News

Abbott & Costello – The Complete

Universal Pictures Collection

Blu ray

Shout! Factory

1940-1955/1:33-1:85

Starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff

Directed by Arthur Lubin, Erle C. Kenton, Charles Barton

Two footloose Jersey boys with no particular place to go, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello finally found themselves – literally and figuratively – on the burlesque stage. Their act, equal parts smart talk and ancient slapstick, was honed alongside curvy chorus girls and tassel-twirlers but it took a lady of a decidedly different stature to make them superstars. On March 24, 1938, Kate Smith, “The First Lady of Radio”, invited them to perform “Who’s On First”, a routine delivered with such hairpin curve precision it left listeners breathless. That appearance fast-tracked the duo to their own radio series and a contract with Universal Pictures.

They made their big screen debut in 1940’s One Night in the Tropics, a low budget...

This article marks Part 2 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the Academy Awards winners.

The 1940 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:

“Down Argentine Way” from “Down Argentine Way”

“Who Am I” from “Hit Parade of 1941”

“It’s a Blue World” from Music in My Heart”

“When You Wish Upon a Star” from “Pinocchio”

“Only Forever” from “Rhythm on the River”

“Love of My Life” from “Second Chorus”

“Waltzing in the Clouds” from “Spring Parade”

“Our Love Affair” from “Strike Up the Band”

“I’d Know You Anywhere” from “You’ll Find Out”

Won and should’ve won: “When You Wish Upon a Star” from “Pinocchio”

Let’s take a moment to stare in wonder at the star-studded nature of this line-up.

Turner Classic Movies continues with its Gay Hollywood presentations tonight and tomorrow morning, June 8–9. Seven movies will be shown about, featuring, directed, or produced by the following: Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Farley Granger, John Dall, Edmund Goulding, W. Somerset Maughan, Clifton Webb, Montgomery Clift, Raymond Burr, Charles Walters, DeWitt Bodeen, and Harriet Parsons. (One assumes that it's a mere coincidence that gay rumor subjects Cary Grant and Tyrone Power are also featured.) Night and Day (1946), which could also be considered part of TCM's homage to birthday girl Alexis Smith, who would have turned 96 today, is a Cole Porter biopic starring Cary Grant as a posh, heterosexualized version of Porter. As the warning goes, any similaries to real-life people and/or events found in Night and Day are a mere coincidence. The same goes for Words and Music (1948), a highly fictionalized version of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical partnership.

Darby Jones, Bela Lugosi in Zombies on Broadway Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics: Boris Karloff Disc Matters do not improve much over on Bela Lugosi’s disc. Horror enthusiasts will likely experience a gargantuan case of buyer’s remorse during the first scenes of You’ll Find Out (1940). What they’ll find out is that this movie is a vehicle not for Bela Lugosi, but for comedian/bandleader Kay Kyser and his Kollege of Musical Knowledge band, featuring Ginny Simms, Sully Mason and Ish Kabibble (who appears to have been the visual inspiration for Jim Carrey’s Lloyd character in Dumb and Dumber). Kyser and company’s style of comedy has, shall we say, not aged well, but this is [...]...