The Naughty Nineties (1945)

Director:

Jean Yarbrough

Writers:

Edmund L. Hartmann (screenplay) &
John Grant (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

6 July 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Romance

Tagline:

A Show Boat Load of Laughter!

Plot:

When their captain is swindled out of his riverboat by a trio of gamblers, stage show star Abbott and his bumbling sidekick Costello must put things right.

Plot Keywords:

Gambling House | Gambler | Showboat | Actor | Roulette Game

Cast

Bud Abbott	...	Dexter Broadhurst
Lou Costello	...	Sebastian Dinwiddle
Alan Curtis	...	Mr. Crawford
Rita Johnson	...	Bonita Farrow
Henry Travers	...	Capt. Sam Jackson
Lois Collier	...	Miss Caroline Jackson
Joe Sawyer	...	Bailey
Joe Kirk	...	Croupier
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rainbow Four	...	Themselves
William Alcorn	...	Specialty Dancer (uncredited)
Audley Anderson	...	Card Player (uncredited)
Jack Barbee	...	Himself (Rainbow Four member) (uncredited)
Suzanne Lee Bastian	...	Baby (uncredited)
Gladys Blake	...	Girl in Garter Gag (uncredited)
Milt Bronson	...	Gambler (uncredited)
Douglas Carter	...	Croupier (uncredited)
Jack Chefe	...	Gilded Cage Waiter (uncredited)
Jack Coffey	...	Specialty Dancer (uncredited)
Bing Conley	...	Croupier (uncredited)
Tony Dell	...	Croupier (uncredited)
William Desmond	...	(uncredited)
Dolores Evers	...	Girl in High-Wire Act (uncredited)
Tom Fadden	...	Wounded Gambler (uncredited)
Sid Fields	...	(uncredited)
Jack Frack	...	Croupier (uncredited)
Jack Frost	...	Himself (Rainbow Four member) (uncredited)
Edward Gargan	...	Baxter - Saloon Bartender (uncredited)
Parker Garvie	...	Croupier (uncredited)
Rita Gould	...	Girl in Water Gag (uncredited)
William E. Green	...	Minstrel (uncredited)
John Hamilton	...	Sheriff of Ironville (uncredited)
Carol Hughes	...	Tessie (uncredited)
John Indrisano	...	Croupier (uncredited)
Warren Jackson	...	Card Player (uncredited)
Ralph Johns	...	Croupier (uncredited)
Ben Johnson	...	Coach Driver (uncredited)
Shirley Karnes	...	Hatcheck Girl (uncredited)
Donald Kerr	...	Croupier (uncredited)
William W. Larsen	...	Magician (uncredited)
Perc Launders	...	Card Player (uncredited)
Ann Lawrence	...	Girl in Garter Gag (uncredited)
Rex Lease	...	Sheriff Wright (uncredited)
Ruth Lee	...	(uncredited)
Arthur Loft	...	Billy Boy (uncredited)
Chick Madden	...	Himself (Rainbow Four member) (uncredited)
Sam McDaniel	...	Matt - Cook-Waiter (uncredited)
Charles McNally	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Mantan Moreland	...	(uncredited)
Jack Norton	...	Drunk at the Gilded Cage (uncredited)
Bud O'Connor	...	Croupier (uncredited)
Jack Overman	...	Gambling Room Guard (uncredited)
Barbara Pepper	...	Gilded Cage Hostess (uncredited)
Charles Phillips	...	Croupier (uncredited)
Torchy Rand	...	Singing Specialty (uncredited)
Jack Rice	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Cyril Ring	...	Man in Water Gag (uncredited)
Sue Robin	...	Topsy (uncredited)
Henry Russell	...	Croupier (uncredited)
Sarah Selby	...	Mrs. Hawkins (uncredited)
Arthur 'Fiddlin' Smith	...	Fiddle Player (uncredited)
Ronald Stanton	...	Specialty Dancer (uncredited)
Irene Thomas	...	Specialty Dancer (uncredited)
Emmett Vogan	...	Henry - Ironville Citizen (uncredited)
Bud Wolfe	...	Croupier (uncredited)
Jack Worth	...	Croupier (uncredited)
Lillian Yarbo	...	Effie - Bonita's Cook (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean Yarbrough

Writing credits
Edmund L. Hartmann		(screenplay) &
John Grant		(screenplay) &
Edmund Joseph		(screenplay) &
Hal Fimberg		(screenplay)
Felix Adler		(additional comedy sequences)
Clyde Bruckman		uncredited

Produced by
John Grant	....	producer
Edmund L. Hartmann	....	producer
Milton Feld	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Paul Dessau		(uncredited)
Edgar Fairchild		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
George Robinson

Film Editing by
Arthur Hilton

Art Direction by
John B. Goodman
Harold H. MacArthur

Set Decoration by
Russell A. Gausman
Leigh Smith

Costume Design by
Vera West		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Jack P. Pierce	....	makeup director

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Howard Christie	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Bernard B. Brown	....	sound director
Robert Pritchard	....	sound technician
Ronald Pierce	....	sound effects mixer (uncredited)
Ronald Pierce	....	sound re-recordist (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Carl Lee	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Edward Colman	....	second camera operator (uncredited)

Music Department
Jack Boyle	....	stager: musical numbers (as John Boyle)
Edgar Fairchild	....	musical director
Lloyd Akridge	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
James Mayfield	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Paul Neal	....	music mixer (uncredited)

Other crew
Nan Grant	....	researcher (uncredited)
Nanette Grant	....	research director (uncredited)
Jean Kenney	....	researcher (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Universal Pictures

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1945) (USA) (theatrical)
• Film Classics (1950) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (1991) (USA) (VHS)
• Universal Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

The scene of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello doing their classic "Who's on First" routine is run continuously at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. It is regarded as the best version of this routine in existence.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The movie is set in the 1890s, but Life Savers candy (which is used as a joke in the movie) was first created in 1912 by Clarence Crane, a Cleveland chocolatier and father of the famed poet Hart Crane, who was looking for a new "summer candy" to supplement his chocolate business.

Quotes:

Dexter Broadhurst:Strange as it may seem, they give ball players nowadays very peculiar names.
Sebastian Dinwiddle:Funny names?
Dexter Broadhurst:Nicknames. Nicknames.
Sebastian Dinwiddle:Not - not as funny as my name - Sebastian Dinwiddie.
Dexter Broadhurst:Oh, yes, yes, yes!
Sebastian Dinwiddle:Funnier than that?
Dexter Broadhurst:Oh, absolutely. Yes. Now, on the St. Louis team we have Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know's on third...
Sebastian Dinwiddle:That's what I want to find out. I want you to tell me the names of the fellows on the St. Louis team.
Dexter Broadhurst:I'm telling you. Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know's on third...
Sebastian Dinwiddle:You know the fellows' names?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper: Horrid Copy/I'm Nothing Without My Hat/Caspeer Pressure (#3.15)" (1998)

Soundtrack:

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Abbott and Costello on the Showboat

It's not surprising that Abbott and Costello eventually got to do a movie on a showboat. Remember it was only 8 years earlier that Universal Studios did their classic version of Showboat and I'm sure that Carl Laemmle, Jr. wanted to take advantage of the set that was still there.

The Naughty Nineties in fact take whole characters from the Showboat plot. Henry Travers's character of Captain Sam is a total ripoff of Captain Andy and Alan Curtis and Lois Collier make a passable nonsinging Gaylord Ravenal and Magnolia Hawkes. Collier sings, but there are no classic duets like in Showboat. And Curtis's character is a riverboat gambler like Ravenal.

That being said the plot such as it is involves Rita Johnson and her two associates, Curtis and Joe Sawyer, gaining possession of Henry Travers's showboat with which they then set up some crooked gambling to make a quick profitable kill.

Abbott and Costello are part of the Showboat crew. Abbott is an actor in the Victorian tradition and Costello is as usual a lovable all around klutz that Travers must be keeping around for laughs.

If it's laughs Travers wants, he's made a sound investment because the boys do provide the public with plenty of that. The Naughty Nineties is famous as the film they did their classic Who's on First baseball routine. It had been done previously in their debut film, One Night in the Tropics, but in an abbreviated form.

Actually there is one routine involving poor Lou as he thinks he's eating a cat, I mean the feline type cat.

Joe Sawyer joins a list of otherwise serious actors like Douglass Dumbrille, Lionel Atwill, and Lon Chaney, Jr., who got in on the comedy with the boys. Sawyer does his own version of the famous Niagara Falls routine involving him sleepwalking and he looks like he's having a ball doing it. Sawyer makes a perfect foil for Bud and Lou's monkeyshines.

And I think the audience will enjoy it as much as Joe Sawyer.