Movie Reviews: More Abbott and Costello Classics

Here's another set of Abbott and Costello classic comedies from the 1940s! See my other set of reviews here.

Little Giant (1946) directed by William Seiter

Lou is a small town guy just finishing a correspondence course in salesmanship. The course ends with a recommendation to move to the big city. The nearest one is Los Angeles, so Lou goes to try his hand at selling vacuum cleaners at the company where his uncle works. He wants to make enough money so his mom doesn't have to work. The company's manager is a tyrant (Bud Abbott) who treats everyone badly except for his assistant (Jacqueline DeWitt), who he has secretly married. Lou has a hard time in actual sales, leading on a voyage of comedy and pathos.

The movie is a departure for the duo, with the main emphasis on Lou and almost no routines (they do reprise the "7 times 13 is 28" routine from Buck Privates). The resulting movie has a lot more plot and dramatic moments which I found a little off-putting for an Abbott and Costello film. I still laughed plenty but there are tear-jerking moments too.

Mildly recommended.

The Time of Their Lives (1946) directed by Charles Barton

Lou is Horatio Prim, a tinker in American Revolutionary times. He's in love with a girl at the Danbury Estate and wants to run away with her and get married. Prim even has a letter of recommendation from General George Washington. Unfortunately Danbury is a royalist plotting with Benedict Arnold to get West Point. Through a series of misadventures, Horatio and Danbury's finance Melody (Marjorie Reynolds) are killed as they flee to warn the patriots about the Arnold plot (in an interesting twist, they are killed by the patriots). They are thrown in a well and cursed as traitors unless some evidence can be found to exonerate them. Locals come to the estate, steal all the furniture, and burn down the house. Horatio and Melody think the letter was hidden in the house and despair of finding letter which was taken by Danbury. 165 years later, the house is rebuilt by a historian with the original furniture, one of which has the letter hidden in a secret drawer. The ghosts of Horatio and Melody haunt the house and work with the people to solve their problem.

Bud has a duel role. First he plays a butler at the Danbury Estate who has it in for Horatio, causing a lot of comedic conflict. Second, he plays a modern-day psychologist who first scoffs at the ghost stories but comes to believe as Horatio persecutes the man who looks just like the butler.

The plot is very well written and moves at a good pace. The comedy is naturally blended in and works well. A lot of special effects (mostly ghost gags) give a good variety to the jokes. The duo does a great job and the rest of the cast ably supports them. This is top-tier Abbott and Costello filmmaking.

Highly recommended--this, along with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, are my favorites from the duo.

Buck Privates Come Home (1947) directed by Charles Barton

In this only sequel by the duo, Bud and Lou are soldiers returning from World War II. Lou has an orphaned French girl stowed in his pack, creating the main plotline for the movie. The Army wants to send her back to France while the boys want to adopt her. Consulting the French Embassy, they find out they need a steady income and to be married in order to keep the child. One of their war friends has a midget race car that he thinks can win big if he can just get it out of hock. Bud and Lou go for GI loans to become partners with him while they try to keep the child out of sight, especially from their ex-sergeant who has gone back to his pre-war job--a beat cop.

They boys revert to their usual shtick--comedy routines more or less shoehorned in to the main plot. There's one song at the beginning but no musical guests or numbers. The movie ends with their typical chase scene, this time with Lou driving the midget car through all sorts of improbable situations.

This is an entertaining return to their formula with plenty of laughs and almost no melodrama like in the previous two films.

Recommended.

The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947) directed by Charles Barton

Bud and Lou are late-1800s traveling salesmen on the way to California. They stop over in Wagon Gap, Montana. The town is as Wild West as it gets. Lou accidentally kills a man and the local vigilantes plan to string him up. But there is a Montana law that anyone who kills or maims a man must take care of the victim's widow and children. The dead man's widow is Widow Hawkins (Marjorie Main), a shrewish woman who puts fear into everyone. Bud certainly is cowed by her demeanor. He has to do a lot of chores on the Hawkins farm and pay off the dead man's debts. One debtor forces him to work nights in a saloon which just about wipes Lou out. When a local threatens to kill him, Bud insists that he shoots so the other guyy can take on the Widow's chores. The guy backs off immediately and Bud becomes the unassailable hero of Wagon Gap! No one wants to deal with the Widow Hawkins.

The movie is a fun send-up of Westerns with a good mix of routines by Bud and Lou. The comedy works well and fits the plot. I laughed a lot.

Recommended.

Movie Reviews: Abbott and Costello Sampler

A sampling of Abbott and Costello films from the 1940s...

Hit the Ice (1943) directed by Charles Lamont

Abbott and Costello are photographers trying to make a dime on the street when they accidentally join up with some bank robbers. The head bank robber has been pretending to be sick at a hospital across the street, where his doctor is a bit clueless about the situation but his nurse knows something is up. When they finally do the robbery, the crooks follow the doctor to an upstate winter resort where they plan to lay low. Abbott and Costello are accused of the robbery and head north to try and find some evidence to clear them (and also lay low).

The movie's plot seems more like a situation to hang comedy routines on rather than a compelling story. The boys have some typical comedic routines for them (verbal banter, physical comedy, comic abuse of each other). The resort has a big band traveling north with its leader knowing Abbott and Costello from their schooldays together (the doctor is also a chum from school). The band has a singer, Ginny Simms, who has a couple of gratuitous musical numbers which is also very typical of the comedy duo's films. The ice skating sequences are fun. The movie is entertaining but definitely B-quality for Abbott and Costello.

Mildly recommended.

In Society (1944) directed by Jean Yarbrough and Erle C. Kenton

The boys are plumbers just starting out. They get a break when they are called at the last minute to a mansion for a repair job during a fancy party. A quick taxi ride with their friend Elsie (Marion Hutton) gets them there. The party is a costume ball and the millionaire Peter Evans (Kirby Grant) comes dressed as a cab driver. Naturally he falls in with Elsie who tries to explain she really is a cab driver, not dressed up as one. Peter is smitten and won't let her go. The boys are upstairs having a hard time with the plumbing. Back at their shop the next day, shady character Drexel (Thomas Gomez) wants them to either pay back the thousand dollars they owe him or steal some valuables from the next mansion. They are accidentally invited to the next society party where (of course) Peter takes Elsie. A lot of comic misadventures and musical numbers ensue.

The plot is a little better thought out, even though it mirrors Hit the Ice. The comic routines are bigger (The bathroom repair and the Susquehanna Hat Company routines). They are in fine form with a more enjoyable romp. The final chase scene with an old-style fire truck is very impressive.

Recommended.

Here Come the Co-Eds (1945) directed by Jean Yarbrough

The boys are dime-a-dance escorts at a downtown club where Bud's cinematic sister Molly (Martha O'Driscoll) works too. They get fired from the job but she winds up with a scholarship to Bixby College, a women-only school. The dean (Donald Cook) takes a shine to Molly and agrees to hire Bud and Lou as caretakers. They are supervised by Johnson (Lon Chaney Jr.) who torments them as much as they torment him. The stuffy chairman of the board doesn't like a showgirl at the school but she is great at basketball, which leads their team to a big game where, with the right bet, they can win enough money to pay off the school's debts to the chairman and run the school in a more modern way like the dean wants.

The movie is the usual pastiche of skits and musical numbers. Lou has a nice scene trying to clean up a kitchen and becomes "one of the girls" to help win the basketball game at the finale. The movie gets enough laughs in but the musical numbers do feel shoe-horned in, with almost no connection to the story. 

Mildly recommended.

The Naughty Nineties (1945) directed by Jean Yarbrough

Bud is the main actor in a riverboat show while Lou works behind the scenes. It's the 1890s, the heyday of riverboat entertainment on the Mississippi. The boat runs into trouble when a trio of crooks swindles away majority ownership from the boat's captain and owner (Henry Travers). They want to make money off the boat by crooked gambling--before the sheriff catches up to them they will just sail on to the next town. Bud and Lou work hard to get the bad guys out and save the day.

The plot is pretty thin but provides plenty of oppportunities for comedy routines. This movie has the full version of the "Who's on First?" routine that is the most famous Abbott and Costello comedy sketch. Plenty of other comedic moments are also good, including "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" and a feather cake routine. The finale with a chase on the boat is very well executed and quite funny. The boys are back on top tier with this film.

Highly recommended--the "Who's on First?" routine is a classic of comedy.

Movie Review: Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) directed by Charles Lamont

As a follow-up to the successful Mummy franchise and the monster cross-over movies with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, the boys have an adventure in Egypt with Klaris (Eddie Parker), a mummy from ancient times with an ancient curse who is also the guardian of another secret tomb full of fabulous wealth. Bud and Lou are looking for a way to get back to America. Bud overhears one professor saying he needs some men to escort a mummy's remains to the USA. The duo head over to the professor's house where they get stuck inbetween various other groups who want the mummy for their own purposes. The professor is killed and suspicion lands on Bud, so they are highly motivated to sort things out. The plot is definitely copied from the other Mummy movies even if Kharis's name has been changed to Klaris. Bud and Lou go through typical shenanigans and routines as the story moves along.

This is definitely more of a comedy than a horror. The mummy is not much of a character, the rest of the cast is the focus. A group of Klaris devotees led by Semu (Richard Deacon) try to keep Klaris's secret situation from getting out, so they are after Bud and Lou. Some grave robber/gold diggers led by Madame Rontru (Marie Windsor) are after the treasure and thereby after Bud and Lou, who have a key piece of information for both pursuers. The comic antics are fun but not up to the duo's best standards. The movie is fun to watch but not endlessly rewatchable like their ...Meet Frankenstein. 

Mildly recommended, more so if you are a Mummy or an Abbott and Costello fan. I'm both, so I had a good time.

Movie Review: Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951)

Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) directed by Charles Lamont

Abbott and Costello graduate from a detective academy and are given the night shift at a local detective agency. A guy shows up offering them money to escort him to an address. The guy is Tommy Nelson (Arthur Franz), a boxer who is accused of killing his manager and is on the run from the law. He claims he's innocent and wants to find proof. The address is the lab of a doctor who is Tommy's friend and is working on an invisibility formula. The formula is the same one from the original Invisible Man movie (there's even a picture of Claude Rains in the lab) and has the same problem--it drives the recipient crazy and there's no reversing formula. The doctor is working on the cure and refuses to inject Tommy. Then the cops show up and the doctor goes downstairs to stall them. Tommy injects himself and works with Abbott and Costello to prove his innocence. Costello winds up mistaken for a great boxer (it helps if you have some invisible fists) as they investigate the boxing corruption that got Tommy falsely accused. 

The movie takes the plot of The Invisible Man Returns but switches it from a British coal-mine owner falsely accused of killing his brother to an American boxer falsely accused of killing his manager. A few of the special effects look like they were spliced out of the earlier film. And Tommy has a "I can rule the world" speech like the one Vincent Price delivered. The invisible man stuff in the story is mostly unoriginal. On the other hand, the comedy is a nice mixture of verbal sparring and physical gags that Abbott and Costello are so good at. One scene has Costello surreptitiously stealing cash from Abbott in a variety of funny ways. The final gag is ridiculous in good and bad ways. Overall, the movie is a fun, light comedy.

Recommended.

Movie Review: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) directed by Charles T. Barton

The remains of Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and Frankenstein's Monster (Glenn Strange) arrive at a shipping office in Florida, destined for McDougall's House of Horrors. The delivery agents are Chick Webb (Bud Abbott) and Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello), a bumbling duo. They make the delivery but the two bad guys come to life and escape. The Wolf Man (Lon Chaney) comes to Florida in an attempt to destroy them both. Dracula's plan is to revive the Monsters fully...after putting a more docile brain in the cadaver. He's enlisted Sandra (Lenore Aubert) to do the surgery. She's been wooing Wilbur, since he has a perfectly simple and docile brain, just perfect for the monster. An insurance agent for the House of Horrors (Jane Randolph) wants to recover the merchandise, so she also works on Wilbur to achieve her end. Hijinks ensue.

The movie is much more of an Abbott and Costello comedy than a Universal horror film. Even with Lugosi and Chaney playing it as straight as they can, their performances are a bit too cheesy to be taken seriously. Most of the set pieces are comedy shenanigans featuring Bud and Lou while the monsters lurk in the background. The special effects are a mixed bag. The comedy works well and almost makes up for the lack of horror.

Recommended.