The Best of Abbott & Costello, Vol. 1 (Buck Privates / Hold That Ghost / In the Navy / Keep 'Em Flying / One Night in the Tropics / Pardon My Sarong / Ride 'Em Cowboy / Who Done It?) DVD
In association with Amazon.com
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I don't like the zany antics of the Three Stooges. I always said they were downright stupid. So why would I like Abbott and Costello who are also silly. I can't explain it, but they have always been one of my favorites!! I love to watch them time after time.
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If you enjoy humor, this one is a must!
Plus Amazon.com is someone to trust.
If for comedy you lust,
This item's no bust.
On your shelf it won't collect dust!!!
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This collection has many of their best movies. I've introduced them to my wife and she really enjoys their comedy. The set comes on 2 double sided DVD's which makes it a little hard to see what's on each side.
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Don't be fooled by critics; Abbott and Costello were GREAT comics. These are eight fabulously funny movies. They are offered in sequence of original release, and this way you can understand some of their self-referencing as running jokes from film to film.
No, the characters were not as lovingly cultivated as Laurel and Hardy, but they were brilliant, and every film has something that made me laugh out loud, even watching alone. If these were the only movies they ever made, they would still have left an impressive oeuvre of some of the funniest films I've ever seen.
You can read more about the individual films from the other reviewers. I'll just make a few very personal observations.
The first movie, "One Night...", might require some fast-forwarding; however, A&C have major roles, and every appearance is very funny, and some really good prat falls.
"Buck Privates" seems to me an almost perfect comedy-music film: great swing music (and fine dancing by Dean Collins), several great A&C routines, and even a spoken-song by Costello. Too bad the writers didn't think to make Costello the accidental hero of the war games sequence.
In "Hold that Ghost", Costello does a dance--with JOAN DAVIS, and that's a sight to behold. He also gets a chance to do clever things, which kept me from losing sympathy towards him (after a while pure incompetence can grate on you). Oddly, Davis does not figure into the final scene at all and A&C have to refer to her in a corny verbal joke. Anyone know what happened?
The romantic leads and their boring songs are a problem in some of these movies, and the romantic resolution at the end of "In The Navy" actually made me cringe, it is so incredibly stupid. But the last shot is with Costello, so the film has a funny ending.
"Keep 'Em Flying" may seem less funny that the first two service-films, but I thought it had better continuity, more heart and patriotism, and a pretty good dramatic ending scene with a nice silly coda. Also, both A&C get to have girlfriends--in fact the same girl (kind of). They also do a Laurel & Hardy routine, lacking the motivation of the original but incredibly funny in their own machine-gun way of delivery. The director missed some comic opportunities, and he could have improved Martha Raye's choreography, but overall it's a smooth film and pretty satisfying.
"Sarong" starts off a little ragged, but then up pops the 3 Magicians scene; "Go Ahead, Back Up"; and Costello driving a bus to the bottom of the bay (and turning on the windshield wipers). Good imagery.
Their usual method with physical comedy is to do a number of variations and then when they think the audience is getting tired, fade out. But after the bus floats down to the sea floor, A&C are brought up into a boat, and thereby into the next part of the story, by being hoisted up on an anchor. Good segue!
"Ride 'Em Cowboys" has the first of the wild chase endings, but the finale of "Sarong" is better: the way they use props from their environment seems funnier, and the jokes are more based on A&C's characters.
"Who Done It" is my favorite of the bunch. No musical numbers, no particular time wasted on a love interest, very fast pace from beginning to end. Costello does many clever things, and his ability to fall down and run into walls without knocking his brains out is really amazing. The writers leave the ironic futility with Laurel & Hardy, and in this film the characters always prevail against the odds, which is fine with me. Curiously, after the "finale", a character asks Costello why he didn't just get killed--although she wasn't even in sight when the incident happened. But this leads to a funny ending.
A thought about the specialty of Clowns: Hal Roach said that Harold Lloyd was not funny; he was just a great actor who could play a comedian. I don't know what this means, but there certainly is such a thing as a "Clown" who is just funny, versus the rest of us. Costello was a great clown. Could anyone then or now go so over-the-top as Costello does in the "Your Time Has Come" sequence, and make you laugh--rather than recoil with embarrassment? Jerry Lewis could have made it work in front of the Colgate audience in 1952, but never in a movie. Costello goes for utter madness, and yet somehow remains lovable, even believable(!) It seems unimaginable that this routine, as written, could be anything but doomed; but it's a virtuosic Clown performance, and he pulls it off.
This is a great compilation, with everything done right for a change, with perfect prints and excellent sound. Even the menu is good, very simple with no moving images, animated genie effects or loud music (distributors take note), and the indexing seems quite handy.
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I am so glad to have found these movies.I rememeber back when I was younger getting up every sunday morning to watch them on channel 11. It was my favorite time of the morning. Nice to be able to do it again. I love the Abbott and Costello movies. Good clean comedy!
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