TCM Schedule for Saturday, August 7, 2021 -- Summer Under the Stars: Abbott and Costello

[Staph]

Our Stars today - notice it's Stars plural - are the comic duo Abbott and Costello. From the TCM website:

The leaner, meaner, faster-talking half of one of America's greatest comedic duos, Bud Abbott, along with his partner Lou Costello, was one of Hollywood's biggest stars throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Born into a show business family, Abbott already had years of experience as a show producer, promoter and performer by the time he teamed up with fellow vaudevillian Costello in the mid-1930s. Growing recognition on the stages of New York eventually led to a guest stint on a popular national radio program, followed by their first film as a team, One Night in the Tropics (1940). With the massive success of their sophomore effort, Buck Privates (1941), Abbott and his cohort became two of the biggest movie stars of the wartime era. More hit films like Pardon My Sarong (1942), In Society (1944) and The Naughty Nineties (1945), combined with popular radio appearances on their own program and others like The Kate Smith Show - which first broadcast their famous Who's on First? routine - kept them at the top of the entertainment heap, despite critics' dismissal of their oeuvre as being decidedly lowbrow. The comedy-monster mash-up Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein (1948) marked not only the beginning of their repetitive Abbot and Costello Meet... phase, but of their inevitable over-exposure and consequent slump in popularity. As the team's career deteriorated, so too did Abbott's relationship with Costello. The comedy Dance with Me, Henry (1956) marked their final film appearance together before the team split up in 1957 and Costello died in 1959. Semi-retired and in increasingly poor health, Abbott passed away at the age of 78 in 1974. One of the best at what he did and in the underappreciated position of comic foil, Bud Abbott was openly admired by Costello, who frequently insisted, "Comics are a dime a dozen, but good straight men are hard to find."

Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Africa Screams (1949)
1h 19m | Comedy | TV-G
Abbott and Costello search for an African diamond mine.
Director: Charles Barton
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Clyde Beatty

The original script had a lovestruck female gorilla pursuing Lou Costello. However, the Breen Office censors that enforced the Production Code objected to any hint of the possibility of a sexual encounter--even an unwilling one--between a man and a female gorilla. The writers changed it from a female gorilla to a male one, and the Breen Office approved it. Apparently they saw that man/gorilla straight relationship would involve marriage and sex, but man/gorilla same sex relationship wouldn't rise above mere friendship.


7:30 AM -- Jack and the Beanstalk (1952)
1h 27m | Comedy | TV-G
A baby-sitter dreams himself and his best friend into the famous fairy tale.
Director: Jean Yarbrough
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Buddy Baer

The babysitting scene was written by Lou Costello's brother Pat Costello, who got the idea while reading to his four-year-old daughter.


9:15 AM -- Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood (1945)
1h 23m | Comedy | TV-G
A pair of wacky lackeys try to take Tinseltown by storm.
Director: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Frances Rafferty

The film, made by MGM under the studio's loanout deal with Universal for the team's services, is set on the MGM lot, but the studio's major stars - Clark Gable, Lana Turner and Judy Garland - are only mentioned by name and not seen. The actual cameos were confined to second-tier stars Rags Ragland, Preston Foster, Jackie 'Butch' Jenkins and Lucille Ball.


11:00 AM -- Rio Rita (1942)
1h 31m | Musical | TV-G
A pair of nitwits try to stop Nazis from infiltrating a western ranch.
Director: S. Sylvan Simon
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Kathryn Grayson

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were under contract to Universal Pictures, and their films were so successful that MGM signed a three-film contract with them to take advantage of a clause in their Universal contract that allowed them to do one film a year for another company. This was the first one; Lost in a Harem (1944) and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood (1945) were the others. However, each of the films was less successful than the previous one, and MGM canceled its agreement with Universal after the third film.


1:00 PM -- Lost in a Harem (1944)
1h 29m | Comedy | TV-G
Two entertainers touring the Middle East are kidnapped by an evil sultan.
Director: Charles Riesner
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marilyn Maxwell

Lou Costello, as he did in virtually all the films he appeared in, makes a reference to his home town of Paterson, New Jersey.


2:45 PM -- Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942)
1h 22m | Western | TV-G
On the run from a rodeo boss, two greenhorns get jobs as cowboys.
Director: Arthur Lubin
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Dick Foran

When the dude-ranch bus pulls into the station to pick up the train passengers from the "wild west show", the signpost on the depot reads "Gower Gulch". That is an inside joke, as "Gower Gulch" was a longtime name for the area of Hollywood--centered on Gower Street--where many low-budget independent producers and studios, which specialized in shooting westerns because they were cheap to make, were headquartered.


4:30 PM -- The Time of Their Lives (1946)
1h 22m | Comedy | TV-G
Two ghosts from the Revolutionary War haunt a house until they can clear their names of treason charges.
Director: Charles Barton
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marjorie Reynolds

Three weeks into shooting, Lou Costello demanded that his role be switched with Bud Abbott's. When director Charles Barton explained that this was unreasonable, Costello walked off the set. The cast and crew frantically worked around him for the next two weeks, when Costello slipped back onto the set and completed the film. He never apologized or explained his behavior.


6:15 PM -- Buck Privates (1941)
1h 24m | Comedy | TV-G
Two small-time con artists enlist in the Army to avoid the police.
Director: Arthur Lubin
Cast: Lee Bowman, Alan Curtis, Bud Abbott

Nominee for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Hugh Prince (music) and Don Raye (lyrics) for the song "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Charles Previn

Arthur Lubin later admitted he did very little to direct Abbott and Costello. They showed him the routines they wanted, and he chose the camera set-ups. Their constant ad-libbing made even this difficult, as Lubin never knew how far, or where, they would take a gag. Nonetheless, the picture made so much money that Universal gave him a bonus, extended his contract, and assigned him the next four Abbott and Costello starring vehicles.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS -- ABBOTT AND COSTELLO



8:00 PM -- Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
1h 32m | Comedy | TV-G
Count Dracula plots to put a simpleton's brain into the body of the Frankenstein monster.
Director: Charles T. Barton
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney Jr.

Lou Costello did not want to make the movie, declaring, "No way I'll do that crap. My little girl could write something better than this." A $50,000 advance in salary and the signing of director Charles Barton, the team's good friend and the man who some call their best director, convinced him otherwise.


9:45 PM -- Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1955)
1h 19m | Comedy | TV-G
Two bumbling private eyes turn a boxer invisible to save him from being framed for murder.
Director: Charles Lamont
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Nancy Guild

The last names of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's characters, Bud Alexander and Lou Francis, are actually their real middle names.


11:30 PM -- Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
1h 19m | Comedy | TV-G
Two bumblers get mixed up with Egyptian grave robbers and a murderous mummy.
Director: Charles Lamont
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello

On 25 November 1954, the day after filming completed, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello arrived in New York City to ride on the first float of the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.


1:15 AM -- Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953)
1h 16m | Comedy | TV-G
Two bumbling American cops hunt for the mysterious Mr. Hyde in London, England.
Director: Charles Lamont
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff

Boris Karloff only really played Dr. Jekyll in this film. Once the makeup transformation scenes were over, stuntman Eddie Parker did every scene as Mr. Hyde. This was even tipped off to audiences through publicity stills for the film, which showed both Karloff and Parker in makeup standing next to each other.


2:45 AM -- Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952)
1h 10m | Comedy | TV-PG
Two waiters stumble on a treasure map and land in hot water with pirates.
Director: Charles Lamont
Cast: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Charles Laughton

Charles Laughton had wanted to do a knockabout physical comedy for some time, but could never find anything appropriate. He had long been an admirer of Lou Costello's abilities as a slapstick comedian, and--as he remarked some time later--he decided "If you want to learn something, learn it from the best" so he let Costello and Bud Abbott know that he was interested in doing something with them. This picture is the result.


4:15 AM -- MGM's Big Parade of Comedy (1964)
1h 29m | Documentary | TV-G
Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.
Director: Robert Youngson
Cast: Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, The Marx Brothers

And a cast of thousands!

[Tomconroy]

1. Who's on first?