One filmic match-up that comedy and monster film fans would have loved to have seen was Abbott and Costello sharing pratfalls with the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Now we can see just what might have been in...
By RENFIELD Poster By GEOFFREY MILLER Abbott And Costello Meet The Creature From The Black Lagoon? Well, yes...and no. The fact is that Abbott and Costello (that is, at least Costello) did meet the Gill Man at least once on screen. And that isn't an April Fool. The comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are, of course, a favorite of fans of the slapstick school of film comedy. Yet, "the boys" also claim some distinction with fans of classic film monsters and cinematic horror. It was Abbott and Costello who, in a sense, kept the classic Universal monsters "alive" during the late Forties and early Fifties, a time when Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, and the Invisible Man had been mothballed by Universal Studios as far as straight cinematic features were concerned. 1945's House Of Dracula was the last legitimate classic Universal monster feature. The studio had no future plans for their contract creepers until Abbott and Costello first "resurrected" them in the classic horror-comedy Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein. With all puns intended, Abbott and Costello brought the classic film monsters "back from the (film vault) grave." And, in most cases, the monsters played it "straight," so that some feeling of the earlier classic monster films was retained amidst Bud and Lou's slapstick antics.
When Meet Frankenstein proved to be a huge success at the box office, Abbott and Costello were pared with the other classic Universal monsters--the Invisible Man, the Mummy, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--with varying degrees of success. When Abbott and Costello filmed their cinematic confrontation with the Mummy in 1955, it seemed that the funny fright format was exhausted. So, apparently, were Bud and Lou. Unhappy with the decreasing success of their films and apparently also unhappy with Universal-International, the boys didn't renew their contract with the studio. They made one more film for another studio (Dance With Me, Henry; United Artists), and then the comedy team suffered a professional divorce. Only Lou Costello continued to appear in films and television; Bud Abbott retired from show business. Thus ended Abbott and Costello's association with Universal-International. This was a shame for two reasons. The first was the fact that Meet The Mummy did excellent business at the box office, excellent enough to justify the comedy team to make more movies rather than split up. Secondly, if Abbott and Costello had remained with Universal-International, they may well have been paired with the "new" classic Universal monster--the Creature from the Black Lagoon. The Gill Man's debut, Creature From The Black Lagoon, was released just a year before Meet The Mummy, so the timing would have been perfect for an eventual filmic match-up of the comedy duo and the scaly monster. Alas, such a theatrical pairing never materialized. But didn't we say that Abbott and Costello did meet the Creature? Yes, indeed. Only, the meeting was not on the silver screen, but on the "small" screen--television. It occurred during an episode of the popular television variety show The Colgate Comedy Hour in the early Fifties. Abbott and Costello were the guest stars in that particular episode and the show's writers prepared a short skit that would bring to mind some of the comedy duo's memorable tag-team matches with Universal's classic movie monsters. In the skit (the only surviving film records were shot in kinescope, in which live tapings were recorded on film from a studio monitor, which explains the quality of the images that follow), Abbott and Costello travel to the Universal-International studio prop department to pick out some props for their upcoming gig on The Colgate Comedy Hour.
The catch was that the studio prop department they visited was the "horror movie" prop department, where all the classic movie monsters were stored. Indeed, in the "prop room," we see life-sized figures of the Wolf Man, Mr. Hyde, and Dracula. Costello is instructed to make an inventory of the props the duo want to borrow whilst Abbott and the prop-master leave the room.
Lots of spooky goings on ensure that drive Costello into a frenzy. Worse, when Abbott and the prop-master return, the latter insists on reading a scary script to the duo. The script further terrorizes Costello and drives the already loopy prop-master into madness and he scampers off. Then Frankenstein's Monster rises from a coffin (a replay of the classic "coffin lid" scene from Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein). The sight of the Frankenstein Monster sends Abbott crashing through a door, leaving Lou alone to face the living dead!
But not to worry. After Lou shivers and shakes a bit, he suddenly turns on the Monster. Startled, Frankenstein's Monster topples backward and falls into the coffin. The falls knocks the Monster senseless. Lou is triumphant. Finally, he has had the upper hand with the big bolt-necked bully. However, whilst Lou prances with glee, he fails to notice something that smashes through the woodwork--literally...
It's Universal-International's newest monster star...the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Poor Lou, however, is oblivious to the presence of the Creature. He continues laughing and congratulating himself on how he beat the Frankenstein Monster. And the Creature is not amused. It seems that monsters stick together.
Finally, Lou composes himself enough to see the Creature menacing him. Accordingly, Lou Costello does what he does best when faced with an overpowering foe...he faints.
The last shot of the sequence is of poor Lou, lying in a faint on the floor, with the Creature bending over him, slowly...most likely, the Creature is going to shake Lou awake in time for The Colgate Comedy Hour broadcast. After all, this is a show business monster. And that, boils and ghouls, was the one and only on-screen meeting between legendary funnymen Abbott and Costello and legendary Gill Man, the Creature. It was a short meeting to be sure, but it gives us a taste of what could have been...if there truly had been one more theatrical monster match-up between Universal's top comedy team and it's new classic monster. If you'd like to view the television sequence featured in this article, just pay a visit to the Sinister Cinema website and order the tape entitled "Abbott And Costello Meet The Creature From The Black Lagoon." Cheers! Article copyright Renfield. Poster art copyright Geoffrey Miller. |
