MovieChat Forums > Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) Discussion > McDougal and his insurance

McDougal and his insurance

posted a year ago by JosephQCat (706)
4 replies | jump to latest

How did it ever get to the point where live bodies got to be insured and transported internationally? What was the guy looking at who was at the wax museum and said he inspected the cargo prior to transport? Also, I don't get Abbott's riff about the Monster and Dracula being fictional. The movie went to great length to establish that they were in fact real in that universe including Dr Frankenstein's lab notes. No doubt the same European authorities who were investigating Dr Mornay's dubious lab experiments were also privy as to the existence of Dracula and the monster. Would not the fact that the shipment was not as represented and now verified by the lady insurance investigator render the policy null and void. Given the generally prickly nature of McDougal would this whole episode have given him a fatal heart attack? 20,000 dollars seems like a lot to throw at what is made out to be a high stakes gamble. In 1948 for that kind of money would he not go to Europe to be thorough in his assessment? A fun movie despite some minor plot issues.

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7699) a year ago

I think it would be null and void after the Insurance Investigator witnesses Dracula and Frankenstein as living beings. Also Frankenstein's monster and Dracula would be considered legendary mythical characters in the late 1940s when it was set.

[–] JosephQCat (706) a year ago

If at best that they were mythical in 1948 then why would McDougal lay out 20,000 dollars? Surely, it would cost a very minor fraction of that to make two wax figures and probably could be done in the US. Nearly all homes in the US cost 5,000 dollars or less so 20,000 dollars was a lot of money to most people then. It only makes sense that Frankenstein's Monster and Dracula were real world in the context of the movie.

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7699) a year ago

I mean yes, they were real but most of the people in the world of the movie think they are fictional.

[–] JosephQCat (706) a year ago

Abbott (Chic) certainly thought so but I thought that his character was intended to be less than worldly in that regard. I guess that it will not pay to over think it just like most of the Universal monster movies. Nonetheless, it would be hard to imagine Frankenstein's Monster living in stealth meaning people would see him periodically. He required food in the first two movies and seemed incapable of living off of the land. But all that seemed to be lost later on in the series and only needed a recharge of electricity to keep going. Best to think of A & C meet F as an A & C movie first and foremost. But the problems I see were most likely the ones Lou Costello saw while this was being made and his open lack of enthusiasm for the project.