Abbott and Costello Four Pack (2002)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Released by: Good Times.
Rating: NR
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; all content appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Rent it.

Africa Screams

Written by Earl Baldwin, Martin Ragaway, and Leonard Stern
Directed by Charles Barton

Buzz Johnson (Abbott) and Stanley Livingston (Costello) work in a department store and try to pass themselves off as some of the world's leading African safari leaders, when in reality they probably couldn't find Africa on a globe. Unfortunately, there happen to be a couple of diamond thieves nearby who overhear the tales of their bravado and threaten their lives if they don't join an expedition into the heart of Africa to "search for the infamous giant black ape" (when in reality, they're hunting diamonds). Their only hope is that Africa is no match for their comedic timing.

Needless to say, this film is a vehicle for the two stars. However, as usual, they also have along some very unlikely guest stars. For example, Clyde Beatty and Frank Buck, who were two of the biggest of the big game hunters and well known enough to gain themselves a place in this movie. The other name of recognition in this movie is Shemp Howard. You might remember Shemp from his days with the Three Stooges, yes? He is absolutely hilarious in his role as Gunner, the nearly blind trail finder. It is not one of the most remembered of the Abbott and Costello movies, but that certainly doesn't mean it is any less funny. The writing between their comic moments is not great and the actors they hired to pull those scenes off are not that great either, but it just doesn't matter. The movie is all about seeing them make fools of themselves.

Jack and the Beanstalk

Written by Pat Costello and Nathaniel Curtis
Directed by Jean Yarbrough

Mr. Dinkel (Abbott) and Jack (Costello) are hard up for work. In a classic case of being in the right place at the right time, they land a job as babysitters. Jack winds up reading the classic story to one of the children and falling fast asleep...that's when he dreams himself into the story. So...he and his mother live in their cottage alone, but the entire village is living in fear of the big, bad giant. Because of their hardship, they have to sell their cow for money, but Jack gets conned into trading the cow for beans--but these are not just your average, everyday beans. Oh no, these are magic beans which, when planted, grow a beanstalk up to the sky. Jack gets a wild hair up his butt and decides to climb the stalk and get rid of the giant once and for all. This time, Jack takes the greedy butcher, Mr. Dinklepuss (also Abbott--it's the dream, you know) with him and they're off to kill the giant.

Well, Costello is certainly the best choice I can think of to play the idiot boy who climbs the beanstalk. The story is only loosely based on the classic children's story that we all know and love, but the adjustments that are made to adapt it to the Abbott and Costello machine work very well. Here again, the actors they hired to play opposite the two leads are absolutely horrible, but it doesn't matter. They are there just to allow them to be funny around. The songs that are written for the movie to make it feel more like a children's movie are equal parts Rochefort, Limburger, and Sharp Cheddar, but they are mercifully short in length and they don't dominate the film. All in all, you could do a lot worse than this one for any genre of movie. It's just a lot of fun.

Abbott & Costello in the Movies and The Abbott & Costello Show

These DVDs contain a series of clips and trailers from all of the movies and television shows that these two comedic geniuses (genii?) produced together over the years. They are very loosely thrown together montages of these clips that are not narrated by anyone...at all. All you get here is the clips. Now that I've talked about the production values that they used (or didn't) in putting these DVDs together, let me not dismiss the importance of what they actually put on them. What you get are some very rare clips of the two in the movies and on TV that they did over the years, but more importantly, there are some outtakes thrown into the mix. As you well know, I'm a big fan of outtakes on DVD, so this is was really nice to see. What they've done is taken these rare pieces of film footage and preserved them in the DVD format forever. For that reason alone, these DVDs can not be discounted.

Now, about these DVDs. They really don't have anything on them except the primary source material. The menus on the DVDs contain two options: play the movie or select the scenes from it. There is nothing in the way of bonus material at all. You'd wish that had dug up someone who could have done a little talk or featurette about these two who changed the face (and voice) of comedy forever, or maybe even a filmography or some more information about the two--even in text screens, but alas, it was not to be.

Which is why I recommend this DVD set as a rental and not a purchase. The lack of bonus material is simply too much to overlook. However, it is a strong rental because of the historical importance of the material presented.