Saturday, October 31, 2009

Halloween Count Down: Day 1-Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein

Every Sunday at 11:30am was a special time for people on Long Island. WPIX showed Abbott & Costello movies at that time, and the best one of all was Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. It had everything. Abbott and Costello at their comedy best. Dracula, actually played by Bela Lugosi. Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man. The Frankenstein Monster played by Glenn Strange. And of course you have Vincent Price making a 'disappearance' at the end in a special cameo.

Trivia:
Boris Karloff was asked to reprise his role as the Monster, but refused since he thought the idea of playing the Monster for laughs was a mockery of the poor creature. He did help promote the movie for Universal.

Glenn Strange broke his ankle on set. Lon Chaney filled in for him in one scene since he wasn't working that day.

Lugosi almost didn't get the part of Dracula for this movie. Universal was looking at Ian Keith, who was almost Dracula in 1931. They didn't think of asking Lugosi at first because they thought he was dead. His agent went to them and told them otherwise.

Walter Lanz, the creator of Woody Woodpecker, did the animation of Dracula changing into a bat.

Dracula's reflection in the mirror wasn't a mistake shot at first. Some say the studio intended to remove Lugosi's reflection from the shot, but ran out of time and left it in.

Have a Happy and Safe Halloween and...

Until Next Time, Stay Insane!

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