Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein[a] is a 1948 American horror comedy film directed by Charles Barton.

The film features Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi), who has partnered with Dr. Sandra Mornay (Lenore Aubert) in order to find a brain to reactivate Frankenstein's monster (Glenn Strange), and they find Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello), the ideal candidate.

The film was developed and production started with misgivings by Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, who disliked the script.

Larry Talbot makes an urgent phone call to a railway station in Florida, where Chick Young and Wilbur Grey work as baggage clerks.

Talbot takes the apartment across the hall from Wilbur and Chick and asks them to help him find and destroy Dracula and the Monster.

Wilbur reluctantly agrees to search the castle and soon stumbles upon a basement staircase, where he has a few close encounters with the monsters.

Also working at the castle and attending the ball is the naïve Professor Stevens, who questions some of the specialized equipment that has arrived.

Chick is also hypnotized and rendered helpless, while Dracula and Sandra bring Wilbur, Stevens, and Joan back to the castle.

Chick and Wilbur escape in boats; while Joan and Stevens set the pier ablaze while the Monster is standing on it, and he dies in the flames.

Cast adapted from the American Film Institute:[1] On November 28, 1945, Universal Pictures joined with British entrepreneur J. Arthur Rank, who bought a one-fourth interest in the studio.

The company, now called Universal–International, had only Deanna Durbin, Maria Montez, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello and a few other actors remaining on their payroll.

[10] By 1945 however, the duo were close to splitting due to in-fighting with each other and personal issues; Abbott suffered from severe epilepsy and Costello had nearly died of rheumatic heart disease in 1943.

[13] Kharis and Alucard were dropped from the script and the Invisible Man was only included as a small gag at the end of the film.

[13] On reading the script, initially titled The Brain of Frankenstein, Lou Costello responded negatively, stating "You don't think I'll do that crap do you?

[15] Other actors were called back to reprise roles from previous Universal horror films, including Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man.

[16] Lugosi spoke positively about the role during production, glad that the script was not "unbecoming to Dracula's dignity" and that "all I have to do is frighten the boys, a perfectly appropriate activity.

[18] Barton continued that both the comedians would leave home several times during shooting the film, not show up, or spend about three days playing cards on set.

As Strange's injury was being treated, Chaney took to applying the make-up and portrayed the monster throwing Aubert through the window.

[1][23] Historian Gregory W. Mank has stated in three separate books that the film premiered in Los Angeles at the Forum Theatre on June 25, 1948.

[30] It was initially banned in British Columbia and then later allowed for release after most of the scenes involving the Wolf Man were removed.

A review in The Hollywood Reporter proclaimed it as a "crazy giddy show" noting that "Robert Arthur's production spells out showmanship right down the line, and Charles T. Barton's direction keeps things moving at a lively, vigorous pace".

[22] The Los Angeles Times critic Philip K. Scheuer praised the film as "put together with enormous ingenuity.

[41] The New York Sun found the story was a "grand idea, but it was too bad that it could have been attended by persons capable of satire rather than pie-throwing comedy only".

[42] A review from New York World-Telegram warned audiences that if they did not have the palate for Abbott and Costello's comedy the film would be a "painful experience".

[44] A later review from Kim Newman writing for Empire described it as not one of Abbott and Costello's better films, finding they do a lot of "whining and slapping business".

[46] On reviewing Abbott and Costello's output at Universal in 2010, Nick Pinkerton in Sight & Sound summarized that the duo's work was an "all-or-nothing proposition, something you either take or leave" and that described the duo's general reception, finding them "stuck somewhere beneath Laurel and Hardy and just above, say, the Ritz Brothers.

[28] Lon Chaney Jr. did not have positive things to say about the feature, later proclaiming that he "used to enjoy horror films when there was thought and sympathy involved.

Abbott and Costello ruined the horror films: they made buffoons out of the monsters..."[48] Kim Newman declared that Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, unlike that of House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, set a precedent that in films where there are multiple monsters, Dracula will be their leader.

[52] Jerry Garcia, of The Grateful Dead, acknowledged the movie as one that "changed my life" and was an inspiration for his art and music.