Customer Reviews

The Best of Abbott & Costello, Vol. 1 (Buck Privates / Hold That Ghost / In the Navy / Keep 'Em Flying / One Night in the Tropics / Pardon My Sarong / Ride 'Em Cowboy / Who Done It?)

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This is great if you are a fan of Abbott & Costello. I figuered with 2 discs for 8 of their movies it would be poor quality. I was very surprised to see the excellent quality of the movies on these discs. Very Very Good. Worth every penny.

When I was growing up, Sunday morning routine was going to church, then watching Abbott & Costello. I wanted my children to experience this pair, so they could see how funny simple comedy is without the vulgarities or sexual innuendo. They still crack me up, and I was happy to see my kids splitting their sides with laughter, just like I used to do when I was their ages.

This is a great deal, to get 8 movies at this price, so I got all 3 volumes. DVD's work fine. They fit 2 movies on each side, and each movie has Production Notes in the menu, so you get a historical appreciation for each film.

Because the movies are on both sides of the DVD, they can't print anything on either side, so they printed the disc and side information around the little hole in the center of the DVD (it'll have "Disc A, Side 1", for example). Its a little hard to read, so you need to have enough light and hold it close. The information in the box tells you what movies are on which disc and side.

The DVD with "The Naughty Nineties" has the most complete version of "Who's On First", and its so funny, you can hear the studio crew laughing in the background.

For everyone who is satisfied with the comedy that they see today, you havn't seen anything yet! Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were, and are still the undisputed champions of hillarity. There comedy bits they put in there movies are nothing short of brilliant. The best part of their comedy, is that you can watch it with the whole family, from the newborn to grandma, everyone in the family will love these great classics. If you watch Def Comedy Jam, Everybody Loves Raymond, or Friends, then you've seen the Rest, now watch the best!!!
This collection contains 8 films:

ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS,
Their first film, they get caught up in a fony "Love Insurance" scam.

BUCK PRIVATES,
The boys join the army to avoid getting arrested, but their lives get hard when the cop they wanted to avoid becomes their drill sergent.

IN THE NAVY,
A famous hollywood actor joins the navy to get away from all the fame, and becomes friends with the boys in the navy training camp.

HOLD THAT GHOST,
The boys inherit a haunted house, formerly owned by a gangster.

KEEP 'EM FLYING,
The boys join the army air corps, and become mechanics.

RIDE 'EM COWBOY,
The boys must hide out when Lou accedently proposses to an Indian girl.

PARDON MY SARONG,
The boys head to the South Seas, where Lou is mistaken for a native god.

WHO DONE IT?
A Murder happens during a radio program, and the boys to solve the murder themselves, thus making them the prime suspects by the real cops.

Eight Abbott and Costello films for (this price), that is an offer you can't refuse.

I'm not much of an A&C fan, but at this price, how could I go wrong? Five of these eight films I had good memories of, and I could immediately see from the nice restoration of Night In The Tropics that this was going to be a fun set of films. Untill about 45 minutes into it.

From that point forward, the disc was an absolute mess. I read here that one buyer was able to skip over the problem areas. I tried two different machines and could not skip over anything without jumping to the next chapter. Of course, that next chapter had the same problems.

I really can't figure this out. Nice packaging, fine restorations, excellent price. So, why don't they check the product before sending it out to the distributors?!? Seems like a lot of trouble to go to for a product that will be returned to the dealers.

Oh, and I did just that. Exchanged it for a new one. You guessed it. No better.

As stated, I'm not a fan of these two comics, but the work they did has stood the test of time. There is much to be said for that. Clearly, they deserve better treatment than this.

Like many other viewers, the set I purchased had siginificant
defects. Contrary to what one reviewer wrote, it is not a
matter of having "really cheap chintzy DVD players," for I have
a top-line Denon DVD player, rated one of the best on the
market. At least one reviewer wrote that he encountered a
defect, but the copy he received in exchange played with no problems.
So it is a matter of luck whether you get a playable copy or not.
When I returned my copy, I received the following response
from Amazon:

Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com.
As it seems that the problem with this item is more widespread
than we originally thought, we are not able to send a
replacement. We will investigate and remedy the situation
with the item; however, I cannot guarantee when the error may
be fixed.

Eventually I will try again and hope to have better luck, for
the movies themselves are a delight and the transfers are quite
beautiful. It seems a shame that so much work went into making
a beautifully produced set only to be undone by poor quality
control.

I have always been the fan of Abbott and Costello Movies, and this DVD set dos'nt disapoint. The 8 movies are Abbott and Costello's first, from 1940 - 1942. As these movies are made during wartime, theres a little bit of propagander, and a lot of the Andrew Sisters, singing their songs. The humour however is great, just as funny today as it was 50+ years ago, even my brother who has never watched a black and white movie in his life, laughed through them. Only thing that I'm not to keen on about most Abbott and Costello movies,is that it seems like every time a door opens, or they are just sitting around, they all break into song and dance, specially if the Andrew Sisters are in the Movie. If your a Abbott and Costello fan, this DVD set is a must!!! and at this price why wait?

I like many grew up watching Abbott & Costello every Sunday morning and looked forward to recieving the DVD. I only ordered volume one due to other reviews stating the poor quality. I too found the quality to be, lets say, lacking. I thus far have only attempted to watch the first 4 movies, 2 of which, "One night in the Tropics" and "In the Navy" freeze half way through and are unwatchable. I had no problem with "Hold that Ghost", one of my favorites. "Buck Privates" hesitates occasionally but does complete.

This set is just a treasure. There are hardly better value-for-the-dollar dvd releases around: 8 movies, all looking very crisp and clean (considering their age), on two discs. Most of the films have their theatrical trailer included, and all have brief but informative production notes.

Other reviewers have written about technical problems with these discs, but I watched every second of all 8 movies and experienced not one single glitch.

As for the movies themselves, sure they vary in quality somewhat. Abbott and Costello were cranking out movies at such a fast pace, you can't expect every one to be a classic. "A Night in the Tropics" is interesting, because it is their first big-screen movie. It's not hard to see why these guys shot to mega-stardom, as they easily steal the movie. Of the "service" pictures, I personally like "In the Navy" the best, though "Buck Privates" is of course a classic and "Keep 'Em Flying" includes many classic scenes.

My favorite of the 8 included is "Hold That Ghost", which has held up extremely well and remains a hilarious movie after all these decades.

The requisite musical numbers included in all but one of these 8 are, for the most part, dispensable. Not all of them are snooze-inducing: several of the Andrews Sisters numbers are very good (especially Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy) and Ella Fitzgerald has a couple good numbers in "Ride 'em Cowboy". One nice thing about "Hold that Ghost" that contributes to it being my favorite: the musical numbers are reserved only for the very beginning and the very end, nothing to interrupt the hijinks! Also notable, "Who Done It?"- a very funny, if very convoluted, murder mystery- is the only picture on this set that is free of musical numbers.

I grew up watching these movies, often with my dad, in the '80s. As old as they were even then, the comedic brilliance of A&C still worked like a charm. 20 years later, it's great that so many of their films are being anthologized by Universal. I'm looking forward to Vol. 2 and 3.

This boxed set of 8 Abbott and Costello Movies is absolutely the best buy for any A&C fan or future fan regardless whether or not you have these movies already on VHS.
There are 2 double sided gold discs containing the first 8 movies that A&C made and every movie has been superbly remastered by 'deluxe DIGITAL STUDIOS'. The entire collection is crystal clear in both picture and sound.
All movies have english captions for the hearing impaired as well as subtitles in Spanish and French.
There are scene selections, Production notes and trailers included for each movie and the whole collection is attractively packaged.
I watched all 8 movies in one sitting and am about to watch them again because I just cannot get enough of A&C and the feeling that comes over me from being thoroughly entertained by these two brilliant comedians.
The quality of this collection of movies is excellent and an absolute bargain for the price.
If I could rate this product higher than 5 stars I most definitely would.

Sorry guys I am another buyer who got not one defective copy but exchanged three times all defective!! Freezing skipping- I own over 200 DVD's this is the first defective one I've ever run across so in that sense I am lucky.

I skipped over the bad spots and watched the films anyway and they have great quality prints and sound. And I see many reviewers lucked out with good copies so I am ever hopeful round four will go better.

I grew up watching these films on Sunday morning TV and to get EIGHT on one disc is too good to believe. Abbott and Costello were brilliant they stole a lot of jokes from The Three Stooges (word for word at times) but they were still a very original duo.

I bought my defective DVDs from Walmart not Amazon so maybe I am buying the older pressings. Hopefully I will hit one that is good because these guys are worth it and this is quite an extreme deal.