"Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid" was shooting near a set where "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" was filming. Tourists were shocked to see Glenn Strange's Frankenstein Monster having lunch with Ann Blyth in her fishtail costume. Both Strange and Lon Chaney in his Wolfman make-up were invited to the Mr. Peabody wrap party, where they hammed it up in make-up.
Glenn Strange speaks for the first time as The Monster. This film marks the first time since The Ghost of Frankenstein that the character has spoken, though it does not explain how The Monster has regained his voice.
Glenn Strange was playing the Frankenstein monster, but during shooting one day he tripped over a camera cable and broke his ankle. Lon Chaney Jr. (playing the Wolf Man) wasn't working that day, so he put on the Frankenstein makeup/outfit and filled in for Strange in one scene where Dr. Mornay gets thrown through the window. So Chaney wound up playing two monsters in this movie.
Lou Costello did not want to film the movie, declaring, "No way I'll do that crap. My little girl could write something better than this." A $50,000 advance in salary and the signing of director Charles Barton, the team's good friend and the man whom some call their best director, convinced him otherwise.
Although he would play similar vampires in other films since Dracula, this would be only the second, and last, time that Bela Lugosi would play Dracula in a feature film.
Although the characters had previously appeared in House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, this is the only Universal film where Larry Talbot and Dracula share both a scene and dialog.
Boris Karloff was never approached to play the monster, but as a favor to Universal, he agreed to do publicity work for this film as long as he didn't have to see the film. In several photos taken by Universal's publicity department, he is seen standing in line purchasing a ticket at a theater in New York City where the film is playing, and in other stills, he is shown admiring the poster art for the film outside the theater lobby. Karloff later starred with Abbott & Costello in Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff as well as _Abbott and Costello meet Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. (1953)_.
During the final chase scene, when Wilbur and Chick are standing in front of a door and the Frankenstein monster punches through it, Lou Costello deliberately went off his mark and got hit on the jaw. The director liked his reaction, so he decided to keep it in the film.
In 2000, recognized by the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Laughs at #56. In September 2007, Readers Digest selected the film as one of the top 100 funniest films of all time.
Marks the first time Universal-International stopped using the effective but lengthy application time of make-up artist Jack P. Pierce for the monster make-up, using Bud Westmore and Jack Kevan's more cost-effective rubber appliances. The rubber head appliance that Glenn Strange wore to play the Frankenstein monster fitted him so tightly that, after a few hours under the hot lights, he could shake his head and hear the sweat rattling around inside it.
Originally titled "The Brain of Frankenstein".
Technically, nobody in the film ever meets Frankenstein, although it had long since been accepted that the name of the monster was "Frankenstein's Monster", or for simplicity sake "Frankenstein".
The animation sequences of Dracula-as-a-bat and Dracula-changing-from-bat-to-Dracula were done by Universal-International's animator, Walter Lantz (of Woody Woodpecker fame).
The opening scene of "London", then "Big Ben" is followed by a constable on patrol. This shot was lifted from Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in the scene a constable finds the unconscious Lawrence Talbot after his "resurrection", that same constable is murdered by the Wolf Man the following night. A filter was used to darken the shot for inclusion in this film.
The scene in which Wilbur (Lou Costello) is unknowingly sitting on the Frankenstein Monster's (Glenn Strange) lap required multiple takes. The scene allowed Costello to improvise wildly, which caused Strange to constantly break up laughing during the takes.
The studio hired two additional comedians to add laughs between takes on the set.
This film has been the subject of controversy for decades over whether it should be considered part of the official Universal Horror series (thus making it a sequel to House of Dracula) or a non-canon, standalone film.
This film was such a hit that it was reportedly Universal-International's second highest grossing film of the year.
This was the final Universal film to feature Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula and the Wolfman, until Van Helsing.