Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff

A criminal defense attorney is murdered at a resort hotel, and seven of his former clients who are under suspicion (Boris Karloff et al.) hatch a plan to pin the crime on the bungling bellboy, Freddie Phillips (Lou Costello), who discovered the body. Bud Abbott plays Casey Edwards, the house detective working to clear Freddie’s name and uncover the truth, in this horror comedy that merges Abbott and Costello’s silly signature shtick with the spooky ethos of Universal’s Classic Monsters horror cycle. Initially conceived as a Bob Hope vehicle, Meet the Killer was acquired by Universal and retooled to serve as Abbott and Costello’s twenty-fifth feature, with Boris Karloff added to the picture five days before production began to give the film another top-billed name and some added horror cachet.