Cinematography | Charles Van Enger |
Edited by | Frank Gross |
Production
company |
Universal Pictures
|
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date
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June 15, 1948 | (US)
Running time
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83 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $792,270 |
Box office | $3.2 million |
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (the film's poster title), or Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (the onscreen title)—usually referred to as simply Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein—is a 1948 American horror comedy film directed by Charles Barton and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.
The picture is the first of several films in which the comedy duo meets classic characters from Universal's horror film stable. In this film, they encounter Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi), Frankenstein's monster (Glenn Strange), and the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.). Subsequent films pair the duo with the Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the Mummy. (The comedians interacted with the last of the Universal Studios monsters, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, on live television on the Colgate Comedy Hour in 1954.) This film is considered the swan song for the "Big Three" Universal horror monsters, none of whom had appeared in a Universal film since House of Dracula (1945).
In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed this film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry, and in September 2007, Reader's Digest selected the movie as one of the top 100 funniest films of all time. The film is number 56th on the list of the "American Film Institute's 100 Funniest American Movies".