Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949)


Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, despite Bud Abbott's reservations, turned out to be a grand success.  It brought back Lon Chaney Jr. as Lawrence Talbot, aka the Wolf Man, as well as Bela Lugosi as Dracula.  It also managed to give all three of the most popular Universal monsters a proper ending rather than the silly films they had turned into.  Ironically, they did this while being intentionally funny.

The one thing that was missing was Boris Karloff.  Glenn Strange, who had played the Monster in House of Dracula and House of Frankenstein, returned as the creature.  Meanwhile, Karloff agreed to promote the film as long as he was not forced to watch it, which is a shame because it is one of the best old-time horror comedies made.  Seeing that formula was successful he agreed to a bit part in the next one which, though only having some horror elements on the surface, still was quite entertaining.

Freddie Phillips (Lou Costello) is a bellhop at a prestigious hotel that is hosting a meeting by Judge Amos Strickland (Nicholas Joy) in which he is going to publish his memoirs.  Freddie's cousin Casey Edwards (Bud Abbott) is the hotel's detective and he has a case on his hands when the judge is suddenly found murdered.  Unfortunately, because Freddie had an altercation with the judge that resulted in his termination, he becomes the prime suspect after he finds the body.

While Casey works with Sgt. Stone (Mikel Conrad) and Inspector Wellman (James Flavin) to unravel the mystery of who killed the judge Freddie tries to clear his own name but finds bodies piling up around him.  Soon, Casey comes up with a plan to out the killer, putting Freddie's life in danger in the process.

Despite the title - which, on the opening card, is simply Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer - Boris Karloff is not the killer.  He plays a shady Swami who, along with a number of other sketchy characters, tries to pin the murder on Freddie.  The sequence where he tries to hypnotize Freddie into committing suicide, only to be frustrated by his absolute lack of brain cells, is one of the best bits in the movie.  Still, Karloff gets less screen time than most of the other actors.

This is still quite funny and features a great chase through a nearby cave system, but the plot itself is rather convoluted for such a simple resolution.  It works more like a whodunnit than a horror, but obviously Universal wanted to get in audiences while Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was still fresh.  It did its job, but the duo would back away from any further horror tie-ins until after the beginning of the next decade. 

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949)
Time: 84 minutes
Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff, Lenore Aubert, James Flavin, Mikel Conrad
Director: Charles Barton

 

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