|
By
NICK ZEGARAC
Someone at Universal wasn't
thinking too clearly when they launched their
Abbott & Costello Franchise Collection last year.
I make this statement now because after Vol. 3
(the last complete volume of A&C's movies to
surface from the studio) we have been given a very
bleak Vol. 4; a scant 3 film/3 bio pick compendium
that effectively appears to be scraping the bottom
of the barrel where comedy is concerned. Unlike
the previous three volumes, each containing 8 of
the duos yuck-fests -- sometimes with a mixed bag
of blessings -- this fourth collection yields only
one stellar example of why Bud Abbott and Lou
Costello were -- at least for a time -- kings of
screen humor.
Abbott & Costello meet The Mummy (1955) is a very
funny flick. It effectively ended their tenure at
Universal on a very high note. Though Bud is
considerably heavier and, at times, looking in
poor health, he seems to have lost none of his
verve for adding insult to injury. On this
occasion Bud and Lou are mistaken for a pair of
archeologists by Madame Rontrou (Marie Windsor)
and Dr. Zoomer (Kurt Katch). Both are after the
mummy of Claris, an ancient relic destine for
museum archives. One problem: Claris isn't dead.
He's not even in hibernation. The film rekindles
much of the spark and flair Universal infused its
first blending of A&C meets their roster of horror
legends: Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (and
the Wolf Man, and Dracula).
Abbott & Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
(1953) is also in Vol. 4. On this occasion the
blend of comedy/horror is heavy-handed and
sluggish. Tubby (Costello) and Slim (Abbott) are a
pair of bumbling Scotland Yard detectives who are
determined to get to the bottom of a series of
murders perpetrated by Mr. Hyde (played with
laconic gusto by Boris Karloff). The story is
about as far removed from the Stevenson's novel as
one can get, with Jekyll's young ward, Vicky
Edwards (Helen Westscott) igniting the professor's
dishonorable intentions. As Hyde he plans to kill
Vicky's suitor, Bruce Adams (Craig Stevens) and
run away with the girl. There's not a lot for A&C
to do but run through several standard bits of
business before a really nasty final act in which
Tubby (having sat on a needle that transformed
Jekyll into Hyde) turns into a Hyde-ish knock off
-- biting his fellow Scotland Yard detectives and
turning them all into Hydes as well. I'm still not
exactly sure why that would work.
The last true A&C film in this collection is
Abbott & Costello Meet the Keystone Cops (1955);
an homage of sorts to the good ol' days of
Hollywood slapstick circa 1912. Fred Clark appears
as a spurious Hollywood director, Joseph Gorman.
He's really a conman out to make a quick buck and
so in step with convincing Bud and Lou (aka Harry
Pierce and Willie Piper) that they are just what
the movies need -- star quality. Unfortunately, a
large portion of this film is dedicated to
slapstick humor -- a more characteristic trait of
'The Three Stooges' than vintage A&C, and the
duo's level of discomfort throughout this film
with the material they've been given seems
painfully strained. Still, there are nice bits of
business from legends like Mack Sennett, Herold
Goodwin, Hank Mann, and Heinie Conklin -- all
holdovers from the days of silent comedy.
Now for the extras: In Vol. 4 we get three absurd
and forced documentaries about Abbott and Costello
-- none satisfactorily critiquing them as comedy
geniuses. The first: The World of Abbott and
Costello is probably the most comprehensive, in
that it was produced by Universal Pictures as a
feature film and released theatrically. It employs
vintage clips from all their films with a
threadbare narration to tie everything together.
Next we have Jerry Seinfeld meets A&C; a hopeless,
hapless and way too short (46 min.) vignette made
for television in which Seinfeld attempts to graft
his particular brand of humor onto vintage clips
that have been edited to resemble an interview --
painful on a multitude of levels. Finally, there's
Abbott & Costello Meet the Monsters, a made for
some previously issued DVD and VHS press junket
that is shorter (36 min.) and even less successful
at providing a succinct summation of the teams
great efforts.
Transfer wise all three feature films in this
collection appear very smooth, with obvious and
considerable restoration effort having been
employed on the two monster picks. The image
quality on all three has a very nice grayscale.
Age-related artifacts are more prevalent on
'Keystone' than the other two movies. As for the
documentaries: 'World' probably offers the most
satisfying image quality -- strange, since it is
the oldest, but probably because it was the only
one to be photographed on film stock. The other
two are mastered from digital tape transfers
presumably which tends to create a bit of havoc
and combing for those attempting to watch the
doc's on a progressive monitor. The audio on all
the transfers in this box is presented at a very
palpable listening level with expectedly dated
sonic characteristics.
And there you have it: the entire contents of
Abbott & Costello: The Franchise Collection Vol.
4. While it is a shay premature to classify this
box as an out and out failure, it in NO way ranks
with the previous 3 sets from Universal and, in
point of fact, is recommended only for the
die-hard A&C fan. |
