Saturday, October 27, 2012 Halloween Countdown: Abbott & Costello Meet the Gill-Man



I'll have to keep today's post even briefer than usual, for tonight is the big family Halloween party and I am going to try and get to the Nightmare on Chicago Street celebration. Complicating matters is simple geography; the family party is out in Hoosierville and the block party is in Elgin. That's about a two hour drive, so I better get moving.

As far as I'm concerned, it's not Halloween until I watch Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein.  It's one of my favorite films and it is exactly what Halloween is all about.  The film was so successful that is spawned a mini-genre in which the fellas met just about every Universal horror icon - the Mummy, Dr. Jekyll,  the Invisible Man, and Ma Kettle.  The one ghoul that missed out on all the fun is the Creature From the Black Lagoon, whose heyday came after A&C were on the verge of breaking up.  However, Bud & Lou did encounter ol' Gilly on a 1953 episode of the Colgate Comedy Hour.  And because the internet is magic, I can share that clip here today.


While it's not the team's best work, keep in mind that a) the show was performed live, and b) people weren't quite as tired of the old "moving candle" gag in the days before home video and constant reruns.  The clip is worth watching for Lou's ad-libs and Bud cracking up and the mind-blowing site of Lou Costello face to face with the Gill Man.

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