Silly, Daft, Ludicrous, its still Brilliant
Haven't watched this since i was 10, 30 years ago, sometimes old classic's don't stand up to a rose tinted memory. Glad to say Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein still an absolute classic.
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Don't really agree with Chaney Jr. on this one.
If you compare it with House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, it seems to me that the monsters get more screen time, are integrated into the plot better, and are scarier and more menacing in A & C Meet Frankenstein.
Also agree that A&CMF is a brilliant spoof.
- What I disagree with is that A&CMF ruined the serious horror genre.
1. The reality imo is that after the dropping of the atomic bomb in World War 2, the communist scare and the Roswell UFO incident; sci-fi monsters dominated in films through the 50s.
Examples; monsters from radiation; giant crickets, ants, spiders, the Godzilla franchise.
Alien invaders (The Thing from Another World, Body Snatchers 1956, The Blob, Invaders from Mars 1953)
Ancient monsters revived/found (a continuation of the King Kong idea) Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
2. Very important; a good spoof of horror/sci-fi never kills an entire genre.
Great example; Young Frankenstein followed by Frankenstein films.
- Spaceballs; Did that kill Star Wars? No.
- Galaxy Quest; That didn't end Star Trek.
- Sleeper; that did not kill time travel sci-fi.
- And Mars Attacks did not end alien invasion movies.
3. There just needed to be time to revive the older fantasy horror tradition after the sci-fi monster craze.
Hammer Horror in the late 50s/60s brought Dracula back and also did The Curse of the Werewolf.
Added to that; An American Werewolf in London, Coppola's Dracula; Branagh's Frankenstein, Diary of a Vampire.
BB ;-)
PS. one more thing. I am a huge Bela Lugosi fan. I would much rather watch Bela in A&CMF (and he is very good here) than see John Carradine as Dracula in the House films. In that era Bela was Dracula, end of story imo.
it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈
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Every franchise needs a break.
Even James Bond; a 6 year break from Licence to Kill (1989) to GoldenEye (1995).
Star Trek; 7 year break from Nemesis (2002) to Star Trek (2009)
Alien; 15 years from Alien 4 (1997) to Prometheus (2012)
Indiana Jones; 19 years from Last Crusade (1989) to Crystal Skull (2008)
With Frankenstein films, the Hammer studio made several of them.
Hammer consolidated their success by turning their most successful horror films into series. Six sequels to The Curse of Frankenstein were produced between 1958 and 1974:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_Film_Productions#Frankenstein
Young Frankenstein came out in 1974 at the end of the Hammer studio run. Then there needed to be a pause.
There continued to be low budget Frankenstein movies.
And 20 years after Young Frankenstein came Branagh's Frankenstein.
Franchises/genres go in cycles.
Imo at least, BB ;-)
it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈 share
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by WolfmanOfGlasgow;
"Hammer more or less stopped in 1974 due to money problems rather than Young Frankenstein."
Agreed.
The 1970s had newer styles of horror (often begun in the 60s) which again pushed aside the classic Universal / Hammer characters.
- For instance devil possession movies such as with the huge hit, The Exorcist (1973) and similar movies followed.
- And bloody slasher films (begun with Psycho) got bloodier and continued with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), with Halloween (1978) and several other bloody films.
- Bloody zombie films which began in the 1960s (Night of the Living Dead) continued with Dawn of the Dead (1978).
- Satanic cult movies which started with Rosemary's Baby in the 60s continued with The Wicker Man (1973).
- Science fiction horror that was big in the 50s continued with Alien (1979).
- And finally the biggest horror hit of that decade, everyday nature/animals (without radiation) being the killer (started with The Birds) continued with Jaws (1975).
The classic characters made famous by Universal (vampires / Frankenstein / werewolves) were done in the 70s with low budget movies.
Spoofs of the Universal monsters with A&CMF and Young Frankenstein didn't stop more of those classic monster movies.
The horror fans in the years those comedies were released were looking for a different kind of scary film and the classic genres needed a break.
Imo at least, BB ;-)
it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈