Comin’ Round the Mountain, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello – where they get in the middle of a long-standing feud!
Comin’ Round the Mountain, starring Abbott and Costello, Dorothy Shay – released June 18, 1951
Imagine Abbott and Costello in the midst of the legendary mountain feud of the Hatfields and the McCoys, and you have Comin’ Round the Mountain. It’s a very funny film, with Lou Costello as the “long-lost” grandson of Squeezebox McCoy, whose concertina holds the key to a hidden treasure. Lou’s return to the hills of Kentucky re-ignites the long-dormant feud.
Funny bits include the “forefathers” routine (see below in the quotes), and a voodoo duel between Lou and Margaret Hamilton (the Wicked Witch from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) as they make voodoo dolls of each other and keep jabbing each other! It’s a very funny sequence, that begins when cheapskate Bud refuses to pay her. And the scene only ends when she starts to make a voodoo doll of him!
Synopsis of Abbott and Costello’s Comin’ Round the Mountain
Al Stewart (Bud Abbott) and Wilbert (Lou Costello) are magicians doing a stage act when they run into Wilbert’s cousin Dorothy McCoy. Wilbert is the grandson of Squeeze-box McCoy. They go back to the hills of Kentucky to and find that Squeeze-box had a hidden treasure. The boys find themselves in the middle of a family feud.
Coming Round the Mountain is available as part of The Best of Abbott and Costello, Volume 3
Funny movie quotes from Abbott and Costello’s Comin’ Round the Mountain (1951)
[after walking into an old beat-down cabin]
Wilbert (Lou Costello): How could my kin folks ever live in a joint like this?
Al Stewart (Bud Abbott): Probably your forefathers lived here.
Wilbert (Lou Costello): I beg your pardon?
Al Stewart (Bud Abbott): I said probably your forefathers lived here before you.
Wilbert (Lou Costello): My four fathers?
Al Stewart (Bud Abbott): Yes.
Wilbert (Lou Costello): I didn’t have four fathers.
Al Stewart (Bud Abbott): Sure, you did.
Wilbert (Lou Costello): If I did, only one came home nights.
Al Stewart (Bud Abbott): What’s going on out there?
Wilbert (Lou Costello): My in-laws are acting like outlaws.
[after seeing a goat]
Wilbert (Lou Costello): Funny-looking dog.
Al Stewart (Bud Abbott): Now listen your next turn at the Turkey Shoot and we gotta beat those Winfield’s.
Wilbert (Lou Costello): You know I don’t know how to shoot a gun.
Al Stewart (Bud Abbott): Didn’t you learn how to shoot in the Army?
Wilbert (Lou Costello): I was in the Cavalry. What kind of bullets come out of a pitchfork?
Wilbert (Lou Costello): What’s she doing?
Al Stewart (Bud Abbott): She’s making Voodoo
Wilbert (Lou Costello): I do?
Al Stewart (Bud Abbott): Voodoo!
Wilbert (Lou Costello): I do what?
[As the witch jabs Lou’s doll in the backside with a needle]
Wilbert (Lou Costello): AHHH!
Al Stewart (Bud Abbott): That’s all in your mind!
Wilbert (Lou Costello): You gotta lousy sense of direction!
[Lou ends the voodoo duel by making a doll of the witch and Lou and the witch “needle” each other for a while. Finally they call truce, and …]
Wilbert (Lou Costello): [to Al] Pay her.
Al Stewart (Bud Abbott): I’ll pay her when I’m ready!
[Then, Al sees her making a doll of … Al!]
Al Stewart (Bud Abbott): I’m ready!
Songs
- Agnes Clung, Written by Hessie Smith and Dorothy Shay, Performed by Dorothy Shay
- Why Don’t Someone Marry Mary Ann?, Written by Britt Wood and George Beatty, Performed by Dorothy Shay
- Sagebrush Sadie, Written by Britt Wood and George Beatty, Performed by Dorothy Shay
- You Broke Your Promise, Written by George Wyle, Irving Taylor and Eddie Pola, Performed by Dorothy Shay
- You’ll Be Jes’ Another Notch on Father’s Shotgun, Written by Lyn Duddy, Jerry Bresler and Joan Edwards, Performed by Dorothy Shay
Cast of characters
- Bud Abbott … Al Stewart
- Lou Costello … Wilbert Smith
- Dorothy Shay (The Waltons) … Dorothy McCoy
- Kirby Grant (In Society) … Clark Winfield
- Joe Sawyer (Hit the Ice) … Kalem McCoy
- Glenn Strange (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein) … Devil Dan Winfield
- Ida Moore (Johnny Belinda) … Granny McCoy
- Shaye Cogan (Jack and the Beanstalk) … Clora McCoy
- Margaret Hamilton (13 Ghosts; The Invisible Woman) … Aunt Huddy
- Guy Wilkerson (Captain Midnight) … Uncle Clem McCoy
- Robert Easton (The Giant Spider Invasion) … Luke McCoy
- Virgil S. Taylor … Jasper Winfield
- Russell Simpson (The Grapes of Wrath; My Darling Clementine) … Judge
- Hank Worden (McLintock!) … Target Judge
- Jack Kruschen (The Apartment) … Gangster in Night Club
- O.Z. Whitehead (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) … Zeke
- Norman Leavitt (Off Limits) … Zeb
- Peter Mamakos (The Ten Commandments) … Gangster in Night Club
- Stanley Waxman (Zombies of the Stratosphere) … Clay
- Dan White (Voodoo Man) … Mountaineer
- William Fawcett (Batman and Robin movie serial) … Old Mountain Man
- Harold Goodwin (Abbott and Costello meet the Keystone Kops) … Mountaineer
- Jane Lee … Fat Woman in Cafe