Ken Russell’s pyrotechnic and more than a little hallucinatory biopic focuses on a night spent at Lord Byron’s Villa Diodati in Switzerland, and the antics of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin, Claire Clairmont, Dr. John Polidori , and their host, the enigmatic, Lord Byron. This was the night that a horror story contest was suggested which in time led to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Polidori’s Vampyre (1819). It is interesting to note that both the Frankenstein monster and the fictional vampire were born of the same night. Out of one night of revel, two horror tales were brought to life.
Natasha Richardson & Julian Sands in Gothic (1986)
It is a fictionalized telling, but much of it is based on the known facts and speculation about what went on at Villa Diodati on that singular night. The cast is well up to the task of portraying Byron and his guests. Byrne is both ingratiating and sinister; Shelley is nearly mad, and drinking laudanum during the proceedings with spectacular results; Mary is the rational yet jealous wife; Claire is entirely the mad mistress and spurned woman. Dr. Polodori is the very wild card. Certainly, much of it had to be imagined and that is where screenwriter Volk’s and director Russell’s own creative madness takes hold and spins a tale of lust, jealousy, guilt, and regret.
Polidori’s story was the first fictional vampire story; although vampires were mentioned in non-fiction writing as far back as 1718 in the Treaty of Passarowitz, where the local practice in Serbia and Ottenia of exhuming bodies and “killing vampires,” was mentioned. The first appearance of the word vampyre in English would be in 1732 in news reports about epidemics of vampirism in eastern Europe.
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT:Julian Sands & Natasha Richardson / Myriam Cyr / Myriam Cyr & Natasha Richardson in in Gothic (1986)
The next vampire tale to be published would be Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella, Carmilla. It would be part of the influence for the German film, Vampyre (1932) which came out a year after Tod Browning’s, Dracula (1931). Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula was published in 1897 twenty-five years after Carmilla. It is certain that the creator of Dracula was influenced by his predecessors in terror.
Illustration from Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)
Frankenstein is the more famous of the two tales that gestated on that strange evening where a contest for the best horror story powered a kind of chilling paranoia that brought out the worst and the best from all in attendance. All of it is gleefully imagined and brought to life in Gothic.
This is an excellent film for anyone interested in the legend of George Gordon, Lord Byron as well as those curious about the influences that spurned such a young woman to create so imaginatively terrifying a novel in that particular time and place.
Facts, Rumors & Hearsay
Director Cameo: Ken Russell and his family are on the tour boat at the end of the film.
When Shelly comes down from the roof and expresses his obsession with lightning, Byron calls him “Shelly, The Modern Prometheus,” which would become part of the original title for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.
“Mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” Lady Caroline Lamb on Lord Byron.
Uncredited Co-Director (Animated Sequences) Walter Lantz
Screenplay by Charles Barton & Walter Lantz
Original Screenplay by Robert Lees & Frederic I. Rinaldo& John Grant
Universal Pictures1hr 23min / Not Rated
CAST:Bud Abbott (Chick), Lou Costello (Wilbur), Lon Chaney Jr. (Lawrence Talbot/The Wolf Man), Bela Lugosi (Count Dracula/Dr. Layhos), Glenn Strange (The Frankenstein Monster), Lenore Aubert (Sandra Mornay), Jane Randolph (Joan Raymond), Frank Ferguson (Mr. McDougal), Charles Bradstreet (Dr. Stevens), and Vincent Price (The Invisible Man’s voice/Uncredited)
Bela Lugosi, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, and Glenn Strange in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Certainly one of the best known horror comedies of all time, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein holds a special place in the hearts of those that love both the Universal Monsters as well as the antics of Bud Abbot & Lou Costello. Surprisingly, the comedy team was not eager to do the film. They preferred scripts that were built around their routines. Lou Costello was blunt in his estimation of the proposed story, “My little girl could write something better than this!” The studio enticed them with an upfront payment of fifty thousand dollars and the addition of their favorite director to the project. Shot for an estimated $800,000.00 it turned out to be their most successful film. It also was a wise investment on the studio’s side; the team once again saved the studio from bankruptcy just as they had in 1941 with Buck Privates.
ABOVE: Lobby Card for Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949); Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, and William Frawley in Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951); Lou Costello, Bud Abbott, and Marie Windsor in Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
Sadly, the film marked the end of the Universal Monsters reign with the exception of The Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954), and its two sequels. The film did boost the comedy teams popularity; they went on to meet other monsters in other films, but none of them would live up to this near perfect horror/comedy. Even bringing Boris Karloff on board and putting his name in the title (Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff), although a box office success, couldn’t rekindle the magic. Karloff met the duo once more in 1953’s Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Boris Karloff in Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953)
Abbott & Costello were supported by an astonishingly talented cast when they met Frankenstein. Lon Chaney Jr. was at his most conflicted, Bela Lugosi was pure evil with a haunting smile, and Glenn Strange’s Frankenstein is still only second to Karloff’s. Lenore Aubert (who was also in Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff), is a standout as Dr. Mornay with her calm reserve and ironic delivery. She is most powerfully in character when challenging the infamously evil Count Dracula, refusing to perform an operation to give the Monster a new brain. It is in this scene that a minor gaff may be observed; the pair are standing in front of a mirror–and–the Count is casting a reflection!
The film opens moving through a foggy London night and finally to a building where window blinds open and Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) is staring out as the moon rises. It all happens accompanied by Frank Skinner’s excellent score (many of his music cues from the film were re-used in Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Skinner’s scoring foreshadows the script’s seamless blending of horror and comedy. The monsters lend themselves to slapstick with an aplomb that exceeds expectation. The villains behave much as they do in their own films and Abbott & Costello are at their very best as their foils.
Lou Costello & Frank Ferguson in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
The film’s simple plot begins when Wilbur (Costello) takes a call at the shipping company from Talbot. With extreme fear and frustration, he tries to warn Wilbur about two crates that they will be receiving for McDougal’s House of Horrors. Transforming into the Werewolf during the call, his speech is reduced to growls and snarls that cause Wilbur to hang up. Moments later, Mr. McDougal shows up at the counter demanding his shipping crates. He is not a patient man, and Lou’s confusion infuriates him. Ferguson was born to play this role and quickly becomes a potent adversary.
Bub Abbot, Lou Costello, Lenore Aubert & Frank Ferguson in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Lou’s girlfriend, Sandra (Lenore Aubert) shows up and is not impressed by Mr. Ferguson as he complains about Wibur and then excitedly explains what is in the crates that he is checking on. Sandra goes to Wilbur and tells him that something has come up and she has to cancel their date. Once she reassures Wilbur that it is not another man that is the cause, she takes her leave.
Now having no faith in the shipping company, Ferguson demands that the crates be delivered to his House of Horrors to be reviewed with the insurance agent present. When they deliver the crates, the confusion begins as Wilbur sees both Dracula and Frankenstein are not only in the crates–they are alive–but naturally, Chick is always gone or looking the wrong way.
The duo incorporate some of their well know bits including the moving candle routine from Hold That Ghost (1941). The twist is that it is Dracula slowly opening the coffin that makes the candle move and it perfectly highlights the scene. Dracula & Frankenstein get out of the coffins before McDougal arrives with the insurance agent. Not being able to produce the Monster & Dracula, Wibur and Chick are arrested and hauled off to jail by McDougal and the insurance agent. Dracula and the Monster then take Dracula’s coffin and leave.
Glenn Strange, Lenore Aubert & Bela Lugosi in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
If you have seen the film, you know the rest. If not, or if you haven’t seen it for a long time, you will need to schedule a viewing. The film is both an important high point in Abbott & Costello’s career and a fitting farewell to the age of Gods and Monsters.
Facts, Rumors, and Hearsay
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was banned in Finland for many years.
Bela Lugosi would play similar vampires in other films, but Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein would be only the second, and last, time that he would play Dracula in a feature film.
The film is included in the American film Institute’s 2000 list of the Top 100 Funniest American Movies & in 2001 the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
The scene in which Wilbur unwittingly sits on the lap the Monster required multiple takes. Costello improvised broadly, which caused Strange to keep losing it and laughing, ruining the takes.
The voice of the Invisible Man in the final shot of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is provided by Vincent Price; when Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man in 1951, Vincent Price is no where to be seen.
Vincent Price & floating cigarette in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
