Customer Reviews

Abbott & Costello in Hollywood [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In my opinion this DVD release is a total slap in the face to Abbott & Costello fans. Warner home video should be ashamed of themselves with this release, the video transfer quality is absolutely terrible. After watching this double feature, it's evident that no amount of restoration went into this DVD release from Warner. While Abbott and Costello fans will find the movies funny, they won't be laughing over the video quality.

DVD Features:
Abbott and Costello in Hollywood theatrical trailer
Languages: English & French
Subtitles: English, French & Spanish (feature films only)

Although, not usually mentioned as one of their funniest, this picture cracks me up every time. The routine where Lou is trying to get to sleep is priceless. As in most of their early films, the boy/girl subplot is a bore, and there are a couple of sappy songs, but the laughs are generous.

Although it's a great idea to feature both of these films as a 2-fer DVD, each one suffers from bad transfers. The worse of the two being "In Hollywood". There is a strange blue/gray blemmish at the top of the film that lasts throught the entire movie. While the films are not the best made by Abbott & Costello- thanks to MGM who never knew how to make comedies, they are still fun to watch and are a must for completist geeks like myself.

The picture for both movies look fine. This is not a flipper disc. Both movies are on the same side of the disc. Both have English and French audio. Both have English, French, and Spanish subtitles. Abbott and Costello in Hollywood has a theatrical trailer. Lost in a Harem does not.

2 films in one disc. Hard to find movies. Happy to see they made it to DVD finally. Love A n C. They dont make classics like these anymore.

Two good non Universal A/C films on one disc. Nice quality prints, good price - what more do you want!!

These 2 films were made for MGM (outside of their home studio of Universal). I remember spending weekend afternoons watching these 2 comedies on T.V. as a kid, and loving them.
"Lost In A Harem" seems pretty by-the-numbers for an Arabian spoof. However, it's brightened by, of course, Bud & Lou's hilarious routines as they tangle with an evil sultan. There's even an outrageously surreal moment in which a hypnotizing ploy goes awry and the boys believe they are termites (!!); they both begin eating the furniture!
My personal pick is "Abbott & Costello in Hollywood", a fun romp in which the boys are set loose in Tinseltown. This gives bumbling Lou plenty of opportunities to harass the likes of Rags Ragland, Lucille Ball, etc. Playing Hollywood barbers who become agents for an up-and-coming young actor, they run afoul of an established (and very jealous) actor who will stop at nothing to stay at the top of the heap. Highlights include Bud teaching Lou how to shave a customer (done with lather, a balloon & a blade--you can just envision the results!); Lou posing as a prop dummy in a Western saloon scene ( I laughed until I cried here!); Lou the "teacher" getting outwitted by a class of Hollywood kids; and a rousing slapstick rollercoaster finale.
I gave the set only four stars because the distributors never bothered to clean up the prints--they still look scratched & blurred in places. Nor are there any featurettes, etc., about the boys or the making of the films.
However, I'm just glad they finally made it to DVD for their fans to enjoy!

ABBOTT & COSTELLO IN HOLLYWOOD
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Release Date(s): October 5, 1945
Runtime: 83 minutes

Director:
S. Sylvan Simon

Producer:
Martin A. Gosch

Writing Credits:
Nat Perrin
Martin A. Gosch
Lou Breslow

Cast:
Bud Abbott.......Buzz Kurtis
Lou Costello.....Ambercrombie
Frances Rafferty....Claire Warren
Robert Stanton......Jeff Parker
Jean Porter.........Ruthie
Warner Anderson.....Norman Royce
Rags Raglan.........Himself
Mike Mazurki........Klondike Pete
Carleton G. Young...Gregory Lemaise
Donald MacBride.....Dennis Kavanaugh
Edgar Dearing.......Studio Guard
Marion Martin.......Miss Milbane
Arthur Space........Director
William Phillips....Kavanaugh's Assistant

Music by:
George Bassman
Ralph Blane
Hugh Martin

Cinematography by:
Charles Edgar Schoenbaum

Film Editing by:
Ben Lewis

Art Direction:
Cedric Gibbons

Set Decoration:
Edwin B. Willis

Costume Design by:
Valles

Assistant Director:
Earl McAvoy

Sound Department:
Douglas Shearer

Other Crew:
George Bassman.......musical director
Ralph Blane..........songs
Kay Carter.................associate costume supervisor
Ten Duncan........orchestrator
Irene.............costume supervisor
Charles Walter....choreographer

Plot Summary:

Buzz and Abercrombie are barbers who want to be talent agents. On one of their jobs, they run into a talented singer, Jeff Parker, and try to get him the lead in a movie musical. Fierce Hollywood competition makes it hard for them to become agents and gets them into all sorts of trouble.

ROUTINES & HILARIOUS MOMENTS:
Insomnia
Earplug
Bud teaches Lou to shave a customer
After the disappointing performance of this film at the box office, MGM dropped its option to produce more Abbott & Costello films.

First, the issue of quality. The only quality defect I noticed on my copy were vertical white lines and specks due to scratches on the film throughout parts of the "Harem". As far as I could tell, the quality of the transfer of "In Hollywood" is flawless. I already had these two movies on DVD-R burnt from laser disc, and the quality of these releases is no worse than that of the laser disc. "Lost In A Harem" and "In Hollywood" are two movies Abbott & Costello did with MGM movies studios. The boys almost sign with MGM before their lucrative deal with Universal, so to appease MGM for their near-miss, Universal allowed Abbott & Costello to film three movies with for MGM. The other two being "In Hollywood", available on this disc, and " Rio Rita", mysteriously absent from this disc. The twenty-eight movies Abbott & Costello released under Universal can be found on four separate volumes available just about anywhere.

Lost In A Harem has the boys as Vaudeville performers stranded and looking for any kind of work in a faraway Arabian land, accompanied by beautiful blonde singer Hazel Moon, played by Marilyn Maxwell. All three are offered safe passage back home by Prince Ramo if they help him regain his thrown which was usurped by his villainous uncle Namativ. Throughout the movie, the boys dodge and evade all kinds of sandies and dunies who are threatening to kill them. In one instance the boys even pretend to be Hollywood talent scouts to gain safe entry into the palace. Twice the boys are captured and put in jail, where they run into a derelict with dementia, who goes crazy after hearing the word Pokomoko. While this is an unoriginal heist of The Three Stooges "Niagara Falls" routine, it contains enough discrepancies so as not to be a total rip-off. In most if not all Abbott & Costello movies, politically incorrect humor, which sadly lacks in today's films, is very abundant. "Lost In A Harem" is no exception. One classic scene between the boys and the villainous uncle, Natmativ question Costello's eyesight. The dialogue goes as follows:

Namativ: Eyes Bad?
Costello: Is you?

Scenes such as the preceding make "Harem" a very enjoyable classic.

"In Hollywood" has the boys working in a Hollywood barbershop. When an aspiring young actor/singer leaves his home town of Des Moines to search for fame in Hollywood, Abbott & Costello give up their hair-cutting gig to become his agents. The fast-flowing plot culminates in an amusement park movie set, including a chaotic chase scene atop a roller coaster, leading to an explosive ending. As is the case in all A&C movies, "In Hollywood" involves a romantic sub-plot, in this case between the aspiring youngster and a former beauty salon worker and friend of the boys who has "caught her break" in the movie industry. Skits here include Costello's first barbershop customer, Rags Raglan, who is in desperate need of a shave. That has disaster written all over it. Another hilarious skit features Costello being mistaken for a movie prop dummy by a director shooting an old West bar room brawl, and getting tossed all over the room! The obligatory (and much appreciated) politically incorrect scene has Costello disguised as an islamobaddie cab driver, equipped with a turban and beard, to avoid being detected. Why was he trying to avoid detection? I won't give that away. Watch the movie and find out.

There never has been another comedy duo quite like Abbott & Costello. These two movies confirm it! "Lost In A Harem" and "In Hollywood" will have you laughing for hours. Now if only someone will release their third (actually first in chronological order) MGM film "Rio Rita", another classic!

S. Sylvan Simon directs this HILARIOUS A & C feature. Bud and Lou play a barber and porter in Hollywood. Lucille Ball, Rags Ragland, and director Robert Z. Leonard appear as themselves. The film was originally titled "BUD ABBOTT & LOU COSTELLO IN HOLLYWOOD". This is a FUN film for the WHOLE FAMILY to watch and enjoy.