Comin' Round the Mountain

In my rewatching of the Abbott and Costello series that I loved in my youth, this is by far the worst of the series that I have rewatched. The problem is not in the subject material. The problem is in the script, the execution and the performances. Abbott and Costello have never been more bland and the songs from the Manhatten Hillbilly take up seemingly half of the movie's length. The song about a half an hour in goes on forever. The old granny is fun but isn't allowed to do enough. The "courtship" between Costello and the 14 year old hillbilly girl is ghoulish. Bud Abbott is non-existent and the hillbilly clans do nothing whatsoever. There are a few chuckles and nothing more. The opener and the conclusion are awful. On the bright side, Glenn Strange is great here and Costello's duel with the witch is funny. Costello's "christening" is a gut buster. But that's it. Has a little of the same flavor as The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap but isn't in the same league, much less the same ballpark.

Having just watched Stan Laurel go to a haunted house in order to get his inheritance in The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case, I then felt the need to see Lou Costello also try to get his share in Comin' Round the Mountain. Here, he finds out he's a descendant of "Squeezebox" McCoy and a cousin to singer Dorothy McCoy (Dorothy Shay). Their agent Al (Bud Abbott) agrees to go with them to Dorothy's homestead where we meet her hillbilly family. During this period, Bud & Lou's studio, Universal-International, was also making money with a series of Ma and Pa Kettle movies which also had that down home humor represented here. So, yes, we get treated to a shooting contest, a man's engagement to a young teen girl, and a family feud. As stereotypical as some of the characters are, they seem harmless enough. Among the supporting cast, Joe Sawyer-previously in The Naughty Nineties with A & C-provides some amusement, Glenn Strange-who was the Frankenstein monster in A & C Meet Frankenstein-gets some laughs every time he shouts Costello's character's name "Wilbert!", and Margaret Hamilton-best known as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz-is hilarious every time she and Lou stick pins in each other's voodoo dolls! Oh, and I also liked seeing Lou's brother-in-law Joe Kirk as a hot dog vendor at the county fair trying to sell Costello a hot dog. If you remember Bud & Lou's "Mustard" routine in One Night in the Tropics, you'll get some of Lou's reactions concerning hot dogs and mustard! This was another funny A & C flick especially the surprise ending. So that's a recommendation of Comin' Round the Mountain. So now my next review will be the silent Laurel & Hardy short From Soup to Nuts.

In "Comin' Round the Mountain" a 14-year-old girl (actually the actress who plays her looks about 25, but that's beside the point) has the hots for Lou Costello, and after they both drink a love potion Lou falls in love with her and she gets the hots for Bud Abbott! At another point Lou says "You can't marry a 10-year-old girl...unless you come from these hills". And I thought these films were supposed to be clean, wholesome entertainment!

The comedy never gets beyond the mildly amusing, the portrayal of the "country hicks" is totally stereotypical, and although Dorothy Shay is quite beautiful, her singing takes up too much screen time. The ending (which I won't spoil here) is by far the cleverest part - it has the kind of absurdist inspiration that the film needed more of. (**)

Right off the bat I knew this wouldn't be one of Abbott and Costello's better comedies because the movie starts off with Dorothy Shay singing a novelty song that goes on forever. It wouldn't be the last time either. Shay has four or five songs in this movie! Who's the star here? I watch an Abbott and Costello movie for comedy, not forgettable songs. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a song here or there. But this was too much. It felt like they were more concerned with providing a showcase for Shay than worrying about making a good comedy.

The plot centers on Lou discovering he's related to Dorothy. So Kentucky native Shay accompanies the boys to her home. From here, we get a lot of jokes about hillbillies, feuds, and marrying 14 year-old cousins. I don't mind laughing at these types of jokes when they're clever, but this is all pretty tired. Even the presence of Margaret Hamilton can't save it, although that's the best scene.

Let me say that, while I didn't care much for her songs, Shay does have a likable quality about her and she's a perfectly fine singer. She's not bad to look at, either. Just wish there had been less of her singing her corny songs and more focus on comedy. I don't think I laughed more than once and that was during Hamilton's scene. The whole thing plays like one overlong cartoon. I don't know if it's the worst Abbott and Costello movie, but it's one of them.

COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN (Universal-International, 1951), directed by Charles Lamont, stars the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in another one of their funny outings. Having already appeared in an earlier hillbilly romp titled THE WISTFUL WIDOW OF WAGON GAP (1947) where the strong presence of Marjorie Main assumed the title role, their second and final venture in them thar hills places them in the middle of a hillbilly feud. Dorothy Shay, introduced in the opening credits as "The Park Avenue Hillbilly" makes her first screen appearance here, and last, though it didn't hurt her chances for the duration of her career as both night club and television entertainer.

The fun begins at New York's Club Chez Bleu where Al Stewart (Bud Abbott), a theatrical agent, introduces two of his latest discoveries, Dorothy McCoy (Dorothy Shay), and The Great Wilbert (Lou Costello), an escape artist. While Dorothy's singing style proves popular with the patrons, Wilbert is not so lucky with his Harry Houdini act, unable to break free after being padlocked in chains. A mishap not only sets him free but he and the others fired by the boss. As a mouse has Wilbert belting out a distress yell only known by Dorothy's family back home, she learns Wilbert to be both kin folk and grandson of the late "Squeeze Box" McCoy, leader of the Kentucky clan. With his grand-pappy's photo and concertina proving him to be the sole heir to a fortune, Wilbert and Dorothy venture back to the hills, with Al tagging along for his ten percent commission, to claim the fortune of gold with whereabouts known only by Grandma McCoy (Ida Moore). During the course of the story, the trio find themselves in one misadventure after another, ranging from being caught in the middle of a long running feud between the Winfields and the McCoys, to a turkey shoot at the county fair, and finally a love potion leading to mismatched partnerships. While being constantly menaced by Devil Dan (Glenn Strange), Wilbert tricks a young hillbilly gal named Matt (Shaye Cogan) into giving both he and Al the treasure map to the Lost Springs Mine, which turns out to be in Winfield territory.

Often dismissed as a lesser Abbott and Costello comedy, COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN is redeemed by Costello's magic show performance; the presence of Margaret Hamilton as the bewitching old hag who sticks Costello for the money owed her for love potion jug by holding a voodoo doll looking very much like Wilbert; and Glenn Strange (The Monster in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN) playing the nitwit menace constantly yelling out Wilbert's name in a strong hoarse voice which, on a personal level, gets funnier each time he does it; and the climatic chase leading to the buried treasure. Hamilton, best known in her long screen career as the Wicked Witch of the West in THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939), is somewhat of a Hollywood in-joke here. Her role leaves one guessing (Wilbert, too) whether she's a witch or not. Her few minutes of glory with Bud and Lou, especially Lou, makes up for the weakness in the story. This witch-voodoo sequence is clipped as one of the highlights to the documentary titled THE WORLD OF ABBOTT AND COSTELLO (1965), with the narration of Jack E. Leonard that can be a bit annoying. Among the many classic Abbott and Costello exchanges, the "You're forty, she's ten" routine where Wilbert finds himself engaged to a teenage mountain girl sure fits the bill.

Setbacks for many happen are the handful of songs interludes provided by Dorothy Shay, including "Agnes Wink," "Why Doesn't Someone Marry Mary Ann," "Sagebrush Sadie," "You Broke Your Promise" (actually the film's best song) and "Another Noth on Father's Shotgun." Also in the cast are Kirby Grant in straw hat playing Clark Winfield; Joseph Sawyer as Kalem, leader of the clan; Guy Wilkerson as the long bearded Uncle Clem McCoy; and Virgil Taylor as the dim-witted Jasper Winfield. Ida Moore makes an ideal Granny (don't ever call her an "old woman"), a forerunner to Irene Ryan's characterization in the popular TV series of "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962-1971).

Aside the fact that the title had been used previously in a 1936 Gene Autry western for Republic Pictures and again for a 1940 Paramount comedy starring Bob Burns and Una Merkel, that featured for the first time radio's Harold Peary as The Great Gildersleeve, COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN starring Abbott and Costello remains the better known of the three. As much as hillbilly comedies where mountain people caricatures with silly developments being a matter of taste, COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN is good enough to be seen and believed either on VHS or DVD format.(**)