Comin' Round the Mountain (1951)

Director:

Charles Lamont

Writers:

John Grant (additional dialogue)
Robert Lees
(more)

Release Date:

26 July 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Plot:

Bud and Lou get mixed up with hillbillies, witches and love potions. |

Plot Keywords:

Potion | Hillbilly | Theatrical Agent | Kentucky | Elevator

Cast

Bud Abbott	...	Al Stewart
Lou Costello	...	Wilbert Smith
Dorothy Shay	...	Dorothy McCoy
Kirby Grant	...	Clark Winfield
Joe Sawyer	...	Kalem McCoy
Glenn Strange	...	Devil Dan Winfield
Ida Moore	...	Granny McCoy
Shaye Cogan	...	Clora McCoy
Margaret Hamilton	...	Aunt Huddy
Guy Wilkerson	...	Uncle Clem McCoy
Robert Easton	...	Luke McCoy (as Bob Easton)
Virgil S. Taylor	...	Jasper Winfield
Russell Simpson	...	Judge
Hank Worden	...	Target Judge
Jack Kruschen	...	Gangster in Night Club
O.Z. Whitehead	...	Zeke
Norman Leavitt	...	Zeb
Peter Mamakos	...	Gangster in Night Club
Stanley Waxman	...	Clay
Dan White	...	Mountaineer
Joe Kirk	...	Bit Role
William Fawcett	...	Old Mountain Man
Harold Goodwin	...	Mountaineer
Jane Lee	...	Fat Woman in Cafe
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Barry Brooks	...	Gangster in Night Club
Shirlee Allard	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Betty Jane Barton	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
James Clay	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Fred Crow	...	Hillbilly & Wagon Driver (uncredited)
Sherman Sanders	...	Square Dance Caller (uncredited)
Robert R. Stephenson	...	Captain (uncredited)

Directed by
Charles Lamont

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
John Grant		additional dialogue
Robert Lees
Frederic I. Rinaldo

Produced by
Howard Christie	....	producer

Original Music by
Lyn Duddy		(uncredited)
Joan Edwards		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
George Robinson

Film Editing by
Edward Curtiss

Art Direction by
Bernard Herzbrun
Richard H. Riedel		(as Richard Riedel)

Set Decoration by
Russell A. Gausman
Joseph Kish		(as Joe Kish)

Costume Design by
Rosemary Odell

Makeup Department
Joan St. Oegger	....	hair stylist
Bud Westmore	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Dewey Starkey	....	unit manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Fred Frank	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Leslie I. Carey	....	sound
Robert Pritchard	....	sound
John Kemp	....	sound (uncredited)

Special Effects by
David S. Horsley	....	special photography
Carl Lee	....	special effects (uncredited)

Stunts
Vic Parks	....	stunt double (uncredited)

Music Department
Joseph Gershenson	....	musical director
Milton Rosen	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Larry Russell	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Paul Sawtell	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Walter Scharf	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Walter Schumann	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Frank Skinner	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)

Other crew
Milt Bronson	....	dialogue director (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Universal International Pictures (UI)

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1951) (USA) (theatrical)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (1994) (USA) (VHS)
• Universal Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-8 | Sweden:15

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Quotes:

Al Stewart:What's going on out there?
Wilbert:My in-laws, they're acting like out-laws!

Movie Connections:

Featured in The World of Abbott and Costello (1965)

Soundtrack:

Agnes Clung

Wacky Abbott & Costello comedy spoof of backwoods feuds.

The Hatfield/McCoy feud is legendary in history, and films have either spoofed it or filmed it seriously. There was the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy "Kentucky Kernels" in 1934, and then the Rod Steiger/Lee Marvin film of 1974. In between was this Abbott and Costello comedy which is not as well known as some of their other vehicles, but is definately worth a look.

The opening of the film shows Lou as an untalented magician trying (rather unsuccessully) to do a Houdini routine. With his manager Bud,

Lou meets a distant cousin (singer Dorothy Shay) who recognizes Lou's yell as a hereditary trait of the McCoy clan. Taking Bud and Lou into the backwoods (presumably Kentucky or nearby), the trio encounters their family (lead by character actress Ida Moore). The McCoys have been feuding for years with the local Winfield family. Granny Moore wants Lou to marry Shay, who already has a beau (Kirby Grant). Bud and Lou then go to visit a local mountain witch (Margaret Hamilton, the witch from "The Wizard of Oz") who gives them a love potion after a hysterical sequence where Costello and Hamilton make clay voodoo dolls of each other, and continuously poke them with pins. Hamilton, made up to look more like a hag than a witch, is hysterical in her five minutes on screen. She shrieks and laughs, giving no doubt that underneath that ugly makeup is the wicked witch of the west. This leads to a hysterical conclusion where the potion ends up in all the wrong glasses.

"Comin' Round the Mountain" came towards the end of the team's successful years; they were slowly being replaced by the younger Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, but were still giving it their all. There are few of the plot-diverting routines of their earlier films, making this faster moving and more entertaining than some of their other films. As usual (with the exception of Hamilton and Ida Moore), the supporting cast is upstaged by the boys. Dorothy Shay isn't all bad, but lacks the screen presence of some of the female comics they worked with in their earlier films.

Available on video (but one I have not found easily for rent), "Comin' Round the Mountain" may be pure corn, but its a great time filler for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.