"Process"
The man being spat on is Bobby Barber, specifically employed on the set of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein to prank the crew, ruin shots, dress up, throw pies, drop eggs from a gantry – whatever it took to keep the team's comic energy up between takes. Not a normal provision for a film shoot, his presence suggests two things: that jokers Bud Abbott and Lou Costello might not themselves have been a guaranteed barrel of laughs to work with, and also – crucially – that they knew it. A&CMF is the product of perfectionists – something Frankenstein Wednesdays have been short on recently – and I might even find myself arguing by the time this post is written that it's the single most influential movie ever made.
Or I might not.
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