DANCE WITH ME, HENRY (1956)

 This is the very last Abbott and Costello movie. Before this they did ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY and that would have been a way better way to end things. This one is a pretty lame comedy with the duo running an amusement park, getting mixed up with gangsters and a murder due to Abbott being a gambling addict. The worst thing though is all the little kids in this and they're all pretty annoying. There is one beatnik/hipster character that seems pretty chill though.

 A & C would break up the following year and Costello would go on to make that 30 FOOT BRIDE OF CANDY ROCK that I still haven't gotten up the nerve to watch. I guess I will one day just to be a completist. 

There were a few different covers of this tune. Doesn't really have much to do with the movie besides little bits popping up occasionally: 

                             The Spanish title, MYSTERY IN THE PARK, is not quite as rockin':

Known in Turkey as TWO OPENGROUND GANGSTERS ARE AFTER?:

In Italy Abbott & Costello are dubbed Gianni & Pinotto and the movie is called BANDITS WITH A BANG!:

IT AIN'T HAY (1943)

This is probably one of my least favorite ABBOTT AND COSTELLO movies. It is interesting to see Shemp of the Three Stooges playing a mostly straight part but that's not really enough to recommend this one. Costello plays exceptionally stupid and childlike in this, he poisons his friend's horse with candy and then him and Abbott steal a racehorse to replace him. It's based on a story by author Damon Runyon(who I only know because his name is mentioned in an Alice Cooper song) so I guess if you find that compelling and don't mind very dumb comedy give it a watch. I'm gonna stick with their monster match-ups myself.

 

BUD ABBOTT AND LOU COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948)

 This is my favorite Abbott & Costello flick and it's also probably the classic Universal monster movie that I've seen the most, due to it being played many Sunday mornings on TV back when I was a kid. The cast in this one is pretty sweet with Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Lon Chaney Jr. as The Wolf Man(also briefly the voice of Vincent Price as The Invisible Man). The only one missing is Boris Karloff, who Abbott & Costello would meet a year later in A & C MEET THE KILLER, but we do have Glenn Strange as The Monster(referred to as "Frankie" by Costello in what might be the first time in a film the monster is referred to as just Frankenstein??). While this is obviously a comedy the monsters are kept fairly true to their roots and never completely ridiculed the way I imagine most modern-day comedies would treat them. Memories of watching this film are so ingrained in my head that it's impossible to be very subjective about it but I feel very lucky to have been raised in an era when stuff like this was everywhere for free.




FANTASMAS!!:

Cool/weird-ass German poster!:

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1953)

This is another of the classic A & C movies that they would show every Sunday morning on channel 11 here in New York back when I was a kid so it has that nostalgic factor working for me.  Hardcore Abbott and Costello fans seem to hate this film more than any of their other movies.  I guess the reason is that it plays out more like a classic Universal monster flick than a slapstick comedy.  Boris Karloff is great though playing a campy version of nice-guy Jekyll while uncredited stuntman Eddie Parker plays the silly monster Hyde.  The sorta weird thing is that the original JEKYLL AND HYDE wasn't even made by Universal, it was an MGM picture in the 30's, but I guess the character was sorta public domain by the 50's.  You get Costello turned into a man-sized mouse and then a fat Mr. Hyde monster, Abbott strangely grabbing his ass a lot whenever he tries to run from danger, a whole police squad of Mr. Hydes, Karloff's Jekyll confessing his love for someone young enough to be his granddaughter and a semi-feminist character who's feminism goes right out the window when she falls for our studly newspaper reporter hero(gotta love that 50's mentality!).  Frankenstein and Dracula also show up as wax figures.  All in all a pretty cool monster flick for a Sunday morning.

AFRICA SCREAMS (1949)

Thanks to my dad I was raised on a steady diet of THE THREE STOOGES and ABBOTT AND COSTELLO from a very early age and I've always loved almost all of their collective stuff no matter how idiotic. The cool thing about this classic is that you get A & C along with the great Shemp Howard from the Stooges and, even though he's probably my least favorite Stooge, you also get "Curly" Joe Besser in there and he comes off in this like he's sorta doing an impersonation of Lou Costello(although I guess they always did that same sorta act) and the two together are quite ridiculous. Of course you also get the obligatory  cheap, shit-ass gorilla costume, which is always cool and the totally non-politically correct depictions of Africans, which is probably not considered very cool nowadays, but this was Hollywood in the 40's.  Check it out if you love classic stupid comedy.

Costello meets KING KONG? Or is that THE MIGHTY PEKING MAN?: