Who Done It? (1942)
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 over the horrendous smell of Limburger cheese. They also take great advantage of the “fake detective” angle as well. Costello’s overacting is perfect for this and Abbott actually stays out of the way for the most part, only interrupting when absolutely necessary. That’s part of what made Abbott such a great straight man; he always knew the important times to interrupt in order to keep the act from getting repetitive.
Today, this film may be best known for briefly featuring their routine, Who’s On First?, which is a shame because the film features so many great moments outside of it. One of my favorite routines is Alexander 2222, in which Costello has troubles with a phone operator who constantly lies to him and says his line is busy yet allows a bunch of long distance calls to go through. There’s even a routine similar to Who’s On First? involving “volts” and “watts” that’s pretty effective as well.
Another benefit of this film is a great supporting cast, including Mary Wickes, William Bendix, and Walter Tetley. These three all get at least one comedy scene with Costello and take great advantage of their time in the spotlight. Tetley actually gets to fill the Abbott role at one point with the “two dimes for a nickel” bit and does very well at it. The radio setting is also a natural fit for Abbott and Costello, considering they were starring in their own radio program at the time.
The romantic interests aren’t great, but as I mentioned earlier, they stay out of the way, and unlike in Pardon My Sarong, they’re out of the way for so much of it that the somewhat inconclusive romance doesn’t really feel like that big of a deal, and since they were interested in each other in the past, it is likely that they do get together anyway.
There really isn’t much to say about this film because, really, the whole focus is the comedy, which it should be. The mystery itself is decent and the dark lighting is a cool effect to have for this kind of genre, but the majority of this is Abbott and Costello entertaining their audience with scare reactions and both physical and verbal routines. This is definitely one of my favorite Abbott and Costello films and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re a fan, especially since it features them when they were still young and able to do more physical routines than they could later on television.
10 out of 10
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 over the horrendous smell of Limburger cheese. They also take great advantage of the “fake detective” angle as well. Costello’s overacting is perfect for this and Abbott actually stays out of the way for the most part, only interrupting when absolutely necessary. That’s part of what made Abbott such a great straight man; he always knew the important times to interrupt in order to keep the act from getting repetitive.
Today, this film may be best known for briefly featuring their routine, Who’s On First?, which is a shame because the film features so many great moments outside of it. One of my favorite routines is Alexander 2222, in which Costello has troubles with a phone operator who constantly lies to him and says his line is busy yet allows a bunch of long distance calls to go through. There’s even a routine similar to Who’s On First? involving “volts” and “watts” that’s pretty effective as well.
Another benefit of this film is a great supporting cast, including Mary Wickes, William Bendix, and Walter Tetley. These three all get at least one comedy scene with Costello and take great advantage of their time in the spotlight. Tetley actually gets to fill the Abbott role at one point with the “two dimes for a nickel” bit and does very well at it. The radio setting is also a natural fit for Abbott and Costello, considering they were starring in their own radio program at the time.
The romantic interests aren’t great, but as I mentioned earlier, they stay out of the way, and unlike in Pardon My Sarong, they’re out of the way for so much of it that the somewhat inconclusive romance doesn’t really feel like that big of a deal, and since they were interested in each other in the past, it is likely that they do get together anyway.
There really isn’t much to say about this film because, really, the whole focus is the comedy, which it should be. The mystery itself is decent and the dark lighting is a cool effect to have for this kind of genre, but the majority of this is Abbott and Costello entertaining their audience with scare reactions and both physical and verbal routines. This is definitely one of my favorite Abbott and Costello films and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re a fan, especially since it features them when they were still young and able to do more physical routines than they could later on television.
10 out of 10
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