Deux nigauds en Alaska

Abbott and Costello's 50s offerings do nothing other than make you hanker for the halcyon days of the 40s where their best efforts are to be found. Sure there are a couple of decent films in the 50s such as Meet Jekyll/Hyde & The Mummy, but in the main you sense the boys are tired, you sense that the once glowing genius is a shadow of its former self, we sense right because it's true, never more so proved than with this barely average piece.

There are a couple of decent scenes in here, and sure enough the pratfalling antics off Costello will raise a smile, but the writing doesn't give them much to work with, the co stars are suitably bored with the plot, and the biggest crime of all is that we don't get a remotely mirthful ending to save the picture.

5/10 out of loyalty to a couple of comic geniuses going thru the motions, oh and a crab that stole the film.

Abbott & Costello play Tom Watson & George Bell, two volunteer firemen in 1890's San Francisco who rescue a suicidal gold prospector('Nugget' Joe McDermott, played by Tom Ewell) from drowning. Unfortunately, they are then mistakenly believed to have been his murderers, so accompany him back to Alaska in search of his gold, and his girl. Upon arrival, they are dismayed to learn that everyone wants Joe dead, and so end up in the tundra, where they try to survive assassins and the elements... Another weak comedy from the team has a few good comedic bits scattered about, but otherwise is not that funny, with awful songs and indifferent handling. Nothing golden here.

I saw that one reviewer felt like the studio and Abbott and Costello just didn't care when they made this film and I am inclined to agree. The problem is that the film was painfully unfunny--and had one of the limpest endings I've ever seen. Maybe I was expecting too much, but a comedy should make you laugh and be entertaining.

In the only funny moments in the film, Bud and Lou rescue a man who is bent on killing himself (Tom Ewell). It seems that his lady love has rejected him and so he has no reason to live. In addition, when Bud and Lou take this guy back to Alaska, everyone seems to be trying to kill their new friend to get his gold. This humor was pretty dark and I liked it, but it really didn't go far enough and probably wouldn't appeal to most people. Sadly, however, this is about as funny as it got. Once the plot was established, too much time was spent running about an obvious fake set in obviously fake snow doing things that, frankly, make no sense and weren't funny. Fake looking crabs, a guy in a polar bear suit and the like made this a film where it was obvious that no one particularly cared if any of this mess makes sense. To make things worse, the ending is just horrible--unfunny, illogical and unsatisfying.

While this is not the worst Abbott and Costello film, it is close. You can do better.

Bud&Lou were up to their foreheads in work in 1952,with their television show and making color films JACK AND T He BEANNTALK and ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD under separate contract with Warner Brothers. Home studio Universal got the short end of the stick. If the film looks like it was dashed off in a hurry,it probably was. You can mildly understand why t he NY TIMES TV PAGE once reviewed it with "Lost is right".

But the freespirited attitude is al ittle catching---you can imagine thAt larGE portioNS of it were ad-libbed--especially the finale' where the boys throw every random object they can find at the bad guys. Also some fun with harridan landlady Minerva Urecal(the poor man's Margaret Hamilton). She threatens to get the cops and have them evicted. Abbott says-"Oh,it's much too cold for you to be flying around on a broom!" Luckily for Bud,she misses the joke.

Known pretty much everywhere outside the US as ABBOTT AND COSTELLO LOST IN ALASKA this just never gels. Sub-standard, both from a comedic viewpoint and in production values. The boys never look comfortable.

Flimsy tale of a couple of New York firemen in the late 1890's who inadvertently "rescue" a suicidal prospector and through circumstance, find themselves heading back to Alaska with him, when they have a more pressing need to get back to San Francisco, to allay suspicions that they have actually murdered him.

For the most part, it just AIN'T funny. No more so than the strained and diabolically stupid ending. Really, for non-thinking A & C diehards!