Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949)
Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff is like the 1940s equivalent of clickbait. It promises you a lot while delivering very little. While Abbott and Costello do indeed "meet" Boris Karloff in this movie, he is not the killer, nor is his role nearly as prominent as the title suggests.
Costello plays Freddie Philips, a bellboy for a hotel who enrages guest Amos Strickland (Nicholas Joy) and ends up getting fired as a result. Philips, mad about this, threatens Strickland and this results in him becoming the primary suspect when Strickland is murdered. House detective Casey Edwards (Abbott), believing Philips to be too dumb to commit the murder, attempts to help him clear his name, while also having to deal with a group of former clients of Strickland's, including Angela Gordon (Lenore Aubert) and Swami Talpur (Boris Karloff).
When this film first started, I thought it actually seemed pretty promising. Costello's threat to Strickland made it seem like he was going have a more dramatic role, and it was also interesting because Abbott and Costello aren't immediately established as partners. Yeah, they work for the same hotel, but there wasn't much of an indication that they were actually partners, so Abbott's character suddenly deciding to help this one co-worker he really didn't seem to care much about was an interesting idea. However, as the film went along, it became clear that this was basically trying to capitalize off the success of some of their previous efforts like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and especially Who Done It? with some bizarre changes.
Yes, this is essentially the same plot device used in Who Done It?, only Costello is the sole suspect this time while Abbott is actually a detective on the case. I wouldn't mind so much except that it just feels so much more disturbing here. In Who Done It?, the murders are mainly there for plot exposition or scare reactions. Here, they make some heavy jokes out of them, sometimes leaving the dead bodies on display for a long amount of time. For example, there's this one scene where Abbott and Costello are trying to dispose of two of the bodies, but someone walks in, so they have to pretend that they're playing cards with these two dead bodies. On top of how idiotic the guy seems to be due to not noticing the two men are dead, there's just this whole uncomfortable feeling in seeing these two corpses being used in these scenes that they're clearly trying to make us laugh at. I get that there obviously is supposed to be a horror element to this movie, especially due to the success of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, but is this really the way to blend comedy and horror? I don't remember any scenes in Frankenstein being disturbing to this level.
OK, so are there any good comedy scenes? Well, there are some funny scenes like Costello's "culprit-murderer" verbal exchange with Lenore Aubert or the scene afterwards with Abbott attempting to give Costello antidotes after thinking that Costello was poisoned. But most of it is either boring or has the same uncomfortable feeling I get out of the gags involving the corpses. For example, there's a scene where Karloff's character tries to make Costello's character kill himself by hypnotizing him, but Costello's just too dumb to be hypnotized properly. While I do like the idea of Costello being too dumb to be hypnotized, it just has such a disturbing feel to it, especially when Costello, in his "hypnotized" state, actually tries to kill Karloff. When Abbott walks in on him carrying the knife around like a murderer, it's surprising that he doesn't conclude that Costello committed the murder.
Actually, that's another problem I have with this movie. Abbott's motivation for defending Costello. Every possible bit of evidence leads towards Costello, yet Abbott for some reason constantly refuses to believe it was him. If this were Laurel and Hardy, I think they could pull this off, since their characters have such a close bond that they know neither would do such a thing. Heck, I could even see Wheeler and Woolsey pull this off. But Abbott and Costello are usually established as being on pretty rough terms, even here. As the film goes along and Abbott sees more and more evidence pointing towards Costello, it's actually kind of bizarre that he doesn't point towards Lou as the killer. Yes, we know he didn't do it, but why should Abbott, especially after seeing him walk around his room with a knife in his hand like a murderer! Besides the "he's too stupid" excuse, the only real explanation for this comes towards the end: they're cousins. Yes, one of the interesting aspects of this movie, seeing Abbott and Costello as sort of individual characters throughout, was a complete scam the whole time!
The ending's also pretty bad. For the big climax, Costello has to run around this cave, but everything's so dark that it's hard to really enjoy anything about it. The castle in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein had light flashes and cool set design. This is just a cave with the little light coming from the water. Then, when the detective is discussing who the murderer is, Costello constantly interrupts him to accuse Abbott of being the murderer, because...it's supposed to be funny I guess? Instead of being funny, it's annoying, especially considering all that Abbott has done to help his cousin throughout the film! Costello's character is nothing like the way I thought he'd be at the beginning of the film. In fact, he actually seems even dumber than usual!
I really wanted to like this film, especially because it did seem like a good setup, but the whole dismal atmosphere combined with the comedy just didn't settle right with me here, especially compared with their other similar films like Hold That Ghost, Who Done It?, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein? I've mentioned before that I'm not a huge horror fan, so maybe there's something I'm missing because of that, but even then, I still remember liking the Abbott and Costello horror crossovers, even the later ones. I personally don't recommend this one, but maybe if you're a horror fan you might like it.
3 out of 10
Costello plays Freddie Philips, a bellboy for a hotel who enrages guest Amos Strickland (Nicholas Joy) and ends up getting fired as a result. Philips, mad about this, threatens Strickland and this results in him becoming the primary suspect when Strickland is murdered. House detective Casey Edwards (Abbott), believing Philips to be too dumb to commit the murder, attempts to help him clear his name, while also having to deal with a group of former clients of Strickland's, including Angela Gordon (Lenore Aubert) and Swami Talpur (Boris Karloff).
When this film first started, I thought it actually seemed pretty promising. Costello's threat to Strickland made it seem like he was going have a more dramatic role, and it was also interesting because Abbott and Costello aren't immediately established as partners. Yeah, they work for the same hotel, but there wasn't much of an indication that they were actually partners, so Abbott's character suddenly deciding to help this one co-worker he really didn't seem to care much about was an interesting idea. However, as the film went along, it became clear that this was basically trying to capitalize off the success of some of their previous efforts like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and especially Who Done It? with some bizarre changes.
Yes, this is essentially the same plot device used in Who Done It?, only Costello is the sole suspect this time while Abbott is actually a detective on the case. I wouldn't mind so much except that it just feels so much more disturbing here. In Who Done It?, the murders are mainly there for plot exposition or scare reactions. Here, they make some heavy jokes out of them, sometimes leaving the dead bodies on display for a long amount of time. For example, there's this one scene where Abbott and Costello are trying to dispose of two of the bodies, but someone walks in, so they have to pretend that they're playing cards with these two dead bodies. On top of how idiotic the guy seems to be due to not noticing the two men are dead, there's just this whole uncomfortable feeling in seeing these two corpses being used in these scenes that they're clearly trying to make us laugh at. I get that there obviously is supposed to be a horror element to this movie, especially due to the success of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, but is this really the way to blend comedy and horror? I don't remember any scenes in Frankenstein being disturbing to this level.
OK, so are there any good comedy scenes? Well, there are some funny scenes like Costello's "culprit-murderer" verbal exchange with Lenore Aubert or the scene afterwards with Abbott attempting to give Costello antidotes after thinking that Costello was poisoned. But most of it is either boring or has the same uncomfortable feeling I get out of the gags involving the corpses. For example, there's a scene where Karloff's character tries to make Costello's character kill himself by hypnotizing him, but Costello's just too dumb to be hypnotized properly. While I do like the idea of Costello being too dumb to be hypnotized, it just has such a disturbing feel to it, especially when Costello, in his "hypnotized" state, actually tries to kill Karloff. When Abbott walks in on him carrying the knife around like a murderer, it's surprising that he doesn't conclude that Costello committed the murder.
Actually, that's another problem I have with this movie. Abbott's motivation for defending Costello. Every possible bit of evidence leads towards Costello, yet Abbott for some reason constantly refuses to believe it was him. If this were Laurel and Hardy, I think they could pull this off, since their characters have such a close bond that they know neither would do such a thing. Heck, I could even see Wheeler and Woolsey pull this off. But Abbott and Costello are usually established as being on pretty rough terms, even here. As the film goes along and Abbott sees more and more evidence pointing towards Costello, it's actually kind of bizarre that he doesn't point towards Lou as the killer. Yes, we know he didn't do it, but why should Abbott, especially after seeing him walk around his room with a knife in his hand like a murderer! Besides the "he's too stupid" excuse, the only real explanation for this comes towards the end: they're cousins. Yes, one of the interesting aspects of this movie, seeing Abbott and Costello as sort of individual characters throughout, was a complete scam the whole time!
The ending's also pretty bad. For the big climax, Costello has to run around this cave, but everything's so dark that it's hard to really enjoy anything about it. The castle in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein had light flashes and cool set design. This is just a cave with the little light coming from the water. Then, when the detective is discussing who the murderer is, Costello constantly interrupts him to accuse Abbott of being the murderer, because...it's supposed to be funny I guess? Instead of being funny, it's annoying, especially considering all that Abbott has done to help his cousin throughout the film! Costello's character is nothing like the way I thought he'd be at the beginning of the film. In fact, he actually seems even dumber than usual!
I really wanted to like this film, especially because it did seem like a good setup, but the whole dismal atmosphere combined with the comedy just didn't settle right with me here, especially compared with their other similar films like Hold That Ghost, Who Done It?, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein? I've mentioned before that I'm not a huge horror fan, so maybe there's something I'm missing because of that, but even then, I still remember liking the Abbott and Costello horror crossovers, even the later ones. I personally don't recommend this one, but maybe if you're a horror fan you might like it.
3 out of 10
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