Review(s): DVD Best of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Vol 4
disregard for the fans and collectors
It's indeed great to have the last few films on this final collection (Jekyll and Hyde in particular), but why is this volume with less discs and less movies MORE expensive than the other volumes? And even worse, neither the packaging nor the discs themselves give ANY indication as to which movies are on which sides of each disc. You have to pop them into your dvd player and wait for the menu to come up to find out. Blatant mistreatment of these precious films...
Lukewarm Bud 'n' Lou
None of the best of Abbott & Costello is actually included here, but fans will no doubt love it. The set includes a couple of much-liked horror spoofs, a comic misfire based in the early days of Hollywood, and a trio of documentary-type offerings to round out the package.
In 1953, coming off a string of terrible films that included COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN, LOST IN ALASKA, A&C MEET CAPTAIN KIDD, and A&C GO TO MARS, the boys fell back on the tried-and-true box-office success of their "meet the monsters" films once again with ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, and brought back Boris Karloff to help ensure a winner. Bud and Lou are two American coppers helping Scotland Yard solve the "Mr. Hyde" murders. They're also helping their friend Craig Stevens woo pretty Helen Westcott, not knowing that she's the niece of Boris Karloff, who is kindly old Dr. Jekyll (an unbilled stuntman is actually Mr. Hyde). In one sequence, Costello is trapped in a wax museum with Dracula and Frankenstein Monster figures that spring to life, which only makes us want to remove this disc from the player and watch A&C MEET FRANKENSTEIN instead. Like all their monster spoofs, this is weak compared to MEET FRANKENSTEIN but in the overall A&C scheme of things, it's okay.
A&C MEET THE KEYSTONE KOPS (1955) is next, and had this movie been made 12 or 13 years earlier, it might've been one of Bud & Lou's best. Unfortunately, the aging comedy team (joined by even-more-aging former Keystoners Hank Mann, Herold Goodwin, Heinie Conklin, and Mack Sennett himself) wasn't up to the task of recreating the manic pace of early silent comedies. The best sequence in the film is the first one, with Lou demonstrating to Bud the histrionics he just saw in the film "Eliza and the Bloodhounds" (actually footage from the 1927 version of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN) and causing Bud to be beaten mercilessly for "threatening this helpless boy."
Next is the team's final film for Universal, A&C MEET THE MUMMY, (1955), which has been available on a stand-alone DVD for quite some time. It's a pretty good picture, although the team looks old and tired, the Mummy is unconvincing, and there are stultifyingly out of place musical numbers.
THE WORLD OF ABBOTT & COSTELLO is a 1965 compilation film featuring some of their best routines - and some very weak material, too (the film opens with a lengthy clip from A&C GO TO MARS, for heaven's sake -- what WERE they thinking). Worst of all is Jack E. Leonard's wiseguy and very unfunny narration.
In 1994, Jerry Seinfeld starred in a one-hour TV special devoted to clips of Bud & Lou; ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET JERRY SEINFELD contains most of their best bits, including outtakes, flubs, live TV sequences from the boys' Colgate Comedy Hour Days, color footage of the team relaxing at home with their families, and scenes from their popular TV program, The Abbott & Costello Show. Unfortunately, the routines are highly edited and some good laughs are missed; only "Who's on First", from the film THE NAUGHTY NINETIES, is shown in its entirety.
The 34-min. documentary A&C MEET THE MONSTERS, originally presented on a previous A&C DVD, fills out the Collection. It's an interesting look at the making of one of their best films. Trailers for Meet Jekyll/Hyde and Meet the Mummy are included.
Unlike the earlier Franchise Collections, which each crammed 8 films onto 2 discs, there's a little more room to breathe this time around, and the films look and sound terrific. (Jekyll and Hyde and Keystone Kops share the first side of disc one, Meet the Mummy is alone on side two, and the three documentaries are all on side one of disc two, which doesn't have a side two, and what's the man's name on first base, no, what's the man's name on second base, I dunno, he's on third.) For more information, please visit www.inthebalcony.com.
Boy, Are We Spoiled
A couple of years ago if somebody announced that 3 A&C films, any 3 except the PD ones, and 3 documentaries would be available from Universal for less than $20 everyone would have dashed to buy it. However, since Universal put out 3 previous 8 film sets at fire sale prices suddenly this seems like a bad deal. A&C Meet the Mummy was originally more expensive than this by itself. My rating is for the films included which are not among the team's best but this is still a great deal.
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