The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947)
It’s pretty clear that Universal was running out of ideas for Abbott and Costello considering that they followed Buck Privates Come Home, which itself was a sequel, with a second attempt at a western comedy, after Ride ‘Em Cowboy. Not that I’m complaining, though, as The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap is definitely better than their first attempt.
Duke Egan (Abbott) and Chester Wooley (Costello) are traveling salesmen who decide to try their luck in Wagon Gap, Montana. Wooley shoots his gun in the air at a random time and seemingly kills criminal Fred Hawkins. By law, he is forced to care for his widow (Marjorie Main), all the while dealing with a town that wants to overwork him in order to pay off Hawkins’s debts.
Abbott and Costello actually don’t do that many routines together in this film. The only real one of note from the past is the clam chowder routine, this time with a frog substituting for the clam. Actually, to their credit, this is a pretty good rendition of the routine, since they vary it up by trying to have Costello switch soups with Abbott, only for the frog to jump into the soup Costello’s receiving. It’s still not as good as Curly Howard’s version, but I give them credit for trying something slightly different.
There are two things that really stand out about this film; one is the performance of Marjorie Main as the widow. She’s most known for playing Ma Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle series of films, a series I’ve never seen. After seeing her performance in this, though, I really am curious to see what it was like. Main plays the widow as overbearing and sometimes heartless. Heck, she doesn’t really care that much about her husband’s death. Main is really effective in this role, especially when she has to switch moods. She tries to be nice and caring when wooing Chester, but immediately turns when he refuses and it’s a pretty funny shift. She also has a nice running joke in which she’ll do something unexpected, like play a great card game (despite saying she’s never played before) and when questioned, she simply replies: “Hawkins,” implying she learned it from the husband she really didn’t seem to care that much about.
The other notable thing is the concept of Costello as a sheriff. Yes, you read that right. The townspeople decide at one point to make him the sheriff because when criminals realize he’s married to the widow, they decide to follow orders rather than risk taking care of her and the children upon killing him. Outside of how hilarious the concept is, Costello actually follows through quite well. He acts tough, knowing that no one will harm him, and suddenly starts doing ridiculous stuff, such as forcing the bar patrons to drink milk instead of whiskey. There’s a nice shot of all of them in a line at the bar awkwardly drinking milk. There’s also another funny scene where Costello gets an assistant in Glenn Strange, who also doesn’t want to take care of the widow. Strange keeps trying to help Costello with carrying out his orders, yet despite how helpful he is, Costello just constantly interrupts him and says, “shut up!”
Unfortunately, the film is not without its flaws. There’s a little too much going on throughout this story. For example, towards the end there’s a big climax involving Costello saving a gold shipment from some thieves. After that, though, there’s another climax involving Costello and the same thieves having to get into a shootout. Why couldn’t the shootout just be while they were trying to get the gold shipments? The widow also has this older daughter who is sort of supposed to play this straight role, but because there’s so much going on with the gold shipments, Costello constantly trying to get back to California, and Costello being promoted to sheriff, she doesn’t get a whole lot of screen time and doesn’t come across as particularly memorable.
In general, besides Abbott, Costello, and Main’s characters, the rest of the cast is pretty forgettable as well. The villains are just kind of your standard villains and even though one of them tries throwing in a twist towards the end, it’s a pretty easy one to predict. There’s also this judge character who I think they’re trying to make a comic relief, but he just comes across as annoying and I was pretty disappointed to see him rewarded for his con man ways in the end.
I also should note that the scenes with Costello as the sheriff don’t occur until the last third. As great as Main’s performance is, the first two-thirds mainly consist of Costello being bullied by the generic villains as well as the widow’s annoying eldest son. There are a few funny scenes, but up until the final third, the film actually drags quite a bit.
So, yeah, The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap has a number of problems, but Main and the sheriff scenes are still legitimately entertaining. As a whole, the film is just OK, but I’d say it’s worth checking out once for those elements alone.
7 out of 10
Duke Egan (Abbott) and Chester Wooley (Costello) are traveling salesmen who decide to try their luck in Wagon Gap, Montana. Wooley shoots his gun in the air at a random time and seemingly kills criminal Fred Hawkins. By law, he is forced to care for his widow (Marjorie Main), all the while dealing with a town that wants to overwork him in order to pay off Hawkins’s debts.
Abbott and Costello actually don’t do that many routines together in this film. The only real one of note from the past is the clam chowder routine, this time with a frog substituting for the clam. Actually, to their credit, this is a pretty good rendition of the routine, since they vary it up by trying to have Costello switch soups with Abbott, only for the frog to jump into the soup Costello’s receiving. It’s still not as good as Curly Howard’s version, but I give them credit for trying something slightly different.
There are two things that really stand out about this film; one is the performance of Marjorie Main as the widow. She’s most known for playing Ma Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle series of films, a series I’ve never seen. After seeing her performance in this, though, I really am curious to see what it was like. Main plays the widow as overbearing and sometimes heartless. Heck, she doesn’t really care that much about her husband’s death. Main is really effective in this role, especially when she has to switch moods. She tries to be nice and caring when wooing Chester, but immediately turns when he refuses and it’s a pretty funny shift. She also has a nice running joke in which she’ll do something unexpected, like play a great card game (despite saying she’s never played before) and when questioned, she simply replies: “Hawkins,” implying she learned it from the husband she really didn’t seem to care that much about.
The other notable thing is the concept of Costello as a sheriff. Yes, you read that right. The townspeople decide at one point to make him the sheriff because when criminals realize he’s married to the widow, they decide to follow orders rather than risk taking care of her and the children upon killing him. Outside of how hilarious the concept is, Costello actually follows through quite well. He acts tough, knowing that no one will harm him, and suddenly starts doing ridiculous stuff, such as forcing the bar patrons to drink milk instead of whiskey. There’s a nice shot of all of them in a line at the bar awkwardly drinking milk. There’s also another funny scene where Costello gets an assistant in Glenn Strange, who also doesn’t want to take care of the widow. Strange keeps trying to help Costello with carrying out his orders, yet despite how helpful he is, Costello just constantly interrupts him and says, “shut up!”
Unfortunately, the film is not without its flaws. There’s a little too much going on throughout this story. For example, towards the end there’s a big climax involving Costello saving a gold shipment from some thieves. After that, though, there’s another climax involving Costello and the same thieves having to get into a shootout. Why couldn’t the shootout just be while they were trying to get the gold shipments? The widow also has this older daughter who is sort of supposed to play this straight role, but because there’s so much going on with the gold shipments, Costello constantly trying to get back to California, and Costello being promoted to sheriff, she doesn’t get a whole lot of screen time and doesn’t come across as particularly memorable.
In general, besides Abbott, Costello, and Main’s characters, the rest of the cast is pretty forgettable as well. The villains are just kind of your standard villains and even though one of them tries throwing in a twist towards the end, it’s a pretty easy one to predict. There’s also this judge character who I think they’re trying to make a comic relief, but he just comes across as annoying and I was pretty disappointed to see him rewarded for his con man ways in the end.
I also should note that the scenes with Costello as the sheriff don’t occur until the last third. As great as Main’s performance is, the first two-thirds mainly consist of Costello being bullied by the generic villains as well as the widow’s annoying eldest son. There are a few funny scenes, but up until the final third, the film actually drags quite a bit.
So, yeah, The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap has a number of problems, but Main and the sheriff scenes are still legitimately entertaining. As a whole, the film is just OK, but I’d say it’s worth checking out once for those elements alone.
7 out of 10
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