Product Details

• Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Alan Curtis, Rita Johnson, Henry Travers
• Directors: Jean Yarbrough
• Writers: Edmund L. Hartmann, John Grant, Edmund Joseph, Felix Adler, Hal Fimberg
• Producers: Edmund L. Hartmann, John Grant
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: March 7, 2000
• Run Time: 76 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0783240554
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #201,573 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

In this zany musical comedy, Bud plays a ham actor and Lou, his dimwitted assistant on the Mississippi showboat, the River Queen. When the boat docks in St. Louis, Bud and Lou try to rescue Captain Sam from a poker game with three card sharks, but they are too late. The gamblers win a controlling interest in the River Queen and-to Captain Sam's dismay-set up a crooked casino operation on board. Before ridding the showboat of the villains, Abbott and Costello perform several of their most famous bits, including the complete rendition of their hysterical "Who's on First?" routine, which has become one of the most popular comedy moments ever captured on film.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ONE THE TEAM'S BEST FEATURES., September 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Abbott & Costello: Naughty Nineties [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The comedy duo's first costume picture. The boys play "DEXTER BROADHURST" and "SEBASTIAN DINWIDDLE" an actor and stagehand on a river boat. The film has the boys trying to save not only the boat's captain,but the boat itself, from gamblers who have taking it over. The film is filled with clever sight gags and many funny highlights, one of which is the climatic chase scene of the deck of the riverboat. [NOTE: This film features the team's signature routine - "WHO'S ON FIRST". The film for which to difficult for director Yarborough to shoot because the ENTIRE stage crew COULD NOT keep from laughing out loud]

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of All Abbott & Costello Movies., April 21, 2000

By 

"hedeschance" (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abbott & Costello: Naughty Nineties [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The Naughty Nineties, has the boys playing an actor(Abbott) and his assisstant(Costello) aboard a river boat.When the Captain gets in trouble with gangsters, the guys come to the rescue. Includes the entire "Who's on first" routine and the "Lower singing" routine.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Abbott & Costello's best version of "Who's On First?", June 24, 2001

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Abbott & Costello: Naughty Nineties [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The showboat "River Queen" visits the Mississippi river town of Ironville with Bud Abbott as Dexter, the lead actor, and Lou Costello as Sebastian, the chief roustabout. Despite the protests of the boys and his beautiful daughter Caroline (Lois Collier), Captain Sam (Henry Travers) allows three unscrupulous characters to come on board: the gambler Crawford (Alan Curtis), his girl friend Bontia (Rita Johnson), and their bodyguard Bailey (Joe Sawyer). The three are fleeing from the local sheriff and when they arrive in St. Louis they get Captain Sam drunk at the Gilded Cage gambling house and win controlling interest of his boat in a crooked card game. Looks like it is up to Dexter and Sebastian to save the day in typical Abbott & Costello style.

The chief charm of this film is that it includes my favorite version of Abbott & Costello's celebrated "Who's On First?" routine, which Bud wearing that St. Louis Wolves uniform. Most of the other gags in this film are retreads, such as the "Mirror Scene" made famous by the Marx Brothers in "Duck Soup" (but traced back to Max Linder's 1927 film "Seven Years" if you must know), although they can still make you laugh, as when Sebastian sings "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" and mistakes Dexter's orders for raising and lowering the curtain to be instructions on what type of voice to use singing the song. But you cannot get better than "Who's on First?" The boys kept it fresh by always adding some new twist every time they performed it and because they never memorized the skit; they just tried to catch each other making a mistake. This is the version that Ken Burns used in his celebrated "Baseball" documentary. The rest of the movie is just not up to the standard set by this classic comedy routine. It is not surprising to learn that "The Naughty Nineties" was filed on the riverboat set left over from "Showboat." This 1945 film was directed by Jean Yarbrough.