Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945)

The old phrase, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” applies perfectly to Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. The team’s final MGM movie is a reworking of Buster Keaton’s first sound film, Free and Easy. Free and Easy is one of Keaton’s worst films; Hollywood is one of Abbott and Costello’s best.

Buzz Curtis (Abbott) and Abercrombie (Costello) are a pair of barbers in a Hollywood salon. While cutting the hair of agent Norman Royce (Warner Anderson), they come across Jeff Parker (Robert Stanton), a singer who attempts to get Royce to sign him. At the urging of one of his clients, Gregory LeMaise (Carleton G. Young), he decides to pass on representing the boy, so Curtis and Abercrombie decide to take a shot and become Jeff’s agents. With the help of their friend Claire Warren (Frances Rafferty), they attempt to break Parker into show business.

Continuing the tradition of the previous two features for MGM, Abbott and Costello are in top form and given plenty of screen time to prove it. To my knowledge, John Grant, the team’s usual screenwriter, didn’t work on this film and we’re instead treated to some material provided by Nat Perrin and Lou Breslow that Abbott and Costello didn’t perform in any films before. The one major exception is the “Little Red Hiding Rood” story Costello tells, which is basically a variation on “Jonah and the Whale,” and even that’s pretty good thanks to the timing between Costello and a smart aleck kid who fills the Abbott role.

Among the highlights in this film are a routine in which Costello has insomnia and Abbott tries to play him a record to go to sleep, a scene in which Costello attempts to shave actor Rags Ragland, and a scene in which Abbott and Costello are arguing with separate people on a phone, not realizing they’re yelling at each other. For me, the best scenes are when Costello sneaks around movie sets, kind of similar to how Keaton did in Free and Easy. In Free and Easy, what Keaton did seemed pathetic, especially for a man who couldn’t really do wild reactions. Costello can and does, and is given a variety of things to do, including pretending to be a consultant on a film (even backing up a young Lucille Ball’s ideas) and jumping on top of a prop door. Without a doubt, the funniest scene involves Costello being mistaken for a prop dummy that is being used as a punching bag for one of the stars during a big scene. It’s every bit as funny as it sounds and they take advantage of every opportunity; the scene goes on for quite a bit of time, but it never feels like filler. It’s a great diversion that goes on for just the right amount of time.

Another thing I like is Abbott and Costello’s relationship in this film. Sure, the standard con man-conned victim relationship is there, but there are several scenes where Abbott’s character does seem genuinely concerned for Costello’s character. During the insomnia routine, Abbott tries everything he can to help his friend and refuses to let him succumb to using sleeping pills. There’s also a scene later in the film in which Abbott thinks that Costello has died and he shows genuine regret for the loss of his partner. He immediately goes back to his old ways when Costello reveals he’s alive, but it is nice to have scenes like this to show that their relationship is a bit deeper than it appears.

The story’s interesting too. Abbott and Costello are there from the beginning and they feel very important to the plot. For example, Abbott is able to frame LeMaise and have him taken off the picture by pretending that Costello is dead and LeMaise killed him. It’s actually a pretty clever way to move the plot forward while having Abbott and Costello completely handling it, rather than having the romantic leads handle it. The romantic leads don’t have a whole lot of screen time, but I do like Jeff’s dilemma of being a rather reluctant star who decides he doesn’t want to hold back Claire’s career. The first two songs aren’t anything special, but neither one is boring and the last one, “Fun on the Wonderful Midway” is really good and in my opinion the dance number is just as good as the ones in MGM’s other musicals. It even features a great chase scene involving Costello trapped on a rollercoaster with LeMaise.

Don’t let the lazy title fool you; Abbott and Costello in Hollywood is actually a very well-thought out film that shines above many of the other Abbott and Costello films. With great production values and a coherent story, Abbott and Costello in Hollywood is one of their most classic films.

10 out of 10

Unfortunately, Abbott and Costello in Hollywood didn’t do very well at the box office, so MGM dropped the team after it was released, which is a shame because they actually were a pretty good fit there. I know that seems odd considering the company’s track record with comedians like Keaton and The Marx Brothers’ last few features for them, but it does seem as though there was actually a genuine attempt by the company to make sure the films suited Abbott and Costello’s styles. I know that there is some disdain for MGM’s inability at handling comedy, but their Abbott and Costello films really do deserve a chance.