Deux nigauds en Afrique

Understand, I like Abbott and Costello films. Their two top films (...Meet Frankenstein and The Time of Their Lives) are comedic classics. This, alas, is a minor effort, though other movie comics appear in it.

Possible spoilers in the following.

The film takes a simple story and adds some comedic routines that could be applied to any equivalent film. Costello reacting to animal 'menaces" is usually good, and he's at prime form in this film. However, even in the most comedic situations, I'd have thought that even Lou's character would have noticed all the help he was getting from the gorilla.

In the beginning of the film, the cover story is that an expedition is set up to go to Africa to hunt a legendary ape, Orang-Utan Gigantis. That translates to "great big Orang-Utan." But Orang-Utans aren't found in Africa! The chief of the cannibals mumbles some words, one of which is "ungawa," a Swahili word that means either "beat it," or "let's get moving," depending on context, but which is used as color in this one, having nothing to do with either meaning.

Amusing, but not their top form.

I am a big fan of Abbott & Costello. Out of all their movies they only made a couple of duds. "Africa Screams" is not one of them. But it does not belong in their Top 10 either. It is fast moving and mostly funny. It has very little down time. "AS" does not have any musical numbers which is a welcome change of pace for an A&C move. It also features two of the Three Stooges (Shemp Howard and Joe Besser). As you would suspect, they're both funny in this movie. For years I was down on this movie because it was only available on crappy out-of-copyright VHS tapes. There was never any joy watching those tapes. However, my DVD of "Africa Screams" looks great and is a fun watch.

This A&C film is right on par with most of their other work. It has its silly moments (like the opening scene of Lou vs. the kitty cat) and it has some really good moments. One theme in A&C flicks I just have to mention is how poor Lou always gets stuck with the angry-evil-pushy woman - who gets so sick of him that she wants to kill him. He just seems to attract'em like flies. Ah well, it makes good comedy.

Since this independent Abbott & Costello comedy wasn't produced by Universal or MGM it comes off less slick than some of their other films, yet still emerges as pretty funny and is worth a look for fans of the team. Bud and Lou are joined by sometime-Stooges Shemp Howard and Joe Besser, and also lovely Hillary Brooke, who would later join them for their regular weekly television show.

Brooke is a crime boss looking for a certain map that's in A&C's possession, so she and the boys (including Shemp and Joe) journey to the jungles of darkest Africa to search for what the men think is a rare type of orangutan gargantua gorilla (or some sort of nonsense); but actually, Hillary's only hunting for a secret treasure trove of precious diamonds. When Abbott finds out what's really going on, he becomes quite the self-centered businessman and is really funny and more mean than usual (which always works for me in these comedies).

Some jokes include Costello getting locked in a cage with a lion, the humorous "I Lost My Pal" routine, and Lou tangling with cannibals. Real-life lion tamer/big game hunters Frank Buck and Clyde Beatty are also on hand to do their stuff if you go for that sort of thing. **1/2 out of ****

In my younger days pre teens in fifties Britain always regarded A and C movies as a treat and there is something about the unsophisticated bye play between them that appeals more to the child in us than to the adult mature taste Here they play two sales assistants who go to Africa as part of a safari to locate diamonds ,although the hapless pair have been told it is to locate a species of orang utang There are predictable encounters with lions,gorillas and alligators,giving ample opportunity for Lou to do his patented terrified voice and herky-jerky motions to denote extreme terror.The movie is casually racist as was all too typical of its period -natives are either loyal but cowardly bearers or lip smacking cannibals with bones through the nose The most interesting bit was the performance of Joe Besser as a decidedly camp butler,a performance that today looks almost John Inman-esque.I wonder if the audience of the day picked up on it.There are roles for noted hunters of the day Clyde Beatty and Frank Buck as well as the Baer pugilists Max and Buddy

The film looks ugly with little in the way of production values

Recommendable to admirers only.The rest will probably find it an ordeal at best and wince making at worst