The comedy duo of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were no strangers to genre mashups. The pair led dozens of films in the '40s and '50s that let them deploy their mid-century patter inside of western, fantasy, safari, and showbiz genres. When Abbott and Costello met Frankenstein in 1948's aptly named Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, it was the start of a series of horror-comedies that built on what's arguably the first cinematic universe. So it wasn't really a surprise, 75 years ago, that Abbott and Costello met the Invisible Man. It is a little surprising that Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man is less of a horror comedy and more of a slapsticky sports flick.
While Abbott and Costello were doing original hijinks for the first decade of their filmography, Universal Pictures started having the duo cross over with some of the various titles they had the rights to. (Synergy!) None came alive as much as the first mashup with Frankenstein's Creature, and the '48 film also featured Dracula and the Wolf Man to boot. (The latter two were played by Bela Legosi and Lon Chaney Jr., reprising their original roles.) On their own, the monster movies were starting to run out of steam. Frankenstein had already fought the Wolf Man in 1943; having them cross paths again but this time with the comedy duo behind the iconic "Who's on First?" bit in on the action was a great way to revive the IP and continue Abbott and Costello's string of hits. It's legitimately funny (the American Film Institute put it on their list of the 100 funniest American comedies) and while it's not exactly scary, it does have the aesthetic of a classic Universal Monster picture.
