Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein director Charles Barton: ''The monsters were as sweet as babies''
However, two of their co-stars acted up more than once!
It's hard not to judge a book by its cover, especially when that book is a person who has a studio contract to appear as a villainous fiend in some of the biggest movies of all time. If we see a person in ghoulish makeup time and again, it might trick us into thinking they're quite gruesome individuals. It surprises a lot of folks, then, to learn that most professionals involved in horror movies are, in fact, pretty nice!
There are definitely some exceptions, but it seems like more than any other genre, horror attracts kind people. Conventions and screenings, and every other kind of scary movie meet-ups inevitably bring together a warm community. As it turns out, these fans and creators come together over a shared catharsis and joy, and very seldom actually exhibit the bloodlust that's portrayed onscreen!
It shouldn't be much of a shock to find out that the baddies on the set of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein provided much-needed contrast from their preening co-stars. Because, as it turns out, those monstrous personas we see in the movie had some bad-behavior rivals on the set.
In the 1981 compendium, It's Alive: The Classic Cinema Saga of Frankenstein, director Charles Barton sets the record straight about all the ghastly troublemaking on the set of his movie. As it turns out, the most wicked of it played out on a card table.
"Our budget was very cheap— maybe $1 million, not very much for that time. The only thing that really cost us money was when the boys [Bud Abbott and Lou Costello] got on their high horse and wouldn't show up. Another trick they loved to pull was to sit over on the side of the set and play cards for three days. Three days! And for big, big money!"
However, for all the trouble the human characters brought with them, the three movie monsters were astonishingly well-behaved.
"Yet, during all these problems, we never had any trouble with Lon [Cheney] or Bela [Lugosi] or Glenn [Strange]. The ''monsters'' were as sweet as little babies. Isn't that wonderful? God they were great!"
