Who Done It?

Abbott and Costello made their feature film debut in 1940, playing second fiddle to stars Nancy Kelly and Robert Cummings in One Night in the Tropics. The following year, they starred in their own vehicle, Buck Privates, which was so successful that the team made three more films that year. They ranked third at the box office. By starring in three successful films in 1942, Ride 'Em, Cowboy, Pardon My Sarong, and Who Done It?, they elevated their box office ranking to number one. Abbott and Costello would make the list of top-ten box-office stars for eight of their 15 years at Universal. Released on November 6, 1942, Who Done It? rounded out Abbott and Costello's career-making year. In this spoof of murder mysteries, Bud Abbott stars as Chick Larkin and Lou Costello is Mervyn Milgrim, two aspiring radio writers who get pulled into a real murder case when the director of a radio station is killed during a broadcast of "Murder at Midnight." Helping to solve the case is program producer Jane Little, played by Louise Allbritton, and Jimmy Turner, played by Patric Knowles; Jane and Jimmy's romance simmers among the murder clues. Mary Wickes appears in a handful of scenes as a secretary who verbally spars with Costello. As a vehicle written especially for them, Who Done It? spotlights Abbott and Costello's trademark rapid-fire verbal patter and knockabout physical humor. The team had honed their craft in burlesque, rather than vaudeville where many of Hollywood's other musical and comedy performers had gotten their starts. William Alexander Abbott (Bud) first appeared as a straight man in a burlesque show in 1923, while Louis Francis Cristillo (Lou Costello) joined the circuit as a comic four years later. Both quickly learned the standard comedy routines that were part of burlesque at the time. The stock routines allowed comics to work interchangeably with any number of partners as need arose. Before television or radio, which disseminated comic material on a large scale, comedy routines were standardized, and many individual comics and teams performed the same material. Abbott and Costello worked together occasionally during the 1930s but did not officially team up till 1936. They adopted personas familiar to burlesque audiences at the time: Straight man Abbott was the fast-talking schemer who would verbally badger his sidekick, Costello, who was the child-like patsy perpetually duped by the world. They perfected burlesque routines that depended on animated exchanges and colorful miscommunications delivered with exquisite timing. When the team moved to Hollywood to star in movie vehicles tailored to their talents, they brought their finely tuned routines with them, in effect preserving them for posterity. In Who Done It?, they performed "Watts and Volts," a sketch involving verbal miscommunication reminiscent of "Who's on First?" Chick tries to explain electricity to Mervyn, noting that "volts are watts." The confused Mervyn asks, "What's volts?" to which Chick replies, "Exactly." The routine concludes with a nod toward "Who's on First?" when Mervyn tells Chick, "Next thing you know, you'll be telling me watts on second base." "Watts and Volts" was not actually in the script. Abbot and Costello inserted the routine into a designated scene, performing it from memory. They knew the routine so well that it was shot in a single take. Abbott and Costello adlibbed several routines and lines throughout the film, though sometimes their efforts interfered with the slim plot line. In a scene in which Mervyn tries to woo Mary Wickes's character, Juliet, their dialogue was supposed to advance the story while comically referencing lines from Romeo and Juliet. But, the dialogue spoken by Costello and Wickes must have been dubbed over later, because the movements of Wickes's mouth do not match the lines heard onscreen, and their exchange is surprisingly low on laughs. Other burlesque routines in Who Done It? include "Limburger," which makes use of pantomime and props. In the opening sequence, Chick and Mervyn are working as soda jerks at the station's lunch counter. A customer orders a limburger cheese sandwich, but the cheese is so malodorous that Mervyn can't force himself to fulfill the order. He finally delivers the sandwich wearing a gas mask. When Chick pulls the mask off his face, Mervyn has a clothes pin on his nose for good measure. Abbott and Costello's working methods may have suited the immediacy of the burlesque stage, but they were not always compatible with the rigors of movie-making. The team ad libbed lines and inserted established routines into the existing material wherever they felt it might work, usually without consulting the writer or director. Costello disliked doing more than one take and often insisted the camera continue to roll from one scene to the next, rather than to stop and assess the suitability of a finished take. Subsequently, the pair did not always get along with their costars or the creative team. Patric Knowles did not want to appear in Who Done It?, because Abbott and Costello had been in burlesque. He feared it would lower his cachet as an established actor. Erle C. Kenyon, a veteran of American comedy who began his career as a performer for Mack Sennett's Keystone Studio, directed five films with Abbott and Costello. According to Chris Costello in her biography of her father, Kenyon and Lou were not on good terms during the production of Who Done It?, because neither Costello nor Abbott would not listen to Kenyon's instructions. Likewise, Costello and producer Alex Gottlieb did not see eye to eye over working methods. Gottlieb considered the comic's attitude toward work to be too informal, even lax. His frustrations over the Abbott and Costello film series led the producer to quit Universal the following year. If 1942 was a career highlight, the following year proved to be profoundly unlucky, especially for Costello. In March 1943, he fell ill with rheumatic fever, which confined him to bed for several months. Upon recovery, he and Abbott decided to make their return to the spotlight on their radio program, The Abbott and Costello Show. During the final rehearsal on the day of the show, Costello received word that his son, Lou Costello, Jr., drowned in the family pool. He was forever changed by both events: He never got over the death of his one-year-old son, and he suffered permanent damage to his heart from the rheumatic fever. In a way, both events broke his heart. by Susan Doll Producer: Alex Gottlieb Director: Erle C. Kenton Screenplay: Stanley Roberts, Edmund Joseph, and John Grant Cinematography: Charles Van Enger Editor: Arthur Hilton and Philip Cahn Art Direction: Jack Otterson Music: Charles Previn and Frank Skinner Costume: Vera West Cast: Chick Larkin (Bud Abbott), Mervyn Milgrim (Lou Costello), Jimmy Turner (Patric Knowles), Lieutenant Moran (William Gargan), Jane Little (Louise Allbritton), Colonel J.R. Andrews (Thomas Gomez), Brannigan (William Bendix), Art Fraser (Don Porter), Marco Heller (Jerome Cowan), Juliet Collins (Mary Wickes), Dr. Anton Marek (Ludwig Stossel), Jenkins (Edmund MacDonald) BW-77m.