..ruined the serious horror movies
"Shortly before his death, Chaney complained in an interview that the serious horror film genre had been ruined by Abbott and Costello"
Would you mind providing the source for Chaney's quote? Not that I don't believce you, but I have a hard time believing Chaney would foster such ill-notions.
If he did, Chaney was out of his mind. "Serious horror" he says? The days of the Universal Monsters were at an end; the well was dry, and the genre was reinventing itself for new precedents. As fun as the films of Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man are, they just couldn't do any more with it; House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula should have clued him on this.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was the best thing that could have happened to the diminishing franchise. It was one last hurrah for those whose contributions had been so invaluable to horror films up to that point, and instead of a mediocre sendoff with the aformentioned installments into the legacy, they went out with a super-bang.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is one of the best hybrids ever; the monsters retained their credibility and the antics of Bud and Lou were at their peak in the comedic sense. It set the bar for all other horror-comedies to come, and has not yet been surpassed.
Ironically, the person adamant about refusing to be a part of the film's production, Boris Karloff, saw just how marvelous the creation was, and he regretted his non-involvement. He went on to star in two films with the pair, so the ruination is a figment of Chaney's imagination.
"It's covered ya two-bit redneck peckerwood."~Strother Martin, The Wild Bunch
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It's probably something that Chaney didn't mean. By the last ten years of his career, Lon was a heavy alcoholic, doing most of his roles drunk. He may have been drunk when he made the comment, or he may have said it jokingly. With print, it's hard to tell that sorta thing.
I mean, Chaney was in The Alligator People for cryin' out loud, and he read the script for A&C Meet Frankenstein before he agreed to it, so he knew what was coming...
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Nobody ruined serious horror. There's been good serious horror from every time frame horror's existed.
"All humans are fools to some extent. At least, I'm a clever one." - me
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How did they ruin horror? First of all this was a comedic spoof of horror and really wasnt supposed to be taken seriously. If anything it helped later generations get exposure to and want to see the classic Universal horror films after seeing this film.
shareI think, to a degree, he was right. I think what he meant was, as bad as the scripts were getting for the monster franchise, Abbott and Costello was the final straw. Not a bad script for comedy, but death to the horror genre of the time. There was no hope for the "classic" Universal monsters after that. In another way he was wrong, because what the movie did was force Hollywood to do different types of horror movies which eventually led to the stuff we watch today. I'm not a big fan of the Jasons, Freddy Kruegers, Boogeymans, Silent Hills etc., etc., but a great many people are, so it may have been a good thing. I'll still take atmosphere - a shadow on the wall, a dark and misty night, a castle in the moonlight - to gore any day of the week, and that is why I liked Van Helsing so much. Some of the castle scenes were absolute magic. I know and agree the final battle between the wolfman and Dracula was hoaky as far as special effects are concerned, but hey, your reading the post from a guy who still thinks the 1933 version of King Kong had great effects, so there you go. Chaney was both right and wrong in my opinion. I thinke the context he meant it in was the Universal monsters. I think he saw his meal ticket, Lawrence Talbot / The Wolfman slipping away, and, except for the Creature from the Black Lagoon, filmed after A+CMF, he was right.
shareIts doubtful there would have been a serious Universal gothic horror film after HOUSE OF DRACULA. To be honest, Abbott and Costello's film had better production values and some genuinely creepy scenes (Bela biting Sandra, the Monster throwing Sandra out through the window, the Wolfman transformations) than the likes of the "House" films.
shareIf anything, I'd have thought that this would've renewed interest in it.
How could their comedy slant to it have ruined it?
The monsters weren't badly done, and they weren't doing any comedy routines, etc.
Serious horror is still somewhat alive but if anything killed it, it would be hollywood today.
shareYes, Mr. Chaney did say this near the end of his life.
You can hear part of his interview here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXK1HWEEx1Q
A&CMF was actually scarier than the original Wolfman movie
share Nope! Uh-uh! No way, Jose'!
The SCARY MOVIE series might have. But, definitely _not_ this venerable classic.
I think horror was hurt more in recent decade (since the mid-70s) by too much blood and gore, and slim dripping of just about ever monster you see know! As for comedy being add with serious horror, while being more of a purist myself,it was not such a bad thing! I saw the later parts of this movie today and like it as much as I did before and I also liked the old tv series "the Night Stalker" which mixed serious horror with comedy!
shareChaney had been a drinker for most of his adult life. That - and constantly being compared to Lon Chaney Sr., had made Jr a touch bitter in his later years. But to his point - ever since the second coming of Universal Horror with Son Of Frankenstein in 1939, there had been at least one, and in some cases many films featuring the Frankenstein Monster, Dracula, Wolf Man & the Mummy every single year between 1941 and 1945. And Chaney should know. He played all these characters, sometimes more than once. My point is in 1946 and 1947 there weren't any movies using these characters. I believe that the second horror cycle unofficially ended with House Of Dracula, and had A&C Meet Frankenstein not come along, we never would've gotten to see the Monster, Wolf Man, and most importantly Bela Lugosi as Dracula one last time. Instead of accusing this film of killing these classic monsters, I think it gave them one last hurrah. And for those folks who remember that Larry Talbot was cured of his wolfism in House Of Dracula, let's just call A&C Meet Frankenstein out of continuity, okay??
shareChaney as early as 1944 and an appearance in the Olson and Johnson comedy GHOST CATCHERS said that he believed audiences that paid to see horror films had a right to expect them to be played seriously. He didn't mind camping it up a bit IF the part called for it, but generally he preferred serious horror.
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Hardly impossible. Chaney did like his booze.
shareWell, that's the standard pattern for horror. Starts out pretty serious and pretty creative, then the derivative junk comes in, then the campy garbage, then the parodies. Then several years pass and it gets an injection of new blood via one or more serious, creative horror movies, and the cycle starts again. It's happened many times over the years, but this was probably the first time the cycle was completed. Obviously serious horror never totally goes away, and there are always new interesting ones being made somewhere, but this is the pattern as far as how the genre relates to mainstream exposure.
But as for the initial golden age of Universal horror, I'd say Chaney was mostly right, though I'd say it didn't so much ruin anything as simply signal the end - for a while, at least.
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