Noite Tropical

My first viewing of this movie left me surprised. Why? For years I'd read that the only plus was the first screen appearance of Lou and Bud. Instead I found the story fun and the cast fine, especially Bob Cummings as a kind of good-looking Woody Allen-type character. Bob in fact takes the limelight whenever he's on the screen.

When the boys did appear, it was if they'd walked in off the lot next door with no idea of what was going on. Their routines were pure music hall. There seemed to be no effort to work them into the story. Perhaps the point that neither were sympathetic characters didn't help. So anyone with expectations of this movie should be prepared for something different.

A delightful movie, `One Night In the Tropic' Features Abbott and Costello in their first film together, but they are not leads. Their next film, `Buck Privates' (1941) they would save Universal and they would star in their first leading roles.

Yet anyway, this film casts Allan Jones as Jim "Lucky" Moore, an insurance salesman who comes up with the idea of selling his friend, Steve (Robert Cummings) a love insurance policy, because if his fiancée, Cynthia (Nancy Kelly) won't marry Steve, he stands to collect. Jim has Roscoe (William Frawley), a nightclub owner, finance the policy. However, complications occur when Lucky finds himself falling in love with Cynthia. Not wanting to pay off the policy, Roscoe hires his stooges, Abbott and Costello, to make sure Steve does marry Cynthia. Complications soon follow after boarding an ocean liner to San Marcos, South America.

Abbott and Costello do however; steal the show with many of their sketches, including The Mustard Routine, Money Changing, Jonah and the whale, Paid In Full and Two Tens for a Five. Who can forget `Who's On First'? Apparently the Paid in full Routine has only been in this film and the film is worth catching for this sketch alone.

I enjoyed this silly B-Musical and had a fun time with it. You will, too!

MPAA Rating: NR

My Rating: 6 and up

My * Rating: 7.2

Abbott & Costello made their film debut in this otherwise forgettable and lightweight comedy as two "enforcers" for a nightclub owner(played by William Frawley) who has underwritten a "love insurance" policy to ensure that an engaged man(played by Robert Cummings) will marry his fiancée(played by Nancy Kelly) though his old girlfriend(played by Peggy Moran) tries to break it up, as does a disapproving aunt. Will true love prevail? Not that funny, though it is obvious why the team of Abbott & Costello took off; they provide the film's only bright spots, going on to star in many comedies for Universal Studios during the 1940's through the mid 1950's.

This is my fourth comment of a series of them in which I attempt to connect two legendary comedy teams-Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello-with films of theirs that have something in common. For this one, there are three links. First, as A & C are making their very first movie in 1940 for what would be their home studio, Universal, L & H have released their final one for their about-to-be-former home studio of Hal Roach that same year. Second, the director is A. Edward Sutherland who the year before helmed L & H in The Flying Deuces. Third, and I wasn't aware of this until I looked up the cast list on IMDb, longtime L & H regular Charlie Hall-who made his last appearance with them in Saps at Sea, their final Hal Roach picture-made his first, of only a few, A & C appearance here as Second S. S. Atlantica Steward. I think he's the one who tells Mary Boland, "Your nuts, madam?" (He's asking if she wants them.) Boland exclaims, "I certainly am!" Okay, the plot concerns a quadrangle of Allan Jones, Nancy Kelly, Robert Cummings, and Peggy Moran. It involves love insurance and marriage. Bud and Lou play henchmen of William Frawley who are supposed to make sure a certain wedding takes place. Occasionally, the plot stops for some A & C routines, most of which you've seen or heard on various other of their movies, TV, or radio shows. One that's only in this movie is called "Paid in Full" where Abbott deducts much of Costello's salary after briefly firing him to just...well, watch the movie. Others include "Money Changing", "Jonah and the Whale", "Mustard", and an abridged version of "Who's on First?" which, according to Lou's brother Pat, was the first scene Lou and Bud ever shot. Before any of this was filmed, however, according to the picture's producer Leonard Spigelgass, Costello came to him and said, "What are we supposed to do? I don't know how to work without an audience." Spigelgass told him there was an audience-his crew. And sure enough, they laughed, so much so that either the producer or director had to yell "Cut!" and tell them to stop laughing! And it's largely because of Bud and Lou that this movie is still in circulation today. And they steal the show every time they're on screen. The rest of the cast are pretty funny by themselves and the songs by Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields, and, for one romantic number involving the four leads, Oscar Hammerstein II are pretty entertaining. But if you're an A & C fan, you'll be disappointed at the few scenes-compared to the others-they have here. And the picture didn't do well enough at the box office for the Universal brass to exhibit confidence in them yet. But when executive Matty Fox asked them what their plans were, Lou bluffed about a Paramount meeting for an Army picture and he and Bud then performed some routines that impressed Fox so much, he gave them a two-picture contract with options and had them cast in what would become Universal's biggest blockbuster at the time: Buck Privates. So while Laurel & Hardy moved to 20th Century-Fox and saw their creative control decline, Abbott & Costello would get expanded screen time at Universal and become one of the top box office stars during this time. P. S. I first watched this as a kid on late night Saturday on a local station at midnight in a 69 minute version that cut the first 13 minutes. So when I found out the complete 83 minute version was on VHS in the early '90s, I snapped it up!

ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS (Universal, 1940), directed by A. Edward Sutherland, which began production under the title of "Caribbean Holiday," is a lively, but at times silly musical comedy starring Allan Jones as Jim "Lucky" Moore, an insurance salesman who comes up with the idea of selling his friend, Steve (Robert Cummings) a love insurance policy, because if his fiancée, Cynthia (Nancy Kelly) won't marry Steve, he stands to collect. Jim has Roscoe (William Frawley), a night club owner, finance the policy. However, complications occur when Lucky finds himself falling in love with Cynthia. Not wanting to pay off the policy, Roscoe hires his stooges, Abbott and Costello, to make sure Steve does marry Cynthia. Complications soon follow after boarding an ocean liner to San Marcos, South America.

In spite the fact that the story is centered mostly on Jones and Cummings, with Kelly and Peggy Moran as the girls in the picture, ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS is remembered, if at all, as the feature debut of comedy team Bud Abbott and Lou ("I'm a baaad boy!") Costello, in a rare case in which they act in the story using their own names. Bud and Lou introduce to the screen some of their most famous vaudeville routines, including the abbreviated version of "Who's on First." While Abbott and Costello are known for repeating many of their routines in other films and later TV shows, one in particular, the "Dollar a Day" routine, is presented here for the only time, and it's really funny. It focuses on the fired Costello demanding from Abbott his dollar a day pay of 365 days work, and Abbott making his deductions one at a time, thus, giving his partner the amount pay he's entitled to, which turns out to be only a buck. Aside from the merry mix-up plot and Abbott and Costello, there are songs composed by Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields and Oscar Hammerstein including "Remind Me," "Simple Philosophy," "Only You and Your Kiss," "I'm Crawling Back in My Shell," "Your Dream" and "The Parandola."

For years, ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS was presented on local TV which eliminated some 20 minutes worth of footage. In the shorter print, it would begin with its opening credits, then cutting immediately into a hotel room in which Robert Cummings is dictating a letter of apology. Apology for what I never knew. Now in the restored copy, available on video cassette (and DVD with slightly different opening and closing titles used from reissue prints), finds Cummings getting into an elevator and innocently encountering trouble with a woman (Mary Boland) who turns out to be the aunt of his fiancée. After meeting again, aunt insists niece not marry this man. Also in the missing footage was Jones' encounter with a man on the street followed by a fight and facing Judge McCracken (played by the uncredited Kathleen Howard) in hight court. With these scenes now restored, the story now makes sense.

Labeled a "B" musical, ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS resembles that of a 20th Century-Fox musical, minus Technicolor and Carmen Miranda. On and all, it's entertaining musically and comically. It made its American Movie Classics debut January 1, 2001, as part of the "WHO'S ON THE FIRST" Abbott and Costello New Year's Day marathon. For Abbott and Costello fans, this is worth viewing because they not only bring life to the story, but this is where the legend of Abbott and Costello began. A final bit of trivia. ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS is taken from the story, "Love Insurance," by Earl Derr Biggers, creator of the "Charlie Chan" mysteries. (***)