Dos caraduras con suerte

Abbott and Costello play bus drivers who steal their company's bus to chauffeur playboy Robert Paige and his lady friends around. Detective William Demarest chases after them. Through a series of events Bud, Lou, Paige, and Virginia Bruce wind up on a tropical island where Lionel Atwill is up to no good. Among the island natives are Leif Erickson (!) and Samuel S. Hinds (!!), as well as gorgeous Nan Wynn. She sings a couple of nice songs and there's also some great musical numbers from the Ink Spots and Tip, Tap, Toe. Romantic subplot with Paige and Bruce is one of those tired old "she hates him but she really likes him" things. It's putrid and the worst part of the movie. Virginia's nice to look at, though. The comedy is good, with Abbott & Costello getting to do some funny bits with William Demarest in the first half. Once it moves to the island Bud kind of fades into the background and it's Lou's show from then on. This is a pretty good A&C movie. Not their funniest but funny enough with some nice music and a good supporting cast to help out. It's completely impossible for any movie with both William Demarest and Lionel Atwill in it to be bad.

I've seen Pardon My Sarong over 10 times now and have to consider it one of Bud & Lou's best films, up there with Ride 'em cowboy, Meets Frankenstein, Hold that ghost etc. PMS is more distinctly episodic than most of their others and would present a Plot Coherency Issue with impatient first-comers, but if got through a sparkling atmospheric musical comedy lies within. The early '40's Universal Harmless Escapist Entertainment atmosphere helps a lot though, this must have been made straight after Hellzapoppin - wasn't that front porch outside the maggickan's cabaret show where Hugh Herbert's Eat At Joe's dickie blew up?

The boys are illicitly taking Robert Paige's entertainment troupe from Chicago to LA in a bus - all those women in tow and he falls for one who is out to nobble him. Tip, Tap & Toe provide some amazing dance scenes (not quite a rhythmic brainstorm though), alongside the lilting Ink Spots. Detective William Demarest briefly tries to stop them but gives up the chase when they and the plot veer toward a South Seas island. Here "Lovely Luana" & "Vingo Jingo" are put over by a gorgeous Nan Wynn, while Leif Erickson plays a stinker and Lionel Atwill as usual plays a baddie because he was one.

There's plenty of nicely contrived snappy routines for us aficionados: The old baseball story; Hiding from Demarest; "Back up! Go ahead!"; Sharing a pea for dinner etc. Not a lot for non-fans however - I think a better introduction to A&C for anyone interested would be Meets Frankenstein or maybe Time of their lives. And this one is definitely best watched sober!

This is a classic of its sort, and well-remembered. What the viewer needs to know about all comedy-duo films is that they are screwball sub-genre works. In order for a comedic team to be effective in any narrative, one of them or the other has to be behaving not normally but 'normatively'--in the way a normative human should act, at any given time... If both act out-of--character for an adult, the result will be unsustainable parody. This is my favorite Abbot and Costello feature as a writer because, for once the writers, including True Boardman, Nat Perrin and John Grant gave the team a good storyline about whose solid core they can construct their funny routines. The film is a revue with an excuse or a musical played for comedy; or it is a farce with music and comedy; but note that the pace is more leisurely than one would see today, yet the purpose of the film remains clear--to entertain. The entire story-line also is a satirical look at the white-god-in-Polynesia storyline; the "god" here is short, cherubic and gormless Lou Costello. The story begins with two lower-class types in early wartime needing to make off with a city bus, then stowing away on a chartered yacht, and ending up with the others aboard on a uncharted island. Never mind why this is necessary; without all three gimmicks, they would still be on mean streets somewhere scrabbling for dimes. The musical comedy that follows is fantasy, corn, maltreatment of Costello by Abbott, sight-gags, run-ins with beautiful girls, teasing the local bully, a villain nicely-played for laughs, and interactions with the other passengers including a pair of intelligent young-lovers-in-the-making. The plot concerns Costello ending by saving the sacred ruby of Mantua from the bad guys, plus some famous songs, hilarious comedy routines, tap dancing numbers, one very sexy dance number, and Costello's attempts not to be done in by the criminals. "Vingo Jingo" is wonderful, "Lovely Luana" and "Island of the Moon" are well-staged. And much more about this charmingly-photographed film entertains; it was never intended to be taken seriously, but it was intended to take up an hour and a half of escape from WWII--which it is what it still provides, regardless of what one is trying not to notice for a while. The film has many pretty girls, good actors and a variety of visual and musical treats. The production is first-rate by anyone's standards; it was expensive and looks it. Gowns by Vera West, Milton Krasner as cinematographer, art direction by Jack Otterson, set decoration by Russell A. Gausman, and music (both original by Frank Skinner plus new songs and songs that are known) make it a feast for the eye and the ear alike. in my opinion Director Erle C. Kenton also had a good cast to work with. In addition to the comedy leads in top form--they always looked better outdoors--the cast boasts Robert Paige and Virginia Bruce, Lionel Atwill as the villain, William Demarest, Nan Wynn, Leif Ericson extremely funny as the local bully, Samuel S. Hinds, Marie McDonald, Elaine Morey, The Ink Spots, Sig Arno, the dance team of Tip, Tap and Toe, George Chandler and others. This is a very-often-imitated film, and one rediscovered whenever it is shown on television by those unused to an era of professional entertainment; it is perhaps likely to delight anyone who simply starts watching it and finds out how much innocent fun a screwball comedy-musical can be, when set where the sarong is the customary mode of dress.

People who weren't around in 1942 - as I was - will not appreciate that, although we all loved Bud and Lou, in this fast moving wacky comedy, Forties cinema-goers worldwide wanted bags of *jazzy* Swing Music to help it along...hence the glut of songs and production numbers.

For today's latter-day critics who would seem to be complaining about *too many musical numbers* in this talkie, I would ask you to understand that - at this time - nearly every studio was working overtime to make just such musical films, and indeed it was as if the public's appetite for these lovely melodious lyrics, and catchy rhythmic tunes, could never be satisfied.

So, watch it again, and don't worry about the music: that's what made the world go round in those happier, less smart-assed, less cool and less funky days...days, when *pop* music was there to entertain and unite everyone in the entire family, as opposed to using it as a device to exclude all but one isolated age group, to the detriment of the rest, as would seem to appertain today.

Having returned to Universal following MGM's somewhat disappointing "Rio Rita," Abbott and Costello get back on track with "Pardon My Sarong," sort of their version of the Hope-Crosby "Road" pictures.

A&C play Chicago bus drivers, who through a series of funny machinations, end up on a tropic isle with evil Lionel Atwill. There are many funny moments both at sea and on the island.

If there are people who don't like Abbott and Costello, it is probably because they don't like Abbott's often callous treatment of Costello. While this is part of their characterizations, and is often funny, the screenwriters went admittedly overboard in "Sarong." While Virginia Bruce does stand up to Abbott on Costello's behalf several times, one tasteless gag includes Abbott matter-of-factly giving Costello a gun to shoot himself! Such gags have limited the duo's appeal over time, but if looked upon broadly, "Sarong" is a funny film and shows A&C at their peak, which ran roughly from 1941 to 1945. 7 out of 10.