Tom Raymond is a professional computer, programmer, and writer, with a love for the classic comedy team of Abbott and Costello
Chosen to appease an angry volcano god, Wellington learns the volcano has been rigged by Varnoff and his men who plan to collect the gullible natives’ sacred jewel. Rising to the occasion, Wellington vanquishes the villain with feats of unbelievable athletic agility in this delightful South Seas caper.
Read More »Pardon my Sarong (1942)
Abbott and Costello in Hollywood is classic Abbott and Costello in the very best sense. The movie begins with Bud Abbott, who has gone to barber school, conning Lou Costello out of his money. Bud is giving Lou lessons on how to shave a customer, using a balloon with lather as a shaving dummy. Bud is using the handle to ‘shave’ the balloon, while making sure that Lou is using the blade, so that Lou is constantly popping the balloon, and having to keep paying Bud for more shaving lessons.Read More »Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945)
Movie review of Abbott and Costello’s 1941 Air Force comedy, Keep ‘Em Flying, co-starring Martha Raye & Dick Foran
Read More »Keep ‘Em Flying (1941)
Abbott and Costello’s comedy, Who Done It? A murder mystery set at a radio station, where Bud and Lou tangle with Nazis!
Read More »Who Done It? (1942)
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello‘s follow up after the amazing success of Buck Privates was In the Navy. Which actually did better than Buck Privates. Like their previous film, Shemp Howard and the Andrews Sisters provide a comic foil and musical interludes, respectively. In a nutshell, Abbott and Costello join the Navy. Then, they get involved in a romantic subplot with Dick Powell. Along the way, they do do some of their most famous routines. These include a version of the con artist shell game using lemons, and Lou demonstrating his clownish math skills by trying to prove that 28 divided by 7 equals 13 — this bit alone is worth the price of admission.
Read More »In the Navy
I admit to being a fan of both Abbott and Costello, as well as the Universal monster movies of the times. Thankfully, in this movie, both sides are treated respectfully and appropriately. The monsters are frightening, and act true to character, and are not caricatures used for a quick laugh. In the same way, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello play their normal, everyman characters. With Bud being the straight man, who is confused by his bumbling pal Lou’s success with two different beautiful women. Neither of whom is what they seem to be.
Read More »Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein
In Here Come the Co-Eds Bud Abbott and Lou Costello star as two down-on-their-luck individuals who find jobs as caretakers at Bixby College, which is facing bankruptcy. After winning a large sum of money in a wrestling match against the “Masked Marvel”. Who was supposed to be their friend, McGurk, who was going to throw the match. But McGurk’s replaced instead at the last minute by Strangler Johnson, played by Lon Chaney Jr. Despite Lou’s being outclassed, he wins in a fluke, and Bud and Lou decide to help the school out by placing a large bet on the girls basketball team, who are massive underdogs.Read More »Here Come the Co-Eds
By all rights, One Night in the Tropics shouldn’t be an Abbott and Costello movie at all. It was a typical 1940’s romantic musical comedy, starring Allan Jones (perhaps most famous for Showboat as well as his work with the Marx Brothers in A Day at the Races and A Night at the Opera), Bob Cummings and Nancy Kelly. However, Universal Pictures had just put a pair of radio comedians under contract and wanted to give the pair, known as Abbott and Costello, a small part in the movie as comic relief, to see how they would do.
Read More »One Night in the Tropics
The good news is that is a compilation of all of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello‘s movies made at Universal Pictures, including the newly-released It Ain’t Hay, available for the first time on DVD. Also, unlike the previous collection, each DVD is single-sided, as opposed to having different films recorded on both sides of the DVD. The major ‘if’ with the collection, however, is: if you already own the previous collection, is it worth (at the time of this writing) $90 (U.S. dollars)? Probably not; however, if you don’t already own it, then it’s definitely worth the price — at least if you’re a fan of Abbott and Costello; and I am!
Read More »Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection
Abbott and Costello only had two seasons of their television show. In many ways, it set the stage for successful television comedies. The Abbott & Costello Show – The Complete Series Collector’s Edition is a complete collection of all episodes, collected on 9 DVDs, remastered.