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Rating:  -
It's hard to know if the director makes the Abbott and Costello films work, or the timing of Bud and Lou.
If you can see the Shows Bud and Lou did on the COLGATE Comedy Hour, its clear that Lou is a brilliant Improvisor, so whilst he did seem to forget his lines on the Colgate Comedy show, he created a quick stock of lines to get back on beat. Very few teams did this kind of solid work.
As a side note, CALL ME BWANA seems to have some similarities to AFRICA SCREAMS, or is it the other way around? :-)
Anyways, sketch style of humour is held together by a totally fun story, and some great actors, comic and regular. Shemp Howard does indeed do a great job in this film, and even the actor who replaced Shemp post 1955, makes a good job of his brief appearance ( his voice seems to be the basis for much animation in the 60s as well).
Like most of the Abbott and Costello stock, this film depends on their style, and the story works around them ( I guess), but Lou is, as usual, the centre of attention, but depends on Bud's straight man delivery for the scenes to work. And work they do.
Immaculately timed, and well delivered, this is one of many excellent films by a great team.
ENJOY
Rating:  -
I rented this mainly for my 5- and 3-year olds, who were predictably amused, though they volunteered that Abbott & Costello aren't as good as the Marx Brothers. That's putting it mildly.
I also wanted to see if they were as entertaining as I remembered them from my childhood: They aren't. I can only suppose they were an innovative act in their heyday in the '40s, when they were the biggest grossing movie comedians, but -- what can I say? -- they fail the proverbial test of time. They were fated to Trotsky's ash heap of history -- or, in this case, comedic history -- along with Eddie Cantor, Ma & Pa Kettle, Martin & Lewis, and, hopefully before long, Adam Sandler.
There's a saving grace or two, though, in this movie: One of the Three Stooges, Shemp Howard, has the best bit as a Mr. Magoo-like big game hunter, while a future Stooge, Joe Besser, who, eerily, would one day replace the deceased Howard, does his usual turn as a ludicrous sissy. If only this Abbott & Costello feature had a tenth of the classic qualities of those Three Stooges shorts that contemporaneously got so little respect!
Rating: -
Being born in Paterson NJ, I guess maybe I'm a little privy to the whole Abbott & Costello thing. I remember when channel 11 was WPIX..now it's WB11....but every Sunday morning; at 11:30AM, they'd run an Abbott & Costello film(they did this for years)and Africa Screams was one of our favorites.
Why? Well, it was classic Bud & Lou all the way. Picture Lou finding a trail of diamonds.....calling on Bud to help him carry ALL HIS MONEY! I'M GOING TO BUY POLO PONIES...OFFICE BUILDINGS!!!
I forget the name of the guy who plays Gunner, but you'll recognize him instantly as well........YOU GOTTA BUY THIS!!!!!!
Rating: -
AFRICA SCREAMS (1949)
Huntington Hartford Productions
Release Date: May 4, 1949 (New York City, New York)
May 27, 1949
Runtime: 79 minutes
Director:
Charles Barton
Producer:
David S. Garber
Huntington Hartford
Writing Credits:
Earl Baldwin
Martin Ragaway
Leonard B. Stern
CAST:
Bud Abbott.....Buzz Johnson
Lou Costello.....Stanley Livington
Clyde Beatty....Himself
Frank Buck....Himself
Max Baer....Grapple McCoy
Buddy Baer....Boots Wilson
Hillary Brooke....Diana Emerson
Shemp Howard....Gunner
Joe Besser....Harry
Burt Wenland....Bobo
Music by:
Walter Schumann
Cinematography by:
Charles Van Enger
Film Editing by:
Frank Gross
Art Direction:
Lewis H. Creber
Set Decoration:
Ray Robinson
Assistant Director:
Joseph E. Kenney
Special Effects:
Carl Lee
Other Crew:
Norman Abbott....dialougue director
Albert Deano....wardrobe manager
William Nassour....executive in charge
Plot Summary:
Buzz and Stanley are booksellers in a department store. Several people start asking about a map in a book about Dark Africa. Stanley claims to know the map from memory. Buzz cons a female customer, Diana Emerson, into thinking Stanley knows a great deal about the map and insists on going to Africa knowing riches await him. After encounters with lion tamers, giant apes and a wild river, Buzz returns to America. Stanley finds diamonds and buys the store they once worked for, hiring Buzz as its elevator operator.
ROUTINES & HILARIOUS MOMENTS:
Lou fears gorilla while eating
Glasses of water for tent fire
Bud in lion skin
Lou's thought dead.
Trivia (from imdb.com): There is a scene where Bud Abbott & Lou Costello are talking in their tent and Joe Besser dashes into the tent, grabs a glass of water and dashes out again. He repeats this several times until Bud Abbott stops him and asks why he's so thirsty. Joe Besser replies that he's not thirsty, it's that his tent is on fire. That was based on an incident in Lou Costello's childhood, when he accidentally set some clothes in his bedroom on fire. His father was in the living room, which was between the kitchen and Lou Costello's bedroom. Lou Costello, not wanting to let his father know that he had set his room on fire, dashed back and forth between the kitchen and his bedroom with glasses of water until his father finally asked what he was doing, whereupon Lou Costello was forced to tell what he had done.
Rating: -
A classic A & C film. The boys play two employees of a NY department store. Lou's claim that he can draw a map from a famous big game hunter's book, gets them involved with an unscrupoulous gang of fortune hunters who are organizing a safari to Africa, to hunt for diamonds. Two of the film's BEST highlights are the team's encounters with then famous big game hunters Clyde Beatty and Frank Buck. The film also teams them with Hillary Brook (who co-starred with them in the film "ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD", and later co-starred with them in the first season of their TV series "THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO SHOW"), and Joe Besser and Shemp Howard ( of "THE THREE STOOGES". Howard co-starred with the team in their films "BUCK PRIVATES", "IN THE NAVY", and "IT AIN'T HAY". Besser co-starred with them in their TV series "THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO SHOW" playing the part of 'STINKY').
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