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

 Continuing the continuation of 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, one factor to consider is Lenore Aubert. A fellow Hungarian refugee - Lugosi had 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, Dr. Sandra Mornay. Her unspecified "curious experiments" have exiled her to a castle off the coast of Florida, where she's blackmailed by Dracula into finding a more dependably pliable brain to put inside Frankenstein's Monster. Enter Abbott and Costello, although when we're first introduced to Dr. Mornay as Costello's "classy dish", tenderly nursing his head injury from fallen luggage, there's no indication she'll be anything other than a schlubby comic's typically glamorous love interest. The affection she showers upon Costello's baggage handler Wilbur is entirely credible, as is everything Aubert does in every scene she's in. Look at the shot below. Now remove Aubert from the image... cover her up with your fingers or something...

Brawn, Brains and Madness. The Baddie Triumvirate.

 And now put her back in... See? It's impossible for a scene to be dumb when she's present. It's also far more fun to watch Dracula having to charm an equal rather than seduce an innocent, and when their differences are finally aired, I think Dr Mornay's the first victim ever to smile onscreen when bitten. It's hard to say who out of Lugosi and Costello is the greater benificiary of Aubert's provision of reality, but both up their game in return. Lou, despite his ego, would never be as loveable as he is as Mornay's puppy, and Bela, despite his frailty, would never be as imposing as he is as Mornay's blackmailer. Both stars also complement each other superbly, but once you get beyond the scare takes and the mesmerism, it's Aubert who's the chemist behind their chemistry. She doesn't have much to do in the following clip for example, but it's still 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 Dr. Stevens, Mornay's glamorous assistant. It doesn't look like she hired him for his smarts. To be continued...