Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein

[Barry]

“In the beginning is my end”—T.S.Eliot

‘’’Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein’’’is the most important movie that I have in my home theater collection.

A long time ago in the living room far far away, there was no videotape, no video disc and no streaming. We had a black and white Dumont television. And my father had bought an 8 mm camera and projector when my brother was first born.

At that time you saw most of your movies in a movie theater and you usually saw two movies at a time! Yeah, you saw a lot of cut up black-and-white movies because all movies were black-and-white on that TV set.

Castle films was a small company that took movies from Universal and cut them up into eight minute 8 mm films that you could buy at your local camera store. They were all black and white and silent so they added subtitles. So the first movie we got, the first movie in to the world of our home theater, was Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

Now this movie is a fraud and people should be able to get their money back. Abbott and Costello never meet Frankenstein. They saved Victor for Mel Brooks. Here, they meet the monster of Frankenstein, not the real Frankenstein at all.

We put the film on our 8 mm projector and took out our screen, turned on our radio to get some music, and saw the movie which was probably 2‘ x 3‘. We did this a couple of hundred times both for us and for our friends when we invited them over. It was a wonderful experience and we were to buy a Three Stooges movie, Woody, woodpecker, cartoon. “This Island Earth.’  all were about 5 to 8 minutes. But not so fast. They weren’t fast because 35 mm film was 24 frames a second and these were 16 frames a second so you actually saw the movie in slow motion..

In the early 1980s I got the movie on video laser disk and got to see it on my 17 inch Sony and I got to see the whole thing. Next came the DVD and I got to see it on a bigger Sony.

This is a fun and sometimes funny movie. It is not their best and it really comes at the end of their movie career and at the end of the universal monster era. But it is a fun movie to watch and it is great to see Lawrence Talbert as the werewolf and Bella Lugosi as Dracula one last time. I cannot write that it was fun to see the invisible man because you never see him..

Now they will be releasing the movie in 4K on November 25 and I think I have to get it. I think it’s mandatory. And just like it was the beginning. I’m going to turn on my projector and broadcast it onto a screen.

In the end is my beginning.

Product Extras :

• Brand New HDR/Dolby Vision Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative
• NEW Audio Commentary by Hats Off Entertainment's Joe Ramoni
• NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian/Screenwriter Gary Gerani
• Audio Commentary by Film Historian Gregory W. Mank
• Theatrical Trailer
• Optional English Subtitles

[SRW1000]

Nice origin story, Barry!

I'll also agree with you on the movie.  While it's widely regarded as one of their best, it always came across as too campy and silly for me.  I much prefer their earlier work and like Hold That Ghost much better as a comedy/horror crossover tale.