Here Come the Co-eds

Bud and Lou are hapless dance escorts who get fired from their jobs and wind up working as janitors at an all-girl college. Their grumpy supervisor is none other than rough and ready Lon Chaney (THE WOLF MAN). After a series of funny events, the topper comes when Costello has to save the day playing for the girl's basketball team, to win money and save the school.

HERE COME THE CO-EDS is really a pretty good comedy from the team at this mid-point in their careers. It's fun to see Lon Chaney joining in the antics with A&C (Lon would later re-join the duo to reprise his role of the Wolf Man in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN), and pretty Martha O'Driscoll is easy on the eyes as the model who gains enrollment at the college. Some of the film's assets are a generous amount of humorous sequences that make it worth the effort: Lou eats Oyster Stew with a live oyster; the boys engage in a funny kitchen clean-up; Costello wrestles the Masked Marvel; Bud keeps interrupting Lou while he tries to tell his joke about Jonah and the Whale, and Lou swallows a pair of dice so Bud and Chaney have to toss him around in order to gamble.

It's almost sad to have to say it, but here again there are far too many musical interludes that pop up throughout the course of the good time, and these often bring the gags to a screeching halt. Some tunes are lightweight fluff, though a couple are downright excruciating (like the two violin solos). If not for these breaks, I would rate the movie a bit higher. If you're looking for an entertaining Abbott and Costello film to laugh with, give this one a try. Skip over the musical numbers if you must, but give the comedy a chance. **1/2 out of ****

Here Come The Co-Eds is a film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It's directed by Jean Yarbrough and acting support comes from Peggy Ryan, Martha O'Driscoll, June Vincent, Lon Chaney Jr. & Donald Cook. Plot finds the bumbling duo at Bixby College for young ladies, where they get involved in numerous escapades in trying to save the school from closure.

Easily one of Abbott and Costello's best film's, Here Come the Co-Eds finds the boys hitting the high laugh standards they set themselves at their peak. Even the familiar routines are given new life as they seem to respond well to Yarbrough's smooth direction. Top moments are a glue based kitchen sequence, a wrestling match, a basketball game and an excellent boat (on the road) chase finale. Film is boosted considerably by the presence of Phil Spitalny's all-girl 'Hour of Charm' orchestra and the sprightly Peggy Ryan. The latter of which helps provide a show stopper of a tap routine at the basketball match.

Tomfoolery unbound, and with a good production value to boot, this is classic A&C and prescribed to lift the blues. 8/10

With "Here Come The Co-eds," Abbott & Costello have their funniest film since 1942's "Who Done It." The duo seems more energetic in their performance, and the storyline (two ballroom dancers who find themselves as caretakers at an all-girls college) suits them well.

The "Jonah" routine shines here, and the comic timing the duo display is exquisite. Costello shows his basketball prowess during the climactic basketball game. Also a plus -- a decent supporting cast featuring Peggy Ryan ("She's cuuuuute!") and Lon Chaney Jr. as the deliciously evil head caretaker.

The movie avoids heavy and sluggish moments and is paced well, although one could still due without the music filler. All in all though, a solid effort with solid laughs. 8 out of 10.

1945's "Here Come the Co-eds" was the last great Abbott and Costello picture until at least 1947's "The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap," pairing Lou with the pretty and vivacious Peggy Ryan, already a veteran of a dozen films opposite regular musical co-star Donald O'Connor. Like The Marx Brothers, A & C were at their best in surroundings where they didn't belong, and working as caretakers at an all-girl college would be a dream job for any romantic fool. As Patty Gayle, perky Peggy Ryan shines as Costello's love interest, doing a charming song and dance called 'Let's Play House,' each in turn lascivious or childlike, Lou even prefacing the number by remarking, "I feel just like Donald O'Connor!" as Peggy smiles knowingly. Another rarity is giving Bud Abbott a sister in Martha O'Driscoll's Molly (despite the 27 year age difference!), who earns a scholarship to Bixby College, greatly improving their basketball team. The climactic game between Bixby and Carlisle gives Costello the opportunity to show why he used to be free throw champion of Paterson, New Jersey, making all the actual shots without missing, except for the final trick shot that bounces from one basket to the other (11 years later, he showed he still had it, effortlessly sinking a free throw for 'The Armory Five' on THIS IS YOUR LIFE). Three years before "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," Lon Chaney first encounters the team as the conniving caretaker, 'Strangler' Johnson, his best scene after Costello swallows his dice, making bets with Abbott by checking Lou through a fluoroscope! There's a comic wrestling match between Lou and Lon (the latter disguised as 'The Masked Marvel'), and one with Lou trying to eat oyster stew as its live occupant refuses to cooperate (revised for a frog in "The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap," then disguised as whale meat in "Lost in Alaska"). Lon Chaney worked with Martha O'Driscoll in several pictures ("Crazy House," "Follow the Boys," "Ghost Catchers," "The Daltons Ride Again" and "House of Dracula"), while reuniting with Peggy Ryan in her penultimate film, 1949's "There's a Girl in My Heart," featuring several other former Universal players- Lee Bowman ("Buck Privates"), Gloria Jean ("Never Give a Sucker an Even Break"), and Elyse Knox ("Hit the Ice," "The Mummy's Tomb").

The main attraction in Here Come the Coeds is seeing Lou Costello in drag during a girl's college basketball game. One of the players is injured and he substitutes. When he's conked on the head he develops amnesia and then Abbott and Peggy Ryan tell him he's Daisy Dimple the world's greatest female basketball player and he proceeds to act the part.

Some here have said that Costello was hardly convincing in drag. But I have to say I've seen drag performers a whole lot worse.

Abbott and Costello are paid dancing escorts at a dime a dance palace. Why anyone would pay to dance with Costello is anyone's guess. But they get fired and land jobs at a girl's college where Abbott's sister, June Vincent, enrolls due to a publicity gimmick Abbott thought up.

There was some other comment that this was the only time any female, Peggy Ryan, showed an interest romantically in Lou. Not true at all. In previous films Martha Raye and Joan Davis did. But this was the only film Costello got to do a song and dance with a female partner. He did do an outrageous waltz with Joan Davis in Hold That Ghost, but there was no singing.

Peggy Ryan was doing a whole lot of musicals with Donald O'Connor at the time at Universal. She had a nice fresh appeal and partnered well with O'Connor. Working with Costello must have been something different.

Donald Cook as the Dean of Students is paired with June Vincent. As they are a pretty sappy pair fortunately there's not much film wasted on them. Charles Dingle as the head of the board of trustees fares much better. He's his usual pompous stuffed shirt, a part he played like no one else in film history. I wish they'd given him some comedy bits with the boys.

Lon Chaney, Jr. plays the head caretaker and the nemesis of the boys. He gets right in with the comedy and serves as a great foil for Costello, especially in the wrestling match sequence. It's a ripoff of what they'd done in Buck Privates in a boxing match, but who cares, it's still a very funny sequence.

I saw just about all of Abbott and Costello's films as a lad. WPIX television in New York used to run them constantly on Sunday morning. For some reason Here Come the Coeds wasn't among them, I only got to see it a few years ago. But it was worth the wait.