When their captain is swindled out of his riverboat by a trio of gamblers, stage show star Abbott and his bumbling sidekick Costello must put things right.1h 16min | Comedy, Crime, Romance | 6 July 1945
Director: Jean Yarbrough
Stars: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Alan Curtis, Henry Travers, Joe Sawyer.
Jack Boyle ... stager: musical numbers (as John Boyle)
I found this one especially tedious, but part of that might be unfair: that 2 of the last 4 films of '45 have taken place around this time period (although both of those were in San Francisco, and this is on the Mississippi), but it makes the music all about the same, and not in my preference zone. It's very different to see & hear Mae West sing a borderline-bawdy version of an 1890s song, and far more enjoyable. Here, the singer is especially Polly Pureheart-y, so it doesn't hold my interest. (Wouldn't it be funny if she were actually extremely ribald, and I missed it.) Looking at the Soundtracks page, no wonder I'm not excited by this as a musical. If accurate, very few numbers were performed.
This is not tagged as a musical, but it's In the Tap! Appendix for Uncredited lrish jig number on showboat, which I don't remember seeing.
This is not tagged as a musical, but it's In the Tap! Appendix for Uncredited lrish jig number on showboat, which I don't remember seeing.
A&C do an extended version of Who's on First here, with 8 of the 9 players now named. See this Wikipedia article for more. This is the highlight of the film, and very well done: ch12. They did a shortened version in One Night in the Tropics ('40).
A&C are not cast as friends here. Abbott is the new leading man in the showboat's company, and Costello is a stagehand. When A slaps C, I don't like it, and it seems just a bit worse when they're not friends. They quickly join forces to help save the boat from the captain's reckless gambling losses.
The production notes refer to "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" as an A&C routine. This is where Abbott yells backdrop directions to the crew while Costello is on stage rehearsing a song. So he interprets directions like "higher" and "more to the left" as intended for his singing. I don't know the origin of this sketch, but I know I've seen it many many years earlier with someone like Fanny Brice or Louise Fazenda singing and the stage manager yelling backdrop or stage furnishings directions in exactly the same vein.
Overall: meh, with a plus for Who's on First.
Universal, dir. Yarbrough; 5+
