BEAUTIFUL BUT BROKE

Joan Davis

BEAUTIFUL BUT BROKE (1944). Director: Charles Barton. 

Dottie Duncan (Joan Davis) works for a talent agency run by Waldo Main (John Eldredge). Since war broke out, Main has had trouble putting together bands for clients, so Dottie offers him an all-female orchestra. Waldo winds up giving the agency to Dottie, who puts together a band with the help of friends Sally (Jane Frazee of Hellzapoppin) and Sue (Judy Clark of Junior Prom). Through a series of misadventures, the threesome and the band members wind up in a small town after Dottie loses their train tickets, and they provide entertainment so as to raise cash for a day care. Sally and Sue fall in love, with Army men Bill (John Hubbard) and Jack (Bob Haymes of Blonde from Brooklyn) respectively, so it's a question if Dottie can get them to fulfill their contract in Cleveland. 

Judy Clark swings it!

Beautiful But Broke is amiable nonsense with a patriotic slant and some amusing sequences, such as when the women, thrown out of their hotel, wind up in a house that's on a field being tested for missiles! Joan Davis gives her usual spirited performance, and Frazee and Clark are decorative and have some pep, but are otherwise stuck in a minor key. There is a lot of generally forgettable if snappy swing music. A protracted scene in which Joan, with her foot stuck to a plank, interacts with some construction men and causes more destruction than anything else, seems to go on for half the movie and isn't even funny. 

Verdict: As usual, Davis could use better material. **1/4. 

THE SHAGGY DOG (1959)

THE SHAGGY DOG (1959). Director: Charles Barton. 

Fred MacMurray's career was given a new lease on life when he signed to do this silly comedy for Disney Studios and it became a tremendous hit. Wilson Daniels (MacMurray) is a mailman who hates dogs. A magic spell turns his older son Wilby (Tommy Kirk) into a sheepdog -- or rather he takes over the body of a neighbor's sheepdog -- and he turns back at awkward moments. This charming and amusing comedy for children is a bit dragged out by a heavy-handed spy plot that develops late in the picture -- it also has a rather slow pace -- but it has enough laughs to keep you interested if you're game and MacMurray is splendid. There are also good performances from Kirk; Kevin Corcoran as his brother, Moochie; Tim Considine as his girl-crazy pal, Buzz; Jean Hagen as his mother; Cecil Kellaway as a professor; and especially that amazing dog who plays Chiffon. (Watching the animal go through its paces, you sometimes have to remind yourself that it hasn't a human brain but is just a dog.) Annette Funicello and Roberta Shore are the young ladies; Alexander Scourby is head of the spies. NOTE: To read about a fine biography of Fred MacMurray, click here. 

Verdict: Watch Chiffon go for a drive! ***.

MA AND PA KETTLE AT THE FAIR

Esther Dale and Marjorie Main

MA AND PA KETTLE AT THE FAIR (1952). Director: Charles Barton.

This fourth Ma and Pa Kettle film presents these two interesting characters -- and I do mean characters -- interacting with various townspeople, some friendly and some not, and finding themselves with financial problems. How, for instance, can they afford to send second oldest daughter Rosie (Lori Nelson of Untamed Youth) to college? Ma hopes to win some prize money with her jam and bread, but accidentally enters in the harness race. Fortunately, Pa just bought an  old nag that used to race -- twelve years ago! After some accidents and blunders, Pa still thinks he has a chance of winning the race, but then he and Ma get arrested for supposedly poisoning the rival horses.

Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair is another amusing and lively entry in the series. Richard Long and Meg Randall, who were married off, do not appear in this installment, but are replaced by Lori Nelson and James Best of Killer Shrews as her handsome beau. Esther Dale, who was also in The Egg and I and Ma and Pa Kettle, returns as Ma's rival Birdie Hicks, and the interchanges between her and Main are a lot of fun, especially a scene involving a pitchfork and Birdie's rear end. Emory Parnell is also back as the amiable general store owner, Billy Reed. The climactic horse race is a highlight, and Ma and Pa Kettle show their own brand of solid integrity in this.

Verdict: More fun with the Kettles. ***. 

REVEILLE WITH BEVERLY

REVEILLE WITH BEVERLY  (1943). Director: Charles Barton.

Beverly Ross (Ann Miller) wants to work on the radio in the worst way, so she connives to steal away Vernon Lewis' (Franklin Pangborn) morning program devoted to classical music and replace it with a pop music program. A wealthy man, Barry (William Wright) joins the Army at the same time as his chauffeur, Andy (Dick Purcell), and both bet on whether or not this new Beverly gal on the radio is pretty; she later confuses the two of them with one another. This was one of many wartime alleged morale boosters with a slim plot and many guest appearances by such artists as the Mills Brothers, Frank Sinatra, and Bob Crosby and his band. Irene Ryan has a funny turn as the secretary, Elsie, and Larry Parks plays a soldier named Eddie. Movies from this era either celebrated both pop/swing and classical/opera, with guest stars from various musical genres, or they do what this one does and turn it into a competition, chortling about how people prefer Bob Crosby to Mendelssohn. Franklin Pangborn is as wonderful as ever, cynically cast as the Mean Old Effeminate Classical Music Lover. With her perky, ruthless demeanor and out-sized cheeks, Ann Miller tap dances her way into infinity -- and not a moment too soon. Charles Barton directed many Abbott and Costello movies as well as The Shaggy Dog.

Verdict: No better nor worse than most of these things. **.

DANCE WITH ME, HENRY

Lou Costello and Mary Wickes

DANCE WITH ME, HENRY (1956). Director: Charles Barton.

The last film for the Abbott and Costello team -- and the very last film for Bud Abbott -- is a depressing and dull experience, more resembling a sitcom than anything else. Lou Henry (Lou Costello) is foster father to Shelley (Gigi Perreau) and Duffer (Rusty Hamer), and owns an amusement park with his partner, Bud Flick (Bud Abbott). Bud has gambling debts, which means that unsavory characters are coming to Lou's home hoping to find him and get money, a situation that doesn't sit well with social worker, Miss Bayberry (Mary Wickes), who threatens to take the children away. Later on Lou is accused of murdering the district attorney (Robert Shayne) when he's shot dead in the amusement park. There's also an unctuous priest (Frank Wilcox), a friendly cop (Robert Bice), and a rockster named Ernie (Ron Hargrave). Bud and Lou do their best with a third-rate script, but Wickes, strangely, seems defeated by the material or just couldn't get into playing a harridan. The children are talented and Hamer later wound up on Make Room for Daddy. Lou Costello followed this up solo with The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, which was even worse.

Verdict: The last -- and possibly the least -- of A & C's feature films. *1/2.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER, BORIS KARLOFF

Percy Helton flirts with Lou in drag as a maid

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER, BORIS KARLOFF  (1949). Director: Charles Barton.

Running out of monsters to exploit, Abbott and Costello simply decided to star in a comical murder mystery with Boris Karloff chief among the supporting cast. House dick Casey (Bud Abbott) and fired bellboy Freddie (Lou Costello) are up to their necks in intrigue when one of the guests at the hotel where they're employed is murdered. While Inspector Wellman (James Flavin) suspects Freddie because the dead man got him sacked, there are others who may have done the deed, including possible husband-poisoner, Angela (Lenore Aubert), Mike Relia (Vincent Renno), T. Henley Brooks (Roland Winters), desk clerk Jeff (Gar Moore), his sweetie Betty (Donna Martell), her father Crandell (Harry Hayden), and the sinister pseudo-swami, Talpur (Boris Karloff), who is fairly murderous but may not be the main killer of the story. Melton, the hotel manager (Alan Mowbray) is appalled by the whole business: "We don't permit murders at this hotel," he insists. Unfortunately, more dead bodies begin turning up in Freddie's bath tub and closet, and worse, they keep disappearing as well. There's an exciting climax in vast caverns with a bottomless pit, with impressive scenic design and special effects, but the second most memorable sequence has Great Old Movies favorite Percy Helton flirting with Freddie when he's in disguise as a maid! The boys are in fine form, as are Karloff, Helton, Mowbray and Flavin, and the rest of the cast seems to be having fun as well. This is a delightful black comedy and one of the team's best movies. Gar Moore later turned up in Curse of the Faceless Man and Lenore Aubert was in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein which was also directed by Charles Barton.

Verdict: Quite entertaining and often very funny. ***.

THE WISTFUL WIDOW OF WAGON GAP

THE WISTFUL WIDOW OF WAGON GAP (1947). Director: Charles Barton.

"Marriage is a three ring circus. First there's the engagement ring. Then the wedding ring. And then comes the suffering!"  

Duke Egan (Bud Abbott) and Chester Wooley (Lou Costello) are out in the wild west when the latter is accused of murdering drunken gambler Hawkins. Chester is told that he's now responsible for the Widow Hawkins (Marjorie Main) and her brood of several children of varying ages. Bud and Lou move onto the widow's farm, where Mrs. Hawkins tries to sweet talk Chester into marrying her. Because no one else wants to be responsible for the widow and her kids, Chester discovers that no desperado will shoot him -- and is therefore made the sheriff! It's fun seeing Lou Costello and the great Marjorie Main teamed together, though considering the pairing one would have hoped for a more side-splitting movie. Still, Wistful Widow is generally amusing and boasts one classic bit, wherein Lou is bedeviled by a frog in his soup! Abbott and Costello are both at the top of their game and Main is just marvelous. William Ching plays a good guy, and Gordon Jones, star of the first Green Hornet serial, is a saloon owner and stage coach robber.


Verdict: Cute picture for fans. **1/2.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948). Director: Charles Barton.

Costello (to pretty Lenore Aubert): How can you look me in the face and say that?

Abbott (to Aubert): How can you look him in the face?

Abbott and Costello's greatest movie pits them against Dracula (played by Bela Lugosi for only the second time), who wants to transplant Lou's brain into the Frankenstein Monster (Glenn Strange) so he'll have a more controllable ally. Lon Chaney plays Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man, for the fifth time, and is better in this film than he was in the "serious" ones. Talbot knows what Dracula's up to, and wants the boys to help him stop the evil count. Aiding the count is Dr. Sandra Aubrey (Lenore Aubert), who pretends she's smitten with Lou to keep him -- or rather his simple brain -- at the ready. Charles Bradstreet plays an out-of-the-loop doctor-associate of Aubert's, and Jane Randolph is an insurance investigator who attaches herself to the boys in the hopes of finding out what happened to the contents of two coffins the boys delivered to a House of Horrors. (Frank Ferguson is very good as the angry, exasperated owner of the House of Horrors.) Glenn Strange is effective and even has a couple of lines as The Monster (who only spoke in Bride of Frankenstein and in Ghost of Frankenstein after Igor/Lugosi's brain was transplanted into his head). Vincent Price has a very funny cameo.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is not a parody a la Young Frankenstein so much as it's a Universal horror film into which the boys have been inserted. The guys do their amusing routines, while everyone else mostly plays it straight -- and it works! Funny, atmospheric, and creepy in equal measure, it has some genuinely suspenseful sequences and is bolstered by a terrific score by Frank Skinner. Bud and Lou are in top form and Bela Lugosi is simply splendid!

Verdict: Terrific horror comedy! ***1/2.

MEXICAN HAYRIDE

MEXICAN HAYRIDE (1948). Director: Charles Barton.

Bud and Lou are up to mischief down in Mexico, where Joe (Costello) has followed Harry (Abbott), who bilked him out of money and is now hoping to sell shares to a mine. At the arena, Bud realizes that the lady bullfighter Montana (Virginia Grey), is actually an old gal pal, Mary. Harry's sexy associate Dagmar (Luba Malina) tries to find out where Joe has hidden his money. And the law, as well as sinister old associates, are closing in. Fritz Feld is a scream as an elocution master who tries to help Costello with his speech, and a lot of humor is generated by the fact that Lou can't resist dancing every time he hears the Samba -- including in the bullring, where a very dramatic bull is after his hide. Costello also has a funny routine with the fast-talking Sidney Fields, and an amusing song and dance number with the zesty Malina. Lou's brother Pat Costello probably has a larger, speaking role in this than in any other A&C feature as a tough guy who's looking for Joe.

Verdict: Good-natured fun. ***

AFRICA SCREAMS

AFRICA SCREAMS (1949). Director: Charles Barton.

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello wind up in a studio-bound "Africa" along with the real Clyde Beatty, Frank Buck, two of the famous three stooges, and the curvaceous Hillary Brooke, who is hoping that Lou can lead her to a treasure in diamonds. Unfortunately, the map that Lou has supposedly memorized from a book is actually a map that shows how to get from his house to the department store where he works. Silly comedy has some really ancient gags in it, but it's also fast-moving and fun, with some genuinely amusing sequences. One of the best has Lou locked in a cage with a lion that he thinks is Abbott in a costume. A King Kong-sized gorilla shows up at the end in another funny sequence. The boys are in good form in this one. Joe Besser. who plays the petulant Harry, was "Stinky" on their TV show and briefly joined The Three Stooges. Shemp Howard (Gunner) was also a member of the stooges.

Verdict: Fun if you're in a silly mood. **1/2.