WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME

WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME (1942). Director: Charles Lamont.

War hero Johnny Kovacs (Allan Jones) is feted when he comes home on leave, but most of his musician buddies only know him as Johnny O'Rourke. Therefore when police come searching for him so he can fulfill some obligations, his pals assume he's a deserter from the army. Two women fall instantly in love with Johnny -- Joyce (Jane Frazee) and Marilyn (Gloria Jean) -- while Dusty (Peggy Ryan) can't even score with Frankie (Donald O'Connor). This has virtually no plot to speak of, but there are some well-delivered songs, such as the duets "This is It," "Romance," and "You and the Night and the Music." Jones has a very nice voice, but even in his day his style was a little too precious, and nowadays he seems just a bit hokey. Olin Howlin has a larger role than usual as a liaison, and a black dance group called the Four Step Brothers are full of verve. O'Connor is as good and as likable as ever, although his numbers with the frankly unfunny Ryan are nothing to sing about. Ryan made a better impression in Chip Off the Old Block, which starred O'Connor. Frazee was in Buck Privates and Gloria Jean in Copacabana.

Verdict: By the numbers -- but at least the numbers are good. **1/2.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD

Charles Laughton as Captain Kidd

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD (1952). Director: Charles Lamont. 

Seven years after playing Captain Kidd in a serious film, Charles Laughton reprised the role in this parody with Bud Abbott (Rocky) and Lou Costello (Puddin' Head). The fellows are working at the Death's Head tavern when Kidd comes in for a meal with lady pirate Ann  Bonney (Hillary Brooke) -- who was a real-life Irish pirate. Bonney and Kidd argue over who gets what of the treasure that has been secreted on Skull island, and Lou winds up possessing a map that shows the location of said treasure. Unfortunately, the map keeps getting confused with a love letter sent by Lady Jane (Fran Warren) to the amorous singer, Bruce Martingale (Bill Shirley). Everyone winds up on a ship heading for the island while Lou and Kidd try to outwit each other and Bonney inexplicable finds Puddin Head's charms irresistible. 

Laughton and Lou Costello mug

Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd starts out as a very funny comedy with everyone in good form, especially Laughton, who plays the role with perhaps just a touch more humor than before. Laughton and Lou Costello prove to be a good team in this, and poor Abbott is somewhat shunted to the side. Hillary Brooke could give decent performances in some films but there is an extra comical edge to the notion that she is actually doing scenes with the great Charles Laughton, as she is nowhere in his league as an actor. Costello sometimes overdoes his shtick,  which was typical for him. Bill Shirley has a nice voice and he and Fran Warren get to warble some rather pleasant songs by Russell and Lee: Captain Kidd, A Bachelor's Life, Tonight We Sail, Tall Pine, and North of Nowhere, the last two being romantic ballads. The movie is cute, Laughton is terrific, but eventually it just gets too silly and too many gags are repeated ad nauseam. 

Verdict: Just misses being an Abbott and Costello classic. **3/4. 

SHE WROTE THE BOOK

Mischa Auer and Joan Davis

SHE WROTE THE BOOK (1946). Director: Charles Lamont.

Jane Featherstone (Joan Davis of Around the World) is a prim and proper, intellectual science professor at the conservative Croydon College. She and everyone else on the faculty are appalled by the publication of a banned tell-all memoir entitled "Always Lulu," in which a woman's many amours are recounted in detail. No one knows that the author is actually the Dean's wife Phyllis (Gloria Stuart of Titanic). Phyllis can't collect the considerable royalties for the book unless she appears in person in New York, so she importunes her friend Jane to impersonate her. But when Jane is knocked out and becomes an amnesiac, she believes what everyone tells her, that she is Lulu, and takes on a whole new glamorous persona.

Joan Davis as "Lulu"

Given the excellent premise of this movie, as well as the cast members, one would think that She Wrote the Book was a laugh riot, but instead it's a disappointment. Joan Davis certainly gives it her all, and she gets some good support from Jack Oakie as the publisher's advertising manager; Mischa Auer as a man hired to woo her for money; Kirby Grant [In Society] as Eddie, a nice young guy who is attracted to Jane but definitely not to Lulu; and Thurston Hall as a wealthy ship builder who is mightily attracted to the supposedly oh-so-sexy and highly experienced "Lulu." John Litel is the dean and Jacquline deWit [The Damned Don't Cry] is the ship builder's jealous wife who threatens more than one person with a gun. The trouble with the film is not necessarily with the players but with a screenplay that lacks wit and never really pulls off the solid laughs it deserves, although there are a few amusing moments here and there. She Wrote the Book still manages to hold the attention and you do wonder how it will all turn out.

Verdict: Cute idea but the execution is only so-so. **1/2. 

MA AND PA KETTLE AT HOME

Marjorie Main and Brett Halsey

MA AND PA KETTLE AT HOME (1954). Director: Charles Lamont.

Ma (Marjorie Main) and Pa (Percy Kilbride) Kettle learn that a New York magazine is offering a scholarship to college as a prize, and that their son, Elwin (Brett Halsey), entered the contest, but in his essay has made their farm sound much more ideal than it is. Complicating matters is that Elwin's girlfriend, Sally (Alice Kelley), has also entered the contest, even though her grumpy, penny-pinching father, John (Irving Bacon), could afford to send her on his own. Two judges (Alan Mowbray of Becky Sharp and Ross Elliott of Tarantula) come out to the farms to inspect each applicant and their way of life, and Ma and Pa hurry to fix up their old farm, although there's really no reason they couldn't have just used their new-fangled house. As usual Pa gets his Indian friends to do all of the work. Much of the humor in the film is centered around Alan Mowbray as a persnickety city fellow who has to use out-dated plumbing and finds a frog in his bath (courtesy of little Billy Kettle, played by Richard Eyer), among other atrocities.

Christmas with the Kettles

Ma and Pa Kettle at Home is not the best of the series but it's an improvement over Ma and Pa Kettle in Waikiki. Lori Nelson and Richard Long as the two oldest Kettle children are nowhere in evidence and are never mentioned. Although he had bit parts before this and appeared on TV, this was Brett Halsey's first credited role in a motion picture and most of the time he just seems scared. Emory Parnell returns as store owner Billy Reed, and Mary Wickes again receives short shrift as a librarian who develops an interest in Mowbray. Kilbride and Main are as wonderful as ever, and Main is given a great bit in which she recites a funny poem at a Christmas party. Pa not only treats his Indian friends like unpaid slaves, but at one point has them dress up in warpaint and go on the warpath so he can "rescue" Mowbray from them and be seen as a hero. At least the Native Americans are pretty disgruntled at doing this.

There were two more Kettle films made without Kilbride in the fifties (who did not pass away until 1964). In one film, The Kettles in the Ozarks, Pa was left out and an uncle was substituted, and in the final Kettle movie, The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm, Pa was portrayed by Parker Fennelly.

Verdict: Can't keep those Kettles from coming! **3/4. 

MA AND PA KETTLE GO TO TOWN

Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride

MA AND PA KETTLE GO TO TOWN (1950). Director: Charles Lamont.

Pa Kettle (Percy Kilbride) wins another contest for a soda with the prize being an all-expenses paid trip to New York City! At first Pa and Ma Kettle (Marjorie Main) have trouble coming up with a babysitter for their fifteen rambunctious children, but along comes "Shotgun" Mike (Charles McGraw), a thief hiding out in town. Ma at least has some reservations about leaving the children with a complete stranger (although they prove to be more than he can handle), but she thinks he has a kind face, and off they go to Manhattan. There they encounter more problems with Mike's cronies, and discover some marital woes for son Tom (Richard Long) and daughter-in-law Kim (Meg Randall).

Richard Long and Meg Randall

Ma and Pa Kettle were introduced in The Egg and I and proved so popular that they got their own feature, Ma and Pa Kettle. This led into several sequels, of which this is the first. Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town is not only consistently cute and amusing, with great performances from Main and Kilbride and good work from the rest of the cast, but it avoids the cliche of New Yorkers being portrayed as horrible city slickers taking advantage of the Kettles; in fact, the pair actually like New York and the people who live there (although, of course, they're just as glad to get home). Ma and Pa exhibit sheer delight in seeing Manhattan from a cab as they stand up in a hole in the taxi's ceiling, and there's a great bit with Pa dropping a cup of water from the top of the RCA building and encountering that same water later on.

Verdict: Very cute picture. ***. 

INTERNATIONAL CRIME

Rod La Rocque, supposedly playing the Shadow

INTERNATIONAL CRIME (1938). Director: Charles Lamont.

This is the second of two films, following The Shadow Strikes, in which Rod La Rocque plays the pulp character, Lamont Cranston, aka the Shadow. Or rather he plays a pallid imitation of the Shadow. In this Lamont Cranston is not a costumed adventurer with the power to cloud men's minds, but merely a dull, rather obnoxious criminologist who writes a column and broadcasts a radio show in which he spends much of his time making fun of the alleged ineptitude of Commissioner Weston (Thomas E. Jackson). Instead of Margo Lane, we get the equally obnoxious Phoebe Lane (Astrid Allwyn of Love Takes Flight), a dilettante who got a job as a reporter only because her uncle owns the paper. The scenes of Lamont and Phoebe dickering are meant to be cute, but are merely tedious beyond measure.

Astrid Allwyn and Rod La Roicque

The plot of the film, such as it is, has to do with Phoebe hearing of a robbery that's going to take place at a theater. This turns out to be a subterfuge so that a wealthy man can be murdered by a bomb that explodes when he opens his safe. A notorious safe cracker named "Honest" John (William Pawley) is a suspect, along with the dead man's brother, Roger (John St. Polis of On the Spot). Then there are two shady characters named Flotow (Wilhelm von Brincken) and Starkhov (Tenen Holtz), whom Cranston and Phoebe encounter in a nightclub. By the time the film is over, the average viewer won't give a damn about whoever murdered Roger's poor brother. There are two minor laughs at the end of the film, and absolutely no suspense or excitement. Released by Grand National Pictures.

Verdict: One can only imagine what the millions of Shadow fans thought about this mess. *.  

MA AND PA KETTLE

Percy Kilbride and Marjorie Main

MA AND PA KETTLE (aka The Further Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle/1949). Director: Charles Lamont.

"I still wish you'd fix the roof of the hen house. Would you like to sit in the broiling sun and have to lay eggs besides?" -- Ma to Pa.

Lovable hillbillies Ma and Pa Kettle (Percy Kilbride and Marjorie Main), who first appeared in The Egg and I as supporting characters, are in danger of being thrown out of their messy and cluttered house along with their sixteen children. Fortunately, Pa wins a tobacco slogan contest and he and his brood become the proud possessors of a new ultra-modern home. All Pa really wanted was a new pouch for his tobacco, and he isn't crazy about all of the new-fangled inventions in his swanky domicile. Then the jealous termagant Birdie (Esther Dale) and her mother (Isabel O'Madigan) maintain that Pa stole the slogan from somebody else ...

The Kettle children minus Tom

It's amazing that Pa has so many children when he hardly seems to have the energy to get out of bed -- maybe that's his problem! Along with Kilbride and Main, we have Dale and O'Madigan, as well as Richard Long [House on Haunted Hill] as eldest son Tom Kettle (who's invented a new incubator) , as holdovers from The Egg and I, and there's also a guest appearance by Ida Moore, reprising her role as a rather dotty old lady. (One could argue that it's not in the best of taste to present a lonely old woman who talks to her late husband in front of people as if he were still alive and make a joke of it.) Still, Ma and Pa Kettle is an amusing enough picture with excellent performances. Meg Randall [Without Warning!] plays a pretty writer who becomes Tom's love interest. There were no less than six sequels to this film, making it a fairly successful movie series of the forties and fifties.

Verdict: The two leads are funny characters and actors, and Main is especially winsome. **3/4. 

SALOME, WHERE SHE DANCED

SALOME, WHERE SHE DANCED (1945). Charles Lamont.

At the end of the Civil War, where he first meets a soldier named Cleve (David Bruce),.a reporter named Jim (Rod Cameron) travels abroad to cover the Prussian-Austrian war. There Jim falls in love, as many men have, with a Viennese dancer (Yvonne De Carlo) who becomes known as "Salome" due to her specialty dance number. Accused of spying, Salome must flee Austria with Jim, and the two head for the wild west with an angry and betrayed suitor, Von Bohlen (Albert Dekker) in pursuit. In San Francisco, Jim once again encounters Cleve, who has become a bandit and bears a striking resemblance to a handsome Austrian officer that Salome loved in Europe and who was killed in battle. Salome is torn between Cleve and Jim -- while also being wooed by entrepreneur Dimitrioff (Walter Slezak) -- as Von Bohlen corners her in Frisco ... The very, very entertaining Salome, Where She Danced made a major star out of De Carlo, who is not quite convincing as an Austrian ballet dancer (!) but who gives a vivid and more-than-competent performance. The picture has what I call an old-style operetta plot, with bandits returning stolen loot to the townspeople out of admiration for Salome, and this same town (outside Frisco) being renamed "Salome, Where She Danced" in gratitude (to explain the title). In other words, the whole movie is utterly absurd but also charming and well-acted, with the exception of alleged leading man Cameron [Coronado 9], who is wooden and unappealing to say the least. As De Carlo's real love interest, David Bruce nearly steals the picture as the conflicted and almost beautiful bandit, Cleve. Walter Slezak makes an impression as the San Francisco lover of art and lovely ladies, as does Dekker [Suspense] as Von Bohlen; and Marjorie Rambeau [Bad for Each Other] is fine as an old-time actress and boarding house owner named "Madame Europe." De Carlo and Bruce both look gorgeous in Technicolor.

Verdict: Only in the movies ... ***.

FRANCIS IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE

FRANCIS IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE (1956). Director: Charles Lamont.

"You've been in politics twenty years and you've never heard of a talking jackass?"

After several "Francis, the Talking Mule" movies with Donald O'Connor, Mickey Rooney took over -- as another character -- for the final entry in the series. In this David Prescott (Rooney) is somehow seeing a lovely heiress named Lorna McLeod (Virginia Welles) when he gets a phone call from a "man" named Francis. Miss Welles is represented by a law firm whose partners are being murdered one by one, with Prescott as the chief suspect. Naturally no one believes him that Francis (Paul Frees of The Star) is a witness who can alibi him and can actually talk. Rooney is fine (as is Frees as the voice of Francis) but this is one dip in the well too often, and despite a couple of chuckles and a surprise ending (to the mystery plot), this is more frenetic than funny. David Janssen [Moon of the Wolf] has a supporting role as a cop. The "haunted house" of the title is McLeod Castle, where supposedly a ghost roams at night atop a horse.

Verdict: Francis should have kept his mouth shut. **.

THE CURTAIN FALLS

Henrietta Crosman

THE CURTAIN FALLS (1934). Director: Charles Lamont.

A broke elderly woman crosses the Atlantic, shows up at an old British manor house, and announces to the family that she is Aunt Hettie, the infamous Lady Scorsby. Accepted into the family Hettie sees that there are problems that need her attention, and she sets out to make things right. Dorothy (Dorothy Lee) has fallen in love with a man, Barry (William Bakewell of Battle of the Sexes), of whom the family doesn't approve, and her mother Katherine (Natalie Moorhead) is falling for the married Lothario, Martin (Jameson Thomas). Her husband, John (Holmes Herbert of Daughter of the Dragon), has had business reversals and is living on bluff. His son Allan (John Darrow) owes a great deal of money to gambling den owner Taggart (Eddie Kane). But the biggest secret is held by Hettie herself. As a drama this film is no great shakes, but it's bolstered by the performance of Crosman and has a moving wind-up and several adept portrayals from the supporting cast. Hettie putting one over on Taggart in his own crooked gambling den is a highlight of the movie. Lamont was a prolific director of certain Abbott and Costello movies as well as such films as Chip Off the Old Block.

Verdict: An engaging lead performance and an interesting situation never hurt. ***.

CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE

Arthur Vinton and Chick Chandler

CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE (1935). Director: Charles Lamont.

Reporter Jim Baldwin (Chick Chandler) is covering a trial where the evidence is strictly circumstantial, and is appalled when the defendant is not only convicted but given the death penalty. Baldwin feels that in cases wherein the evidence is all circumstantial, the defendant should be given a life sentence instead. Meanwhile Fred Stevens (Arthur Vinton), although having an affair with a certain married lady, asks Shirley (Adrienne Grey) to marry him, but she turns him down, accepting Jim's proposal instead. Jim decides to use this awkward situation to  prove that circumstantial cases are unreliable, and gets Fred to go along with his scheme. They will fake an argument over Shirley in front of others, and then Fred will disappear after Jim makes it look like he murdered him. Fred is to come out of hiding at the last minute -- the trouble is that somebody else really murders him! Now Jim is in a pretty pickle. Circumstantial Evidence worked much better when the same plot more or less was used in the far superior Beyond a Reasonable Doubt twenty years later. Chandler [Lost Continent], more of a light comedian than a dramatic type, is okay but tends to overact at times.

Verdict: Predictable, trite, and tedious. *1/2.

FIRED WIFE

Abel, Allbritton, Paige and Barrymore all cut up

FIRED WIFE (1943). Director: Charles Lamont.

"You're so wonderfully repetitious."

In this largely forgettable and desperately frenetic farce, Hank Dunne (Robert Paige) has married career woman Tabitha (Louise Allbritton), who is keeping the marriage secret from her boss, Chris (Walter Abel). Besides the fact that Tabitha has to work on her honeymoon, and that Hank wants her to quit her job, another complication is Hank's friend and associate, radio hostess Eve (Diana Barrymore), who is carrying a torch for him. Hardly any cliche is left unturned in the mediocre screenplay, although the performers are certainly game; Allbritton and Paige are fine, Barrymore adds some zest in her lively portrayal of difficult Eve, and although Walter Abel gives a very good performance, as usual, his character is too loathsome to be funny -- the film's best moment comes when he finally gets his comeuppance. Walter Catlett [It Started with Eve] gives perhaps the funniest performance as Judge Allen, the bemused Justice of the Peace, and Rex Ingram [Anna Lucasta] is also notable as Hank's major domo, Charles. There are a few sporadic chuckles in the movie so it's not a complete waste of time. Paige also starred in Flying G-Men.

Verdict: With pictures like these no wonder Barrymore got disillusioned with Hollywood. **1/2.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS

Mari Blanchard and Lou Costello

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS (1953). Director: Charles Lamont.

"He looks worse standing up than he does lying down" -- Allura, referring to Lou

Orville (Lou Costello), a handyman at an orphanage, winds up at a missile base and is mistaken for a professor of aeronautical science, although janitor Lester (Bud Abbott) isn't fooled. The bumbling pair look around Dr. Wilson's (Robert Paige) rocket ship and accidentally take off, landing near New Orleans during Mardi Gras where they think the celebrants are Martians. Two ex-cons rob a bank and stowaway on the ship, hoping Orville and Lester, whom they think are Martians, will take them back to their planet and away from the law. This time the rocket ship winds up on Venus, where the man-hating Queen Allura (Mari Blanchard of Twice-Told Tales) makes Orville her king to please her man-hungry subjects. There's a giant dog, but otherwise a dearth of special effects, except for when the rocket is flying through the Lincoln Tunnel and making the Statue of Liberty dodge and duck. One Venusian vehicle seems to have been borrowed from Forbidden Planet but that movie was made three years later! After the queen puts a curse on Lou, who dares to be attracted to other women, his kiss turns one young lovely into a wrinkled old crone! Martha Hyer is Dr. Wilson's secretary and girlfriend, Jean Willes is one of the queen's entourage, and while Anita Ekberg of Screaming Mimi should certainly stand out even in a crowd of moonlighting beauty queens, her presence in the picture as a guard isn't immediately evident. Abbott and Costello Go to Mars may come off like a spoof of such space-babe movies as Queen of Outer Space, which also takes place on Venus, but it actually pre-dates all of them [the first, Cat-Women of the Moon, was released the same year]. Were A & C starting a trend instead of following one, as they did with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein? Whatever the case, this is not in the league of that movie, but it does have its amusing moments and the cast has fun. There's too much of those ex-cons, however, and the boys never do wind up on Mars.

Verdict: Amiable nonsense. **1/2.

CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK (1944). Director: Charles Lamont.

After teasing the faculty in a theatrical sketch, Donald Corrigan (Donald O'Connor) is asked to take a brief vacation from Sperling Naval Academy. During this sabbatical he meets Glory (Ann Blyth), the latest in a line of show biz females from the same family, and tries to discourage the attentions of the adoring Peggy (Peggy Ryan). In the meantime, Glory's mother (Helen Vinson) and grandmother (Helen Broderick), both of whom were burned by, respectively, Donald's father (Patric Knowles) and grandfather, try to break up the budding romance between him and the adorable Glory. This is a trifle, but a cute one, with some nice songs ["It's Mighty Nice to Have Met You;" "Mother, Mother, Mother"] and swell performances. O'Connor is charming, Blyth is as cute as a button, Ryan is perky and talented, and Broderick nearly steals the show as the grandmother. Irving Bacon [Ethel's father on I Love Lucy] and Arthur Treacher are also in the cast, as are the 7-year-old whiz kid Joel Kupperman and (briefly) Mantan Moreland as a porter. Years later Peggy Ryan was Jack Lord's secretary on Hawaii 5-0. Blyth's most famous role, of course, was as Veda in Mildred Pierce.

Verdict: For fans of old musicals, O'Connor, and Blyth. **1/2.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET MAE WEST, THE VAMP

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET MAE WEST,THE VAMP(1946). Director: Charles Lamont.

Not seen for decades due to litigation, this turns out to be a very funny teaming of the boys and one risque gal named Mae. Just as A & C had done a film with "Boris Karloff, The Killer" in the title, they also did a similarly titled film with West. In this she plays a black widow who marries off and presumably murders one husband after another for their money. Her latest target is Lou Costello -- who's inherited a bundle, or so he thinks -- but his buddy Bud will have none of it -- until he falls under Mae's spell, too. The most hilarious scene has Mae trying to teach Lou the best way to make love to a woman. He then practices on Bud!

Verdict: You have to see Lou impersonating Mae to believe it! ***.

COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN

COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN (1951). Director: Charles Lamont.

"Anybody who'd kiss me would kiss anybody!" -- Lou Costello.

Wilbert (Lou Costello), a client of talent agent Al (Bud Abbott) learns from Dorothy (Dorothy Shay), another of his clients, that he may be a long lost member of the McCoy clan from the hills and there's a treasure a'waitin' for him back home. For years the McCoys have been feuding not with the Hatfields but the Winfields, one of whom, Clark (Kirby Grant) Dorothy falls for. Wilbert is crazy for Dorothy, however, so he goes to a witch (Margaret Hamilton) to get a love potion to make Dorothy fall for him. (The film's funniest sequence has Hamilton and Costello sticking pins in the posteriors of each other's dolls!) This was singer Shay's only film (she did TV work twenty years later); she's pleasant but unpolished and lacks that certain "X" factor. Kirby Grant is a bland love interest for Shay; the following year he was cast in the title role of TV's Sky King and played it for seven years. Joe Sawyer is as good as ever as one of the McCoys while Glenn Strange (who played Frankenstein's monster a couple of times) has one of his best roles as "Devil" Dan Winfield. But this is not one of the more memorable Abbott and Costello features.

Verdict: Not enough real laughs. *1/2.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN (1951). Director: Charles Lamont.

Recent graduates from detective school, Bud and Lou run into an escaped con, Tommy Nelson (Arthur Franz), who is wanted for murder but claims he was framed. A scientist acquaintance of his girlfriend Helen (Nancy Guild) has John Griffin's formula for invisibility, but warns Nelson that it's too dangerous to take. Naturally, Nelson ignores the warning as the cops close in. Eventually Lou winds up becoming a boxer (with Nelson's invisible fists helping him out) known as Louie the Looper. Adele Jergens adds some spice, as usual, as fight promoter Sheldon Leonard's moll, doing her best to seduce a little-boyish Costello. Leonard is the same as ever, but William Frawley is fun as the detective who's after Nelson. Nancy Guild makes little impression as the "good gal." The special effects by David S. Horsley are as good as John P. Fulton's in Universal's previous "invisible" pictures.

Verdict: Cute, if minor A & C comedy. **1/2.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY (1955). Director: Charles Lamont.

Silly but amusing trifle has Bud and Lou dealing with a sinister cult in Egypt, as well as a tough dame named Madame Rontru (Marie Windsor) and a walking mummy named "Klaris." Lou has accidentally swallowed an important medallion and the madame is perfectly willing to cut it out of him if need be. Richard Deacon plays a cult leader and Peggy King is the delectable vocalist who delivers a number in a saucy style in a nightclub sequence. As the sexy if hard-bitten bad girl, Windsor plays the material with just the right touch. Inside the tombs Lou briefly encounters a giant lizard that looks as if it wandered in from One Million B.C. Zany but cute.

Verdict: Fun for the boys' many fans. **1/2.

HIT THE ICE

HIT THE ICE (1943). Director: Charles Lamont.

Bud and Lou are photographers who inadvertently wind up consorting with bank robbers and being accused of their crime. They and the real crooks hot foot it to Sun Valley, where there are further complications. Oddly, the best thing about the movie are the snappy numbers performed by Ginny Simms -- who sings as good as she looks -- who plays Marcia, and Johnny Long and his Orchestra (including the bizarre "Slap Happy Polka.") Mantan Moreland has a brief funny bit with Lou at a train station. Sheldon Leonard plays the head crook and Joe Sawyer and Marc Lawrence are gang members. Patric Knowles is a doctor and Elyse Knox the nurse who's looking after a supposedly sick Leonard. An interesting bit has Lou winding up in a single bed in-between a husband and wife after he crashes through a wall. What's interesting about it is that even in the following decade Lucy and Ricky had separate beds in their bedroom, not one.

Verdict: Primarily for A & C addicts, but easy to take if nothing special. **1/2.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1953). Director: Charles Lamont.

Bud and Lou are cast as American visitors to 19th century London who become bobbies so they can compare police methods (although it's hard to imagine any American Police department wanting them on the force). Meanwhile, a mad killer with a twisted face is on the loose. Craig Stevens is detective Bruce Adams, who has a hankering for pretty women's rights advocate Vicky Edwards (Helen Westcott). Vicky is the ward of kindly Dr. Jekyll (Boris Karloff) who, unbeknownst to her, has a hankering for her, and decides to use his evil Mr. Hyde persona to kill off handsome rival Bruce. Bud and Lou are, of course, in the middle of all this. There are amusing chase scenes and a very funny sequence when Lou is accidentally turned into a kind of giant mouse! The Women's rights advocates sing "Equal Rights for Women" while kicking up their legs! Karloff is excellent, almost giving a serious performance in the film.

Verdict: Lots of fun for A & C aficionados. ***.