Customer Reviews

The Best of Abbott & Costello, Vol. 4 (Abbott & Costello Meet Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde / Abbott & Costello Meet the Keystone Cops / Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy / Abbott & Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld / Abbott & Costello Meet the Monsters / The World of Abbott & Costello)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the last three movies that Abbott & Costello did for Universal.
Abbott & Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Abbott & Costello Meet the Keystone Kops
Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy

You may notice that "IT AIN'T HAY" is missing from these DVD sets. Universal could not come to agreement with the Damon Runyon estate for the rights to put the story out on DVD. Sigh, again we miss out because of greed.

To fill out this DVD set It would have been nice if Universal worked out a deal for Abbott & Costello's independent films. Where is "A & C MEET CAPTAIN KIDD", and quality copies of the Public Domain films "JACK AND THE BEANSTALK" & "AFRICA SCREAMS"? Or even the Docu-Drama "BUD & LOU" starring Harvey Korman & Buddy Hackett.

Instead, Universal pads out the set with two "clip" movies that show us the highlights of what we already have: "THE WORLD OF ABBOTT & COSTELLO" and "ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET JERRY SEINFIELD". There is also a documentary.

Well, at least we will finally get the last 3 Universal movies, which are superior to many of their movies included in set #3.

None of the best of Abbott & Costello is actually included here, but fans will no doubt love it. The set includes a couple of much-liked horror spoofs, a comic misfire based in the early days of Hollywood, and a trio of documentary-type offerings to round out the package.

In 1953, coming off a string of terrible films that included COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN, LOST IN ALASKA, A&C MEET CAPTAIN KIDD, and A&C GO TO MARS, the boys fell back on the tried-and-true box-office success of their "meet the monsters" films once again with ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, and brought back Boris Karloff to help ensure a winner. Bud and Lou are two American coppers helping Scotland Yard solve the "Mr. Hyde" murders. They're also helping their friend Craig Stevens woo pretty Helen Westcott, not knowing that she's the niece of Boris Karloff, who is kindly old Dr. Jekyll (an unbilled stuntman is actually Mr. Hyde). In one sequence, Costello is trapped in a wax museum with Dracula and Frankenstein Monster figures that spring to life, which only makes us want to remove this disc from the player and watch A&C MEET FRANKENSTEIN instead. Like all their monster spoofs, this is weak compared to MEET FRANKENSTEIN but in the overall A&C scheme of things, it's okay.

A&C MEET THE KEYSTONE KOPS (1955) is next, and had this movie been made 12 or 13 years earlier, it might've been one of Bud & Lou's best. Unfortunately, the aging comedy team (joined by even-more-aging former Keystoners Hank Mann, Herold Goodwin, Heinie Conklin, and Mack Sennett himself) wasn't up to the task of recreating the manic pace of early silent comedies. The best sequence in the film is the first one, with Lou demonstrating to Bud the histrionics he just saw in the film "Eliza and the Bloodhounds" (actually footage from the 1927 version of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN) and causing Bud to be beaten mercilessly for "threatening this helpless boy."

Next is the team's final film for Universal, A&C MEET THE MUMMY, (1955), which has been available on a stand-alone DVD for quite some time. It's a pretty good picture, although the team looks old and tired, the Mummy is unconvincing, and there are stultifyingly out of place musical numbers.

THE WORLD OF ABBOTT & COSTELLO is a 1965 compilation film featuring some of their best routines - and some very weak material, too (the film opens with a lengthy clip from A&C GO TO MARS, for heaven's sake -- what WERE they thinking). Worst of all is Jack E. Leonard's wiseguy and very unfunny narration.

In 1994, Jerry Seinfeld starred in a one-hour TV special devoted to clips of Bud & Lou; ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET JERRY SEINFELD contains most of their best bits, including outtakes, flubs, live TV sequences from the boys' Colgate Comedy Hour Days, color footage of the team relaxing at home with their families, and scenes from their popular TV program, The Abbott & Costello Show. Unfortunately, the routines are highly edited and some good laughs are missed; only "Who's on First", from the film THE NAUGHTY NINETIES, is shown in its entirety.

The 34-min. documentary A&C MEET THE MONSTERS, originally presented on a previous A&C DVD, fills out the Collection. It's an interesting look at the making of one of their best films. Trailers for Meet Jekyll/Hyde and Meet the Mummy are included.

Unlike the earlier Franchise Collections, which each crammed 8 films onto 2 discs, there's a little more room to breathe this time around, and the films look and sound terrific. (Jekyll and Hyde and Keystone Kops share the first side of disc one, Meet the Mummy is alone on side two, and the three documentaries are all on side one of disc two, which doesn't have a side two, and what's the man's name on first base, no, what's the man's name on second base, I dunno, he's on third.) For more information, please visit www.inthebalcony.com.

It's indeed great to have the last few films on this final collection (Jekyll and Hyde in particular), but why is this volume with less discs and less movies MORE expensive than the other volumes? And even worse, neither the packaging nor the discs themselves give ANY indication as to which movies are on which sides of each disc. You have to pop them into your dvd player and wait for the menu to come up to find out. Blatant mistreatment of these precious films...

A couple of years ago if somebody announced that 3 A&C films, any 3 except the PD ones, and 3 documentaries would be available from Universal for less than $20 everyone would have dashed to buy it. However, since Universal put out 3 previous 8 film sets at fire sale prices suddenly this seems like a bad deal. A&C Meet the Mummy was originally more expensive than this by itself. My rating is for the films included which are not among the team's best but this is still a great deal.

This awesome, two disc set continues the dvd legacy of Bud and Lou. It includes three film, Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy. Semi-documentary The World of Abbott and Costello and Abbott and the 1994 tv special, Abbott and Costello meet Jerry Seinfeld and Abbott and Costello Meet the Monsters.

Volume Four has three films (of their last four films) plus three documentaries.

DISC ONE Side One:
**Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Cops - This film takes place during the silent film era. Willie Piper (Lou Costello) has his aunt's fortune, $5,000. And Harry Pierce (Bud Abbott) has talked him into investing it in a bogus film studio. When the boys find out that Joe Gorman (Fred Clark) has headed for Hollywood and the boys follow him out. As Sergi Tumanov, Gorman becomes a great director. When the boys arrive Gorman tries to have them killed by using them as stunt doubles in an aerial sequence. The footage turns out to be hilarious (not really) and the studio wants them as their new comedy team. Unfortunately, the film does not end there. The end of the film tries to recreate the wacky chases of the Keystone cops but is only marginally successful. (Note: Famed silent film director and creator of the Keystone Cops Mack Sennet makes a brief cameo).

****Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Slim and Tubby are pair of American police officers assigned to learn British police techniques in Victorian England. When they cause a ruckus at a suffragette rally they are dismissed from the force. To get back in the good graces, they decide to catch "the monster". The substory is Dr. Henry Jekyll (Boris Karloff) is in love with his ward, Vickie. But Vickie is in love with a dashing reporter, Bruce Adams (Craig Stevens). Jekyll uses his drug induced Mr. Hyde to kill those that stand in his way. This is not the best of the A&C monster movies but it still real fun and Karloff has great fun.

DISC ONE Side Two:
**** Abbott and Costello meet the Mummy - The boys are in Egypt and hear that an archeologist is looking for two men to accompany the mummy of Klaris back to America. When they go to Dr. Zoomer's house, the usual happens. Lou sees the mummy alive and Dr. Zoomer dead but every time Lou tries to show Bud the body moves somewhere else (this is just like A&C Meet Frankenstein.) The mummy is returned to a temple of the followers of Klaris (whose leader is played by Richard Deacon of The Dick Van Dyke Show). But the amulet is missing and must be found. Bud is accused of the murder and the boys try and clear him. In investigating Lou finds the missing amulet. Now everyone is after the boys. They eventually wind up at the pyramid of Klaris with fortune hunter Madame Rontru and her two henchmen, Bud and Lou (they call themselves by their real names in the movie even though the credits have their characters as Pete Peterson and Freddie Franklin) and the followers of Klaris. This leads to a three mummies (Klaris with Bud and Charlie pretending) and the usually expected wild chase.

DISC TWO:
** The World of Abbott and Costello - What do you do when you no longer have Bud and Lou? Take their old films and splice them together to make a really bad new film.

*** Bud and Lou Meet Jerry Seinfeld - This is a 46 minute TV special that was created to hype Jerry Seinfeld who was at the height of his TV show. This does have some interesting scenes from their TV days.

**** Abbott and Costello Meet the Monsters - A 33 minute featurette that tells about the genesis of the team and their lives at Universal and how A&C Meet Frankenstein was created. This featurette is hosted by David J. Sakal and includes interviews with Lou Costello's daughter. It is a nice overview of the team's career.

This final installment in this series seems more geared towards completists and serious fans instead of new or casual fans. Of the six films included, only half of them are actually A&C movies, all of them from the very end of their movie career (though at least they're of noticeably better quality than a lot of the turkeys on Volume 3). The other three films are documentaries, none of which are particularly ground-breaking; 'The World of A&C' in particular is awful. And though this was originally released as two flipper discs, the set I got had three one-sided discs, a big step up from the earlier problem-plagued double-sided DVDs all of these volumes were put out on. However, the menu on the first two discs hasn't been changed to reflect that, and still gives the impression that it's double-sided, what with asking the viewer to flip the disc over if s/he wants to watch the other film(s).

'A&C Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' (1953) is pretty good, probably the strongest of the three films on here, though it is slowed down a bit by a boring romantic subplot and an even more superfluous subplot about the suffragist movement in late 19th century England. Boris Karloff's Jekyll and Hyde character is also a bit one-dimensional, lacking the depth and emotional compellingness of other film portrayals of this famous dual character. Still, there are a lot of great moments and scenes in here, such as the scene in the wax museum, the search for the monster in the dressing rooms, and the chaos that ensues in both London and the police station when Lou's character (with the rather cringe-worthy name Tubby) turns into the monster at the same time that the real monster is on the loose.

'A&C Meet the Keystone Kops' (1955) is probably the weakest film on here, though I wouldn't go so far as to say it's one of their all-time worst. It feels more like a series of skits than a coherent whole, with each skit woven smoothly into the overall plot. Still, while not as inspired as their earlier classics, there is a lot of fun stuff here, such as the scene in the aeroplane, the scenes on the train, the early scenes where Bud is mistaken for Lou's abusive father, and the chase at the end. This film is also noteworthy because Bud's character was finally funny instead of being purely the straightman. He does a lot more physical comedy here than he ever did before; at least this development was better late than never.

'A&C Meet the Mummy' (1955) is actually pretty good for being their penultimate film, and their final film at Universal. I think it's rather better than its pretty dismal reputation, even though the boys are looking old and tired by this late point. There are a number of great scenes here, such as the hamburger-switching, the "take your pick" routine, and the three mummies running around in the Tomb of Klaris (though the real mummy doesn't look all that convincingly scary, just like someone wrapped in a bunch of bandages). Interestingly, Bud's character is billed as Peter Patterson and Lou's character is billed as Freddie Franklin in the credits, yet they call one another by their real names all throughout the film.

'A&C Meet the Monsters' is a brief mini-documentary a bit over a half-hour long, narrated by David Skal, and focusing on all of the horror spoofs they did in the late Forties and early Fifties. It's interesting enough, but could have been longer and covered more ground. 'A&C Meet Jerry Seinfeld' is the most interesting of the documentaries; it provides clips from their films, their tv show, and various appearances they made on other tv shows, home movies (a number of them in color), and a fair amount of historical background. Seinfeld's love of and enthusiasm for the team is palpable, but never crosses the line into fawning. It's always nice when a documentary is narrated by someone who actually has enthusiasm for the subject(s) instead of by someone who doesn't have much of an opinion one way or the other. Still, there isn't a lot of information here that most fans don't already know. 'The World of A&C' is a terrible clipshow from 1965, with obnoxious unfunny narration by Jack E. Leonard. The clips (from 19 of their films) are shown without rhyme or reason, with no context provided, and aren't even identified until the end credits. They're also not even shown in chronological order, which doesn't allow the viewer to get a sense of how their craft, screen relationship, and characters grew and evolved over time. Besides that, most of the clips are from their later films such as 'Mexican Hayride,' 'Lost in Alaska,' and 'A&C Go to Mars,' which aren't exactly regarded as the cream of the crop. It's inexplicable why their earlier, more representative, films were ignored or given such short schrift. And with no background information provided, just a nonstop stream of clips, the viewer will have no sense of why they were so popular and great.

Overall, while none of these films are really classics, I do think they're better than their reputations. While this isn't a set that's ideal for the new or casual fan, it does have a lot of great moments for the more established fan. It's just too bad it's padded out with three documentaries instead of the rest of their later films that haven't already been released.

Volume 4 chronicles the final films of Abbott & Costello at their home studio, Universal. While the boys put their usual polished verve in these movies, it's hard to ignore the tired, haggard appearance of the team who looked so fresh and bright-eyed a decade earlier. Bud was really showing his age at this time, and baby-faced Lou's apple cheeks began to sag. "A &C Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" isn't a great comedy by any standard, but the combination of the innocent Costello and the menacing Boris Karloff was enough to make the film a surprising hit at the box office back then. "A&C Meet the Keystone Kops" is probably the weakest of the three featured in this volume. It looks and feels second rate (as do many of their 50's features) and the humor is so outdated that it would've been funnier 10 or 20 years earlier. In one scene, when the film projectionist breaks up at the antics of A&C, I wanted to shout, "Now come on--it wasn't THAT funny!" "..Meet the Mummy" is flawed (an out-of-place musical number and some rather mechanical humor and flimsy effects), but it's really not a bad film to exit on. There are some genuinely funny moments, courtesy of (once again) Bud and Lou's comic entanglements with the latest monster. Of the DVD extras, "A&C Meet Jerry Seinfeld" is the most valuable, as it shows rare home movies of Bud and Lou as they really were.
It's just a shame that a deal wasn't struck to include rare treasures as "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "..Meet Captain Kidd" (their only 2 color films) to round out the volume.

The Best of Abbott & Costello, Vol. 4 (Abbott & Costello Meet Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde / Abbott & Costello Meet the Keystone Cops / Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy / Abbott & Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld / Abbott & Costello Meet the Monsters / The World of Abbott & Costello)

Old time favorite Sunday morning TV show can now be viewed anytime. Had children watch the shows and Wow, the belly laughs were happening. Black and white, no foul language or violence and classic era music makes these DVD's a must for family movie night. Got popcorn?

This is a mix of some funny stuff with a few other materials thrown in but not necessarily for good measure. However, that is what the search button on the remote is for. All in all, A&C is classic slapstick...with my favorites being the Jekyl & Hyde and the Mummy sequences. It is something that will give some good laughs to all generations. I wouldn't say this volume is exceptional, but a few selections will give a nice smack on the funny bone.