See if your favorite person, TV series or motion picture is available: video/DVD/books
Abbott & Costello made their movies at the same studios that made most of the classic monster movies of the 1930s-1940s like Frankenstein. This gave them access to many of the original horror film sets, props and actors. Boris Karloff guest stars in 2 of them:
Abbott & Costello Meet The Killer, Boris Karloff
Abbott & Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (the only time Karloff ever played the role of Jekyll/Hyde in a movie)
And Karloff even guest starred in the 7th "Beach Party" movie "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini" (1966) though curiously, he did not reprise one of his most famous roles:
in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), the title role is played by Glenn Strange, although Bela Lugosi & Lon Chaney Jr play Dracula & the Wolfman in the same A&C film, with Vincent Price as the Invisible Man. Though a comedy, this movie concluded Universal's 3-movie arc after "House Of Frankenstein" and "House Of Dracula," in which real monsters were in a traveling exhibit while a mad scientist experimented on them. "After "Young Frankenstein", this is probably the best-loved horror comedy of all time and is more elaborately produced than the previous two serious Frankenstein films. Bela Lugosi's final turn as Dracula, and his last major studio picture. Great music score by Frank Skinner turned up in numerous subsequent A&C monster rallies."
Others in the genre of horror & sci-fi comedy:
Abbott & Costello Go To Mars (they get lost and actually end up on Venus)
Abbott & Costello Meet The Invisible Man (1951)
Abbott & Costello Meet The Mummy (1955) with Michael Ansara in a pre-Star Trek (episode 66) role as an Egyptian
Hold That Ghost (1941) Abbott & Costello inherit a haunted house
Jack in the Beanstalk (1952) Abbott & Costello in a dream
Abbott & Costello were so popular that during WW2 they helped raise over $80,000,000 in war-bond drives, more than any other entertainer.
"Abbott & Costello" are available on video and on DVD
And while I'm at it, Bob Hope ends up in a space capsule in "The Road to Hong Kong" (1962, Peter Sellers cameo)
The Ghostbreakers (1940) Bob Hope & Paulette Goddard inherit eerie Cuban mansion in a swamp
Bob Hope movies available on video and on DVD
Scared Stiff (1953) Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in a haunted house (remake of The Ghostbreakers, Hope & Crosby cameo) Jerry Lewis movies available on video and on DVD
Ghost Catchers (1944) Olsen & Johnson, Lon Chaney Jr
The Ghost Goes West (1936) Elsa Lanchester, the Bride of Frankenstein herself
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) Danny Kaye fantasy with Boris Karloff as villain
The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964) Don Knotts in WW2 fantasy mixing live-action with animation
The Ghost & Mr. Chicken (1966) Don Knotts, Dick Sargent of Bewitched, pre-Star Trek Skip Homeier
The Reluctant Astronaut (1967) Don Knotts, with Forbidden Planet'sLeslie Nielsen as the head of the astronaut corps, filmed at NASA locations Don Knotts movies available on video and on DVD
Beach Party (1963) Vincent Price as villain
A Comedy of Terrors (1963) Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre...Price said while filming on location the three of them went to a resturant and all the patrons left when they saw them...
Dr. Goldfoot (1965-66) two films, Vincent Price as a mad scientist
The Bowery Boys, Dead End and East Side Kids got into the act too:
Ghost Chasers (1951)
Spook Busters (1946)
Smuggler's Cove (1948)
Bowery Boys Meet The Monsters (1954) with Ellen Corby (later one of the aliens in The Invaders tv series)
Hard Boiled Mahoney (1947) with Sydney Greenstreet
Ghosts on the Loose (1943) Bela Lugosi (aka "East Side Kids Meet Bela Lugosi")
Master Minds (1949) with Glenn Strange again as Frankenstein
Bowery to Baghdad (1955) with Alladin's Lamp genii
Mr. Hex (1946)
Spook Busters (1957)
Spooks Run Wild (1941) Bela Lugosi
Bowery Boys movies available on video
John Landis looks at Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
