Talk About Cinema

It Ain’t Hay is probably the most unique Abbott and Costello film so far. It’s based off of a story by popular short story writer Damon Runyon called Princess O’Hara , and there’s a community-driven atmosphere to it, as it does stress the importance of the high standing of the characters in the town that they live in. Does it work for Abbott and Costello? For the most part, yes. Wilbur Hoolihan (Costello) is a taxi driver who is friends with Grover Mockridge (Abbott), King O’Hara (Cecil Kellaway), his daughter Princess (Patsy O’Connor), and their horse Finnegan. After Wilbur accidentally kills Finnegan by feeding him candy, Grover and Wilbur inadvertently steal a famous race horse named Tea Biscuit in an attempt to make it up to them, and so they have to find a way to return the horse without anyone noticing. Surprisingly, the one major problem with this is the initial set-up. It’s one of those films that kind of throws you into it. For example, Grover and Wilbur have this friend ...

Although A Sailor-Made Man was Harold Lloyd’s first feature film, it was Grandma’s Boy that really cemented him as a feature film star. Today, the film is praised for helping to decide how a feature film comedy should be approached, along with Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid , and resulted in Lloyd permanently moving into features. Lloyd plays a 19-year-old living with his grandmother (Anna Townsend). Unable to stand up for himself against a rival (Charles Stevenson), all seems lost to him, until his grandmother gives him a magic charm that will keep him from being harmed, and he gets a chance to prove himself by capturing a wanted criminal (Dick Sutherland). Grandma’s Boy is a much different experience than the earlier A Sailor-Made Man . That’s not to say A Sailor-Made Man is bad; it moves at a good pace and is full of funny gags. However, Grandma’s Boy stands out by doing more than could really be accomplished in a short comedy; it’s emotional in more ways than one. Starting wi...

For Who Done It? , Universal decided to try something different for Abbott and Costello; they decided not to include any songs at all and reduced the roles of the romantic interests. This resulted in one of Abbott and Costello’s best films. Chick Larkin (Abbott) and Mervyn Milgrim (Costello) are two soda jerks at a radio station who aspire to be radio mystery writers. When the network president is murdered, they decide to solve the murder themselves as a possible way of getting noticed by the station. However, when the real detectives show up, they accuse Chick and Mervyn of being the murderers and it is up to writer Jimmy Turner (Patric Knowles) and producer Jane Little (Louise Allbritton) to prove their innocence. Although the movie does open up with some brief exposition from the other characters, afterwards the focus is mainly on Abbott and Costello and they take advantage of every opportunity. The minute they turn up on screen, we get a hilarious scene of Costello freaking out...

Many people consider the 1940 film version of The Blue Bird  starting Shirley Temple to basically be a second-rate Wizard of Oz . Well, to that I say...yeah, they’re pretty much right. Just looking at the film itself, it’s clear that they’re trying everything they can in an attempt to replicate the successful film techniques of Wizard . For example, both use the idea of changing to Technicolor when the fantasy elements are first introduced and some of the casting choices seem to have been made with Wizard in mind. Eddie Collins plays Tylo, who has characteristics similar to the Cowardly Lion, while Gale Sondergaard, who plays Tylette, had originally been cast as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz before dropping out due to a disagreement over how the character should be portrayed. Even Shirley Temple herself is believed to have been considered for the role of Dorothy in Wizard of Oz , though many sources differ on this. The film had a lot of talented and successful ...