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Forced to deliver the cases themselves, when it's dark (of course), Wilbur's poor mental faculties let the duo down immediately. What he's forgotten is the urgent phone call that came through that afternoon, all the way from Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) in London. Under no circumstances were they to let McDougal have his goods, because the contents are still alive! Unfortunately Talbot is also "The Wolf Man", which means that he grows an awful lot of body hair at the most inopportune moments. Thus Wilbur is left opening one of the boxes, in spooky surroundings, while Chick messes about outside. Distracted by the plaque which describes Dracula's life, the newly-revealed coffin slowly opens to display the piercing gaze of Dracula (Bela Lugosi) himself. Every time Wilbur notices, the lid slams shut and Chick comes running to find that nothing's wrong. This is too much like crying "Wolf!" for Chick's liking.
Stuck in the hypnotizing presence of Dracula, it's no surprise when Chick finds himself drawn into a trance by the malevolent count. Luckily he escapes becoming dinner because Dracula is engaged in waking the Monster (Glenn Strange) and making off with his weakened companion, before McDougal and Chick get back. As soon as irascible owner arrives, Wilbur snaps out of it, only to be faced with two empty boxes and a night in jail. It's no wonder that Chick ignores his feeble mimicry of Dracula and tall-tales of the Monster when they're stuck with prison food. Help is on the way with erratic Talbot, although it's down to cunning insurance agent Joan Raymond (Jane Randolph) to spring the boys on bail. Much to Chick's annoyance she displays amorous intentions towards short, fat, stupid Wilbur (instead of him). Given that he's already got a girl, the beautiful Sandra Mornay (Lenore Aubert), why should he get another one? For his brains, of course!
With so much material to work on (all of those classic Universal films), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein does a great job of throwing the most memorable evil-doers together and making it work. While Wilbur and Chick monkey around in the foreground, mostly making a hash of whatever they're doing, there's often something lurking unnoticed behind them. Sometimes it's the malignant presence of Dracula, at other moments the rabid Wolf Man is breathing his hot, lupine breath down Wilbur's neck. Whoever it is, the duo's combination of ignorance and innocence saves them every time (while this sounds like a cliche, it works in practice). Together with the villains playing their roles straight (reprising their "real" movies), the combination is delightful.
Costello gets many of the best lines, fumbling his way through romance and stuck in the position of never being able to prove the existence of Dracula and the Monster to anyone. The crazy situation of Costello getting all the dames drives Abbott up the wall, but there's a good reason for all of this female attention (its got nothing to do with good looks and charm, unsurprisingly). Much of the time Abbott is stuck as the straight foil to his partner, but (as in so many other pairings) they have a chemistry which makes it work. Contrasted with Lugosi, Chaney and Strange (who are dead set on either re-animating the Monster or preventing this), the combination of horror and comedy works just fine. The action never lets up, with the pace picking up in tempo until everyone is running around frantically while bemused guests look on (even Vincent Price gets thrown into the mix eventually).
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