Frankenstein Wednesdays International Womens' Day: "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948) – Doctor Sandra Mornay

 Continuing the conclusion of my weekly "But What Do I Know!" through Universal's first 8 Frankensteins...

 If Bela Lugosi's Dracula in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" is better than his Dracula in "Dracula", some thanks must go to co-star Lenore Aubert. A fellow Hungarian refugee (Lugosi fled the country in 1919 after a failed Communist revolution, Aubert fled the Nazis twenty years later) she plays Universal's first female Mad Scientist: Unspecified "curious experiments" have exiled Dr. Sandra Mornay to a castle off the coast of Florida, where Dracula has blackmailed her into finding a more dependably pliable brain to put inside his Frankenstein's Monster. Enter Abbott and Costello. When we're first introduced to Mornay, as Costello's "classy dish" tenderly nursing his head injury from fallen luggage, there's no indication she'll be anything other than the schlubby comic's typically glamorous love interest. The affection she showers upon Costello's Wilbur is entirely credible, as is everything else Aubert will do in every scene she's in. Look at the shot below, for example. Remove Aubert from the image... cover her up with your fingers or something...

Brawn, Brains and Madness. The Baddie Triumvirate.

  Now put her back in... See? It's impossible for a scene to be dumb when she's present. 

 It's also far more engaging to watch Dracula trying to charm an equal rather than seduce an innocent, and when their differences are finally aired, and he goes in for the kill, I think Aubert might be the first ever victim to smile onscreen when bitten. It's hard to say who out of Lugosi and Costello is the greater benificiary of her provision of reality, but both up their game. Lou, despite his ego, would never be as loveable as he is as Mornay's puppy, just as Bela, despite his frailty, would never be as imposing as he is as Mornay's blackmailer. Lou and Bela also complement each other superbly, but once you get beyond the scare takes and the mesmerism, it's Aubert who is the chemist behind this chemistry. She doesn't have much to do in the following clip, for example, but it's her they're playing to (discuss)...

This is the clip I'm posting for International Women's Day? This.

 The short-sleeved stud at the end, by the way, is Charle Bradstreet as Doctor Stevens, Mornay's glamorous assistant, whom she definitely didn't hire for his smarts. To be continued...