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
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You bet, and they enlightened the world with their style of comedy that again is timeless. You just have to feel for the "little guy" and wonder how the big fella could put up with him.
A true test of friendship and humor that will delight viewers for centuries to come.
Just can't say enough about the superb job of cleaning these movies and removing the old snow and sound distortion from them.
This collection will have you rushing back to buy another.
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I remember some of these movies from when I was a kid (okay, I'm dating myself but I don't care). "Hold That Ghost", which is the reason I bought this collection, has some of the funniest bits EVER captured on film. No "off color" language or jokes -- just lots of laughs. The exchange after Joan Davis runs into Lou Costello and knocks him down STILL makes me laugh out loud. If you like "funny" -- this is your ticket.
Rating:  -
It may be hard to believe nowadays, but Abbott and Costello were once one of the biggest box office draws at the movies. In the early 1940s, their movies were among the tops in terms of tickets. Nowadays, they seem to be mostly forgotten except by fans of old movies, which is too bad. Their movies may not be the best comedy ever written, but they are all pretty fun. Volume 1 of The Best of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello features their first eight films.
One Night in the Tropics is their screen debut. They are actually just secondary characters who contribute little to the plot (involving some romantic mix-ups) but are brought in to lighten things up, with among other things, their "Who's on First" routine. Next up is their first starring feature and the first of their three military comedies, Buck Privates. In this one, they accidentally enlist in the army while trying to avoid a cop who later turns out to be their drill sergeant.
The next of their "service comedies" was In The Navy, in which they assist a famous singer who is trying to become a regular Joe by becoming a sailor. The final service comedy is Keep `Em Flying, which puts them in the early Air Force.
The pair inherit a supposed haunted house on Hold That Ghost. It actually used to belong to a mobster, and some of his loot is still in the place, attracting other hoodlums. In Ride `Em Cowboy, they wind up on a dude ranch. Pardon My Sarong is something of a takeoff on the Hope/Crosby Road pictures, with the two winding up on a tropical island. Finally, in Who Done It?, they are entangled in a murder mystery at a radio station.
There is a very structured approach to these movies: Universal Pictures obviously wanted these churned out quickly (some were out within a couple months of the start of shooting!) and they used plenty of contract players: for example, three movies have Shemp Howard in small parts and Dick Foran in bigger parts. All the movies are pretty short (they range from 78 to 87 minutes). They all have a romantic subplot involving other characters and (with the exception of Who Done It?), they all have several musical numbers, some featuring big names like the Andrews Sisters and Ella Fitzgerald.
At the core, however, are Abbott and Costello, more particularly Lou Costello who forms the comic heart of these stories. They are the same characters in every story: Bud is the fast-talking con man and Lou is the not-so-bright coward with an almost child-like approach to the world. There is plenty of physical comedy, but they are at their best when the two are just talking.
It'd be a bit much to call these films classics, but they are entertaining and they would probably amuse kids as well as adults. I suppose it's also technically inappropriate to call this The Best of Abbott and Costello when it actually is just their first eight movies, but at the same time it is true: this collection does show them in top form.
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Except for "One Night in the Tropics", these are some of Abbott and Costello's most entertaining films. One of my very favorite A@C films, "Ride 'em Cowboy" is marred by the dreadful dream sequence. What makes it more frustrating is to read from sources that other comedy scenes (which sound funnier) were filmed but rejected including extended bits of business with the poker sequence. The rest of "Ride 'em Cowboy" however more than makes up for the dream skit. This dvd set is a great buy for the cost.
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While I don't think I'll ever grow to be a *huge* A&C fan, as I've been seeing more and more of their films, I've grown to genuinely like them and to really enjoy watching them, even if I personally don't find them as consistently hilarious and personally endearing as some of the other great comedians of the era. But for this price, and for this many films in one collection, how could anyone go wrong?
'One Night in the Tropics' (1940) is actually a star vehicle for Allan Jones (best-known for his roles in the Marx Brothers' first two MGM films), Nancy Kelly, Robert Cummings, Peggy Moran, and a few other secondary characters. It's an enjoyable movie, but nothing really classic or memorable. A&C are actually the most interesting characters and steal the show, even though their comedy routines are detached from the plot and they're just trotted out as periodic comic relief. They're also not really playing very sympathetic characters in this one. It seems like one of those films that's watched more for the historical interest than for genuine entertainment value.
'Buck Privates' (1941), their first starring vehicle, is considered a classic, though here too they often seem to be relegated to supporting comedians and pushed to the back burner in favor of the romantic subplot. The same holds true in their other two service comedies, 'In the Navy' and 'Keep 'Em Flying' (also from 1941). While all three of their service comedies are genuinely enjoyable and funny, they would have been even stronger and funnier if all of the superfluous musical numbers and the romantic subplots with boring characters we don't really care about had been cut out. They were funny and talented enough to carry a film on their own without being forced to play second-fiddle to secondary characters! The weakest of these three is 'Keep 'Em Flying'; overall it just seems disjointed and inconsistent, and like they'd run out of top-notch material to mine after already doing their first two service comedies. (These service comedies also feel, in hindsight, like subtle propaganda just in case the U.S. really did enter WWII, what with the "Isn't the Army/Navy/Air Force great and fun?" theme.)
'Hold That Ghost' (1941) is also somewhat bogged down by musical numbers and a romantic subplot, but at least here those elements don't take up as much time as in a lot of their other early films. The plotline about spending a night in a haunted house and all of the hair-raising things that happen seems a bit cliché today, and the script seems a little weak, but overall there are enough funny moments and interesting twists and turns in the plot to make it worthwhile.
'Who Done It?" (1942), which mixes comedy and a murder mystery, has a very strong script and a supporting cast. What makes this film so funny and tight is that it focuses almost entirely on A&C instead of being cluttered up by some boring romantic subplot and superfluous song and dance numbers. 'Pardon My Sarong' (1942), made in imitation of the popular Hope and Crosby 'Road' pictures of the time, finds them on a tropical island. Although it does feature musical numbers and a romantic subplot, at least the comedy routines are seamlessly worked into the picture instead of seeming more detached from the plotline, and the subplot seems more interesting than usual. 'Ride 'Em Cowboy' (1942) is enjoyable entertainment and has a good script, though unfortunately has the same formulaic feel that a lot of these other films do--musical numbers and a dull romantic subplot that really slow down the story and relegate A&C to supporting characters. Normally I find Westerns boring and dated at best and offensive at worst, but since this is a comedy Western, I liked it. Even the stereotypical depictions of the Native Americans weren't as bad and offensive as they often are in these kinds of films.
Overall, while A&C aren't my top favorite comedians, I do enjoy watching them, and these early films are no exception. And while the songs and romantic subplots slow the pictures down, the boys are great when they're front and center instead of being relegated to supporting players. However, while this may seem like a great price for 8 films, it's not entirely a great deal. Since these are double-sided discs, they're more prone to scratching and malfunctioning. While the first disc played fine for me, I had to go through a number of different copies before finally getting a second disc that didn't freeze up or skip at any point. Would it have taken that much effort for Universal to ensure more quality control on this classic catalogue? And while the extras (trailers and production notes) are much appreciated, these films and this comedy team are famous and respected enough to have merited something more, like audio commentaries or photo galleries. Still, at least they're represented on DVD now, inferior technical quality or not.
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