Abbott y Costello en la legión extranjera

Okayish piece of nonsense wherein Bud and Lou are on the case of a wrestler in Algiers. Not their greatest work (or their worst). Some laughs, some groans but hey, did anyone ever have the pathos of poor old Lou?

Some funny stuff when the dynamicless duo are lost in the desert. Few cornball gags and some really really crappy production effects. It was obviously shot principally in a studio and it shows!

Next please!

Slight Abbott and Costello comedy has them playing wrestling promoters whose star attraction has quit and gone home to Algiers. The duo follow after him and are tricked into joining the Foreign Legion. This is not one of the boys' better efforts but it's still a decent way to pass the time. Most of the gags are pretty stale but I did laugh here and there. Walter Slezak and Douglas Dumbrille are good heavies but the script doesn't give them a lot to do. Patricia Medina looks like a Hedy Lamarr clone. Wrestlers Wee Willie Davis and Tor Johnson are fun to see. The wrestling gags are some of the movie's best. Maybe Bud and Lou should have made a wrestling movie instead and forgotten all this Foreign Legion stuff. Like I said, not their funniest but enjoyable enough to pass the time.

Two wrestling promoters from Brooklyn go to Algeria, after their main wrestler quits. They want to convince him to get back in order to avoid paying back the money. The duo gets attacked by Arabs after being mistaken to be spies, leading to them getting tricked into joining the Foreign Legion, to serve for 5 years. As they struggle with their training and Arabs still seeking to kill them, the duo need to team up with a gorgeous spy and find their wrestler, to escape. The humorous situations they create during these shenanigans forms rest of the story.

The comedy lines were pretty dated, some clicked and most didn't. What worked however is Lou Costello's physical comedy. Though the humor itself was not hilarious with Bud Abbott taking the backseat a bit more than usual, letting Lou Costello to drive the film, there were scenes especially the mirage one that delivered. Patricia Medina looked gorgeous throughout and her scenes with Lou got me to chuckle a couple of times. The ending jeep chase however was too generic and barely serviceable.

In Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion, Bud and Lou head to Algieria to find a wrestler named Abdullah who left them high and dry and owing a mobster quite a bit of money. Once there, the boys get mixed up with Sheik Hamud El Khalid (Douglas Dumbrille) and draw his ire at a slave auction. In their attempt to escape, Bud and Lou inadvertently sign-up for the French Foreign Legion. Things only get worse when they learn that their Sergeant is in cahoots with the Sheik. Now how are they going to get back to Brooklyn?

As a general rule, I'm a fan of A&C. Some of their movies (like Who Done It?, Hold that Ghost, and A&C Meet Frankenstein) I consider to be true classics. Unfortunately, by the time the boys made A&C in the Foreign Legion, much of their comedy had started to get tired and old. The movie has a "been there, done that" feel to a lot of it. For example, the "Oui vs. We" bit reminds me of several of A&C's more classic routines. Or take a look at the scene with the fish and the false teeth. To me, it shows how desperate the boys were. It's completely ridiculous and not in the least bit funny. A solid cast, however, almost makes this movie worthwhile. Douglas Dumbrille and Patricia Medina are a lot of fun. However, even though I think Dumbrille makes for a perfect villain, he's about as Algerian as I am (which is none).

Finally, one thing I really enjoyed about A&C in the Foreign Legion was the chance to see some classic, old-school wrestlers. Wee Willie Davis vs. Tor Johnson! How cool is that?

"Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion" never quite manages to approach the level of "brilliant", but at least it manages to stay fairly consistently on the level of "mildly funny". The best bits include the opening sequence (kind of surprising to see a 1950 movie so openly admitting that pro-wrestling is scripted), the mirages in the desert, and the "Oui" - "We" puns (the French lady: "O-U-I means Yes". Lou: "What does I-O-U mean? No?"). And, thankfully, there are no unnecessary songs to bog down the action. I would describe the film as a pleasant time-passer, but there is one troubling aspect: too many people (Legionnaires as well as Arabs) get killed - not graphically, of course, and mostly off-screen, but still....(**1/2)