Deux nigauds dans une île

Until the VHS of Pardon My Sarong was released I had never seen the complete film. When I was a lad and WPIX television in New York City used to show Abbott and Costello films every Sunday morning, the film always began with Costello crashing that bus into the harbor. I used to wonder why as prominent an actor like William Demarest had such a brief part.

So when I was a kid I missed the Ink Spots do a number and I missed cop Bill Demarest get bamboozled by A&C. Both Abbott and Costello disguise themselves as a magician and make Demarest the fall guy for some gags. This might be the only time Abbott was ever a comic in any of their films and he was good.

I guess the Chicago Transit company didn't want to put two buses in jeopardy which was why both boys were on the same bus. Millionaire Yachtsman Robert Paige has some how talked these two into leaving their Michigan Avenue route and driving him and a bevy of beauties to Los Angeles for the start of a boat race.

Of course having lost their jobs as bus drivers with this harebrained move the boys sign on with Paige as a yacht crew along with Virginia Bruce who is the sister of one of Paige's rivals and they get blown off course and wind up on an island Dorothy Lamour would be found on if the film had been made at Paramount.

Don't ask me how, but the natives make Costello some kind of Deity and he gets to be the big man on campus there. Of course we also have resident villain Lionel Atwill looking to loot some treasure.

Like Douglass Dumbrille in a few Abbott and Costello films, Atwill looked like he was having a great old time burlesquing his own sinister image, especially in the chase sequence at the end.

One of the best from Abbott and Costello's early Universal days.

I wanted to see this film because my grandfather acted in it. His name is James Spencer. This film was very fun to see and watch the entertainment of the war years. I specially enjoyed the songs and dancing in this film. There is very little of that kind of entertainment in today's films. A great shame! "The Boys", Lou & Bud, were never better!

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.

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.

PARDON MY SARONG (Universal, 1942), directed by Erle C. Kenton, with original screenplay by True Boardman, stars that wacky comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in one of their wildest romps. For their eighth released comedy, they assume the outrageous names of Algernon "Algy" Shaw (Abbott) and Wellington Phlug (Costello), and roles of a couple of bus drivers taking their Michigan Avenue crosstown bus full of passengers for a long distance ride to California while assisting millionaire playboy, Tommy Layton (Robert Paige) to his forthcoming yacht race on time. The president of the Chicago Municipal Bus Company (Charles Lane) hires Detective Kendall (William Demarest) to track down the bus (Number 5111) and its drivers, and through a warrant, have them placed under arrest. As they drive their bus back to Chicago with Kendall by their side, Algy and Wellington somehow end up on Tommy's yacht where they acquire new jobs as his able bodied seamen. Also on board is stowaway Joan (Virginia Bruce), sister of a rival yachtsman, Roger Marshall (William Cabanne), who purposely forces Tommy's yacht to lose its course, drifting around the ocean with limited food supply before turning up on a South Seas island inhabited with native girls, tribesmen, a native chief (Samuel S. Hinds) and the mysterious archaeologist, Doctor Varnoff (Lionel Atwill - taking time away from horror film roles as 1942's THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET, which, too, took place on an unchartered island) with a hidden short wave radio in his cottage. Things get really hectic (and funnier) after this.

Somewhat inspired by the current trend of Paramount's three "Road to" adventure comedies starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, PARDON MY SARONG's only similarities are its wild antics and constant ad-libs between the two central characters. While Abbott is a far cry as the crooning Bing Crosby-type, they each share their conniving ways of bossing around their unsuspecting lifelong pals. As for Costello, he can be just as funny, when situations allow, than the wisecracking Hope, though both can tend to over emphasize themselves as laugh getters. Unlike Bob and Bing, Bud and Lou don't have any serious-minded straight woman in the tradition of "queen of the sarongs" Dorothy Lamour to fight over, but there's Virginia Bruce as the feuding love interest opposite young yachtsman (Robert Paige). The casting of William Demarest and Lionel Atwill separately matching wits with Abbott and Costello certainly add certain interest to the story, such as it is. Other members of the cast include that of Nan Wynn (Luana); Marie McDonald (Ferna); and Jack LaRue (Tabor).

The screen treatment for PARDON MY SARONG is as contrived as its title, but it does allow for some exceptionally hilarious individual scenes during its madcap course of 83 minutes. Though Abbott and Costello routines tend to repeat themselves from time to time, thus going one better with each passing film, there's some material here that's not only first time enactments, but those never repeated again. Those in general are: "The Baseball Story," which has nothing to do with their legendary "Who's on First" routine, but an original concept where Wellington tells one to con a gas station attendant (Irving Bacon) from paying $12.50 for gassing up his bus; Algy and Wellington disguising themselves as magicians to perform failed magic acts on the detective (Demarest); and the dual's definition for the word "stinker" to the tough native, Whaba (hilariously played by Leif Erickson). Much familiar routines as "Back up, go ahead," the switching duped drinks, and "the tree of truth" are also played out to great advantage for guaranteed laugh assurance. And what Abbott and Costello movie isn't complete without a show-stopping chase. Aside from Costello (in zebra striped shirt) being very much rare form here, the climatic surreal chase involving him and his seal friend, Sharky, is truly one of the great highlights.

In traditional 1940s style, song numbers are incorporated into most comedies such as this. With those composed by Don Raye, Gene DePaul, Milton Drake, Ben Oakland, Stanley Cowan and Bobby North, the musical soundtrack includes "Do I Worry?" (sung by The Four Ink Spots); "Shout, Brother, Shout" (Ink Spots, tap dance by Tip, Tap and Toe); "Lovely Luana," "Oh Great One" "Vingle-Jingle" (sung by Nan Wynn) and "Vingle Jungle" (sung during closing credits). While some sources list the Ink Spots signature number of "If I Didn't Care" as part of the movie, it's not visible in the final print.

As with all Abbott and Costello comedies produced from 1940 to 1956, PARDON MY SARONG was distributed to home video, and later onto the DVD format. Prior to that, it enjoyed frequent revivals on broadcast television, especially on New York City's WPIX, Channel 11, during its Sunday morning/afternoon lineup (1972-1990). Cable TV presentations include The Comedy Channel (1990s); and American Movie Classics (2001). With PARDON MY SARONG having an offbeat moment as Costello's suicide attempt, the movie overall is certainly impossible not to dislike. (***)