Abbott and Costello play bumbling window washers who find their lives in peril after being hired by a gangster (Joseph Calleia) to collect a $50,000 gambling debt and manage to lose track of the money. The plot is really an excuse to introduce some of the famous Abbott and Costello comedy routines perfected in vaudeville, burlesque houses and on live radio. Among them are "Bet You Ten Dollars," "Getting Arrested," "Hole in the Wall," "Packing and Unpacking" and, most memorably, "Mudder and Fodder." In addition to the credited cast, the movie has a number of unbilled bits by such veteran comic actors as Elvia Allman, James Flavin, Fred Kelsey, Lyle Latell, Murray Leonard, Paul Maxey, Isabel Randolph, Benny Rubin and Herb Vigran.
Abbott (1896-1974) and Costello (1908-1959), both New Jersey natives, first joined forces in 1931. The tall, slender, stoic Abbott played straight man to the short, chubby, excitable Abbott. Their first big film hit, Buck Privates (1941), grossed $10 million and made them household names. After their last movie as a team, Dance With Me Henry (1956), the pair moved into television but within a year had broken up as a team. The split was not amicable; Abbott was suing Costello for $222,000, which he claimed was owed him from the TV series, at the time of Costello's death.
Producers: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello
Director: Charles Barton
Screenplay: John Grant, Howard Harris, from story by Julian Blaustein, Bernard Feins, Daniel Taradash
Set Decoration: Armor Marlowe
Cinematography: Charles Van Enger
Editing: Harry Reynolds
Original Music: Walter Schumann
Principal Cast: Bud Abbott (Ted Higgins), Lou Costello (Homer Hinchcliffe), Joseph Calleia (Nick Craig), Leon Errol (Julius Caesar McBride), Cathy Downs (Carol Scott), Mike Mazurki (Chuck), Fritz Feld (Psychiatrist).
BW-77m.
By Roger Fristoe
