Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Charles Lamont

Writers:

John Grant (writer)
Lee Loeb (story)

Release Date:

February 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

When every face wore a custard pie, and vamps broke hearts with a winking eye!

Plot:

Harry and Willie buy the Edison Movie Studio in the year 1912 from Joseph Gorman, a confidence man. They follow Gorman to Hollywood where...

Plot Keywords:

Hollywood | Movie Studio | Train | Keystone Kops | 1910s

Cast

Bud Abbott	...	Harry Pierce
Lou Costello	...	Willie Piper
Fred Clark	...	Joseph Gorman, aka Sergei Toumanoff
Lynn Bari	...	Leota Van Cleef
Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom	...	Hinds (as Maxie Rosenbloom)
Frank Wilcox	...	Rudolph Snavely
Harold Goodwin	...	Cameraman (as Herold Goodwin)
Roscoe Ates	...	Wagon Driver
Mack Sennett	...	Himself
Heinie Conklin	...	Studio Guard
Hank Mann	...	Prop Man

Runtime:

80 min | Argentina:85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:U

Filming Locations:

California Highway 118 between Simi & the outskirts of Moorpark, California, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Trivia:

When Lou Costello arrives at Thomas A. Edison's Black Maria studio in West Orange, NJ, and finds he has been duped into buying it by Fred Clark, his new studio sign gets thrown into a pile representing the others who were defrauded into thinking they were buying a working movie studio. Among the discarded signs is "Grant Productions", an in-joke on the name of long-time A&C collaborator and writer John Grant, who received credit on 31 of their films as well as their TV work.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the climactic chase sequence, the shadows of Fred Clark and Lynn Bari are clearly visible on the process screen behind them.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Rockford Files: The Attractive Nuisance (#4.14)" (1978)

Could be better

Set in 1920s where Costello buys a studio from a conman then spends half the film travelling with Abbott across America then the last half working as a stuntman ina studio where for some reason they presume the conman is hiding - how they come to this conclusion is never explained. This film has boring spots such as the mistaken identity bit where Abbott dresses as a burglar and Costello the cop where naturally an identical looking burgular and cop are prowling. The highlight is of course the comic chase at the end which is certainly fun to watch. Fred Clark is good as the conman. Listen for the background laughter when costello falls over in Mr Snavely's office. When the boys are in the train, Costello looks out and reads the sign and says "Harry, we're in Los Angeles already" from the camera's angle this looks true but Costello's head is right out of the door so there is no reason for him to make this mistake which don't make sense. Also When they jump into the carraige full of cows and Costello keeps boucing out look for the trampoline he is jumping on and when they buy the studio, the old man who greets them says"This is one of the 1st motion picture studio pictures ever built. It dates back to 1895, it isn't used anymore" Maybe that is the case in 1955 when the film was made but the film was set in the 1920s so the studio wouldn't be that old. The girl in the cashier's window at the start of the film is Costello's 15 year old daughter. This film isn't too bad, they made worse. It just isn't very funny.