The Naughty Nineties (1945)
The Naughty Nineties may as well have been called Abbott and Costello Perform “Who’s On First?” because that seems to be the one thing everyone remembers about this film. The rest of the film is basically ignored, and admittedly I can kind of see why, though I still think it’s a decent enough film.
Captain Sam (Henry Travers) is the owner of a showboat called The River Queen, whose main stars are Sam’s daughter Caroline (Lois Collier) and Dexter Broadhurst (Bud Abbott). When Captain Sam accidentally gambles away 3/4 interest of his boat to a group of crooked gamblers, Caroline, Dexter, and crew worker Sebastian Dinwiddle (Lou Costello) must find a way to get rid of them.
Let’s start with the film’s rendition of “Who’s On First?”. It’s good. I don’t think it’s the best rendition (The Colgate Comedy Hour version has always been my preferred interpretation of the routine), but it’s still an energetic enough version of the routine, and it’s also the only full version to appear in a feature film. It’s even the one that’s shown at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, so there seems to be at least some love for this rendition of the routine.
Beyond this, there are a few other good gags. Another one of my favorite Abbott and Costello routines is “Higher and Lower,” in which Costello practices for his performance of a song (in this case, “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”) while Abbott gives directions to the stagehands working the curtain. This leads to a hilarious misunderstanding in which Costello thinks Abbott’s directions are for his singing. I also really like a brief scene in which Abbott and Costello must deal with a sleepwalking gambler who keeps attacking Costello in his sleep.
Sadly, by this point, it seems as though Abbott and Costello had used up most of their routines, so they had to rely quite a bit on rehashing. In addition to reusing the “swapped drinks” routine from Pardon My Sarong, many routines were contributed by Felix Adler, who worked with many of the top comics of the day, so we see quite a few routines that were done by other comedians. There’s a gag involving coughing up feathers that was used by The Three Stooges a few times, a gag involving cats that was later used in The Three Stooges’ Malice in the Palace, the lifesaver gag from the Marx Brothers’ Horse Feathers, and the mirror routine from Duck Soup. Even part of the climax is based off of a trick employed by Laurel and Hardy in The Live Ghost. Abbott and Costello have been known to use other comics’ routines in the past, with varying degrees of success, and the same applies here. Both the Laurel and Hardy and Marx Brothers gags work alright and the mirror routine even has a nice twist regarding one of the gamblers going crazy. The Three Stooges gags, meanwhile, are pretty by-the-book, though Abbott and Costello feel more in character here than they do throughout In Society.
The rest of this movie is OK. There are some musical numbers, though they’re all pretty short and one of them, Rita Johnson’s performance of “On a Sunday Afternoon,” is actually kind of good. The romance isn’t great, but it’s tolerable. Similarly, a lot of comedic routines are just OK. Beyond “Higher and Lower,” “Who’s On First?” and the sleepwalking scene, most of the original Abbott and Costello routines play out alright. They’re not hilarious, but they’re not lifeless either. The one real bad thing I can say about this film, despite its occasional unoriginality, is that the scene with Costello destroying scenery is ruined by the constant crying of two babies in the audience.
So, yeah, it’s pretty easy to see why this film is only remembered for “Who’s On First?”. It’s kind of forgettable and doesn’t really stand out much. Honestly, though, that’s still better than some of the other stuff that they made for Universal.
6 out of 10
Captain Sam (Henry Travers) is the owner of a showboat called The River Queen, whose main stars are Sam’s daughter Caroline (Lois Collier) and Dexter Broadhurst (Bud Abbott). When Captain Sam accidentally gambles away 3/4 interest of his boat to a group of crooked gamblers, Caroline, Dexter, and crew worker Sebastian Dinwiddle (Lou Costello) must find a way to get rid of them.
Let’s start with the film’s rendition of “Who’s On First?”. It’s good. I don’t think it’s the best rendition (The Colgate Comedy Hour version has always been my preferred interpretation of the routine), but it’s still an energetic enough version of the routine, and it’s also the only full version to appear in a feature film. It’s even the one that’s shown at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, so there seems to be at least some love for this rendition of the routine.
Beyond this, there are a few other good gags. Another one of my favorite Abbott and Costello routines is “Higher and Lower,” in which Costello practices for his performance of a song (in this case, “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”) while Abbott gives directions to the stagehands working the curtain. This leads to a hilarious misunderstanding in which Costello thinks Abbott’s directions are for his singing. I also really like a brief scene in which Abbott and Costello must deal with a sleepwalking gambler who keeps attacking Costello in his sleep.
Sadly, by this point, it seems as though Abbott and Costello had used up most of their routines, so they had to rely quite a bit on rehashing. In addition to reusing the “swapped drinks” routine from Pardon My Sarong, many routines were contributed by Felix Adler, who worked with many of the top comics of the day, so we see quite a few routines that were done by other comedians. There’s a gag involving coughing up feathers that was used by The Three Stooges a few times, a gag involving cats that was later used in The Three Stooges’ Malice in the Palace, the lifesaver gag from the Marx Brothers’ Horse Feathers, and the mirror routine from Duck Soup. Even part of the climax is based off of a trick employed by Laurel and Hardy in The Live Ghost. Abbott and Costello have been known to use other comics’ routines in the past, with varying degrees of success, and the same applies here. Both the Laurel and Hardy and Marx Brothers gags work alright and the mirror routine even has a nice twist regarding one of the gamblers going crazy. The Three Stooges gags, meanwhile, are pretty by-the-book, though Abbott and Costello feel more in character here than they do throughout In Society.
The rest of this movie is OK. There are some musical numbers, though they’re all pretty short and one of them, Rita Johnson’s performance of “On a Sunday Afternoon,” is actually kind of good. The romance isn’t great, but it’s tolerable. Similarly, a lot of comedic routines are just OK. Beyond “Higher and Lower,” “Who’s On First?” and the sleepwalking scene, most of the original Abbott and Costello routines play out alright. They’re not hilarious, but they’re not lifeless either. The one real bad thing I can say about this film, despite its occasional unoriginality, is that the scene with Costello destroying scenery is ruined by the constant crying of two babies in the audience.
So, yeah, it’s pretty easy to see why this film is only remembered for “Who’s On First?”. It’s kind of forgettable and doesn’t really stand out much. Honestly, though, that’s still better than some of the other stuff that they made for Universal.
6 out of 10
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