Own the rights?
If you're not really an Abbott & Costello fan, there's not much chance of this documentary making you one. Not because the team isn't funny or didn't make very funny movies (except towards the end of their career), but because this is a grating, annoying, almost completely incompetent piece of dreck that gives you virtually no insight as to why the two were so wildly popular, and the braying, obnoxious narration of Jack E. Leonard--an aggressive, tenth-rate nightclub "insult" comic in the Don Rickles tradition but without an iota of Rickles' talent--sinks whatever slight potential this dud may have had. Leonard sounds more like he's auditioning for a nightclub gig than narrating a documentary; much of his "narration" consists of stupid puns and unfunny "jokes" delivered at his trademark machine-gun pace, which is completely inappropriate for this kind of movie. There's not much background information given on the team, which is just one example of the sloppiness and carelessness that characterizes this film. Another one is the fact that the clips that are shown aren't in any particular order, so you get no sense of the progression of the team's career, and, if I recall correctly, little or no mention is made of the battles they had that would result in their going for months without speaking to each other (and, in the cases of "The Time of Their Lives" and "Little Giant," arrange it so they had few scenes together). If you're an Abbott & Costello fan you won't find out anything you didn't already know about them from this annoying and incompetent mess. If you're not an A&C fan, then go out and rent some of their early (which are also their funniest) films, or get what is generally considered to be their absolute best movie: "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein" from 1948. You'll learn a lot more about the team from those pictures than you will from this dog.
You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.
