Comin' Round the Mountain (1951)
Comin' Round the Mountain sucks. The end.
1 out of 10
OK, OK, fine. I'll talk about the film, but...oh my gosh, I could not believe how awful this film was! Sure, Abbott and Costello made awful films before, but this film was just flat out uncomfortable to watch, even more than Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.
Abbott plays Al Stewart, a theatrical agent who represents Dorothy McCoy (Dorothy Shay) and The Great Wilbert (Costello). After hearing Wilbert scream during a bad performance, Dorothy deduces that he must also be a member of the McCoy clan, and takes him and Al to meet the rest of their family after revealing that Wilbert could make millions from a treasure that was hidden by his grandfather. Granny (Ida Moore) agrees that he's a member, but cannot reveal the location of the treasure until after Wilbert is married. This results in entanglements with love potions, a feud with the Winfield clan, and some backstabbing from members of the McCoy clan.
OK, so what exactly makes his movie so awful? Well, first of all, it's not funny. Literally the only moment in this that I laughed at was near the beginning when a group of men try to chain up Wilbert in preparation for his escape act. Other routines are just drawn out and dull, like a scene where Wilbert tries to sleep, but the bed keeps getting overcrowded by fellow McCoy members. There's another scene with Wilbert and a witch (played by Margaret Hamilton) making voodoo dolls of each other and poking them for prolonged amounts of time. Abbott shows off some expressions of discomfort that pretty much sum up my thoughts on the whole matter. Even the minor stuff isn't funny, which is a huge problem considering the small jokes are usually the most original stuff in Abbott and Costello's films.
There also are a bunch of songs in this movie, none of which are good and all of which are too long. They do try to incorporate some comedy in the musical numbers. For example, they try doing an escape routine during Shay's second number and Costello also takes part in another number when he plays as part of the band, but it all just seems so run-of-the-mill and not executed well. There's also one part where they literally sing two musical numbers back-to-back!
But the real nail in the coffin for this movie is the plot itself. At first, it doesn't seem too bad; Wilbert wants a treasure and gets caught in between a feud. That on its own sounds like a decent idea. But the whole McCoy-Winfield feud doesn't even play all that big of a role until the very end. No, a major part of this plot is that Wilbert has to be married in order to have access to the treasure, as he's supposed to be the head of the clan due to his heritage. Wilbert is in love with Dorothy, and keep in mind, this is after Wilbert has discovered that she's his cousin. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for how determined he is to marry her specifically. He gets to the point where he buys a love potion in order to force her to love him back, and not only that, but the grandmother fully supports it, since she's discovered Dorothy's in love with a member of the Winfield clan. Making matters even worse, the rest of the family wants him to marry another cousin who's only fourteen! What is wrong with this family?! The love potion also makes things get even more crazy, because the fourteen-year-old accidentally drinks it and falls in love with Al, while Wilbert also accidentally drinks it and falls in love with the fourteen-year-old!
Even the climax isn't good. First of all, it involves Wilbert betraying his family, which is fine for the most part considering how crazy they are, but he even betrays the grandmother, who is the only one who has been defending him throughout the film and even shows a change of heart towards the end. The climax otherwise basically amounts to Al and Wilbert messing around with an elevator while also avoiding both the Winfields and the McCoys. The ending finds them falling into Fort Knox and getting arrested. Sure, why not? I guess a terrible film deserves an appropriately terrible ending.
It is mind blowing to think that such an awful film could be made. An Abbott and Costello film! They're not exactly the models of high class filmmaking, but even then, I wouldn't have thought they were also capable of making such a disastrous movie. The sooner I erase this stain from my mind, the better!
1 out of 10
1 out of 10
OK, OK, fine. I'll talk about the film, but...oh my gosh, I could not believe how awful this film was! Sure, Abbott and Costello made awful films before, but this film was just flat out uncomfortable to watch, even more than Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.
Abbott plays Al Stewart, a theatrical agent who represents Dorothy McCoy (Dorothy Shay) and The Great Wilbert (Costello). After hearing Wilbert scream during a bad performance, Dorothy deduces that he must also be a member of the McCoy clan, and takes him and Al to meet the rest of their family after revealing that Wilbert could make millions from a treasure that was hidden by his grandfather. Granny (Ida Moore) agrees that he's a member, but cannot reveal the location of the treasure until after Wilbert is married. This results in entanglements with love potions, a feud with the Winfield clan, and some backstabbing from members of the McCoy clan.
OK, so what exactly makes his movie so awful? Well, first of all, it's not funny. Literally the only moment in this that I laughed at was near the beginning when a group of men try to chain up Wilbert in preparation for his escape act. Other routines are just drawn out and dull, like a scene where Wilbert tries to sleep, but the bed keeps getting overcrowded by fellow McCoy members. There's another scene with Wilbert and a witch (played by Margaret Hamilton) making voodoo dolls of each other and poking them for prolonged amounts of time. Abbott shows off some expressions of discomfort that pretty much sum up my thoughts on the whole matter. Even the minor stuff isn't funny, which is a huge problem considering the small jokes are usually the most original stuff in Abbott and Costello's films.
There also are a bunch of songs in this movie, none of which are good and all of which are too long. They do try to incorporate some comedy in the musical numbers. For example, they try doing an escape routine during Shay's second number and Costello also takes part in another number when he plays as part of the band, but it all just seems so run-of-the-mill and not executed well. There's also one part where they literally sing two musical numbers back-to-back!
But the real nail in the coffin for this movie is the plot itself. At first, it doesn't seem too bad; Wilbert wants a treasure and gets caught in between a feud. That on its own sounds like a decent idea. But the whole McCoy-Winfield feud doesn't even play all that big of a role until the very end. No, a major part of this plot is that Wilbert has to be married in order to have access to the treasure, as he's supposed to be the head of the clan due to his heritage. Wilbert is in love with Dorothy, and keep in mind, this is after Wilbert has discovered that she's his cousin. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for how determined he is to marry her specifically. He gets to the point where he buys a love potion in order to force her to love him back, and not only that, but the grandmother fully supports it, since she's discovered Dorothy's in love with a member of the Winfield clan. Making matters even worse, the rest of the family wants him to marry another cousin who's only fourteen! What is wrong with this family?! The love potion also makes things get even more crazy, because the fourteen-year-old accidentally drinks it and falls in love with Al, while Wilbert also accidentally drinks it and falls in love with the fourteen-year-old!
Even the climax isn't good. First of all, it involves Wilbert betraying his family, which is fine for the most part considering how crazy they are, but he even betrays the grandmother, who is the only one who has been defending him throughout the film and even shows a change of heart towards the end. The climax otherwise basically amounts to Al and Wilbert messing around with an elevator while also avoiding both the Winfields and the McCoys. The ending finds them falling into Fort Knox and getting arrested. Sure, why not? I guess a terrible film deserves an appropriately terrible ending.
It is mind blowing to think that such an awful film could be made. An Abbott and Costello film! They're not exactly the models of high class filmmaking, but even then, I wouldn't have thought they were also capable of making such a disastrous movie. The sooner I erase this stain from my mind, the better!
1 out of 10
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