Dance with Me, Henry (1956)

Director:

Charles Barton

Writers:

Devery Freeman (screenplay)
William Kozlenko (original story) ...

Release Date:

22 December 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

IT'S A ROCK'N ROLLER COASTER RIOT! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

Two goofballs try to run a beaten-down old amusement park.

Plot Keywords:

Ferris Wheel | Hidden Money | Police Interrogation | District Attorney | Carnival

Cast

Bud Abbott	...	Bud Flick
Lou Costello	...	Lou Henry
Gigi Perreau	...	Shelley
Rusty Hamer	...	Duffer
Mary Wickes	...	Miss Mayberry
Ted de Corsia	...	Big Frank
Ron Hargrave	...	Ernie
Frank Wilcox	...	Father Mullahy
Sherry Alberoni	...	Bootsie
Eddie Marr	...	Garvey
Richard Reeves	...	Mushie
Robert Shayne	...	Proctor
Walter Reed	...	Drake
Paul Sorensen	...	Dutch

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15 | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company:

Robert Goldstein Productions

Trivia:

The final film pairing Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Costello made another film after this, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959), but without Abbott. Abbott never made another film.

Interesting for A and C Fans, But Not Much Fun

It seemed to me that this was essentially a children's film. While A and C made films that children could watch and enjoy, I think this and "Jack and the Beanstalk" were the only two films they made which were explicitly for children.

The beginning ten minutes (good set-up of a potentially funny situation) and the last ten (imagine "Home-alone" with twenty kids) are fine, but the middle is quite flabby. There are no memorable routines and very few (about ten) funny lines.

Actually, I do not know if the producers had it in mind, but the movie works well as a pilot for a T.V. series. One can imagine all sorts of great sitcom possibilities with Lou as a bachelor trying to raise two kids while owning and operating a "Kiddie land" amusement park. When this was made, Danny Thomas's "Make Room for Daddy" had been a hit show running for three years and "Bachelor Father" was about to begin its run, so a "raising kids" comedies were the type of thing a network might buy. I suppose if it had done well as a movie, it could have been developed into a television series. So, I believe that it was rather a smart career choice for A and C.

Sherry Alberoni as Boopsi and Rusty Hamer are the two stand-out kid performers. Sherry is Shirley Temple cute trying to convince the cops that she witnessed a murder and Rusty Hamer is the nicest and sincerest boy actor of that period (Ron Howard did steal his crown a few years later).

A and C fans will savor a few well done moments,(the visit of the nasty welfare worker at the beginning, for example) but on the whole only their fans will be able to sit through it.

The last shot of the movie with Costello playing the pied-piper is delightful and cute. If the rest of the movie had been so, this movie would have revived A and C's careers and fortunes.