Loucos São Vocês

Abbott & Costello's swansong was a reasonable farewell, playing like a fifties sitcom with a rather subdued Lou who in a plot reminiscent of Norman Wisdom gets involved with cute kids and mean adults.

I am writing this for the fans who have not yet seen it. Made in '56, The boys show their age as they did from 1953. It opens with a shot of Costello running down the road to the ophanage to reclaim his foster son Duffer after some sort of falling out. Once they make up, in walks Abbott. They do an exchange which isn't really funny and makes you yearn for the days when Lou's facial expressions alone could send you into hysterics. It turns out that one of the rides in Costello's fun fair, kiddyland has malfunctioned and Abbott doesn't know how to stop the machine. All it requires is for Costello to throw the switch (which for some reason is hidden behind a trap door.) And so it goes on. Miss Mayberry who represents the welfare board wants to take Lou's foster children back into care, Abbott's gambling debts have got into trouble with local hood 'Big Frank' and now he has been ordered to carry marked money to Chicago. When Abbott tells Costello this, Costello phones up the D.A and asks to meet one of their men in kiddyland late, thinking that this will help with his case with the welfare board. Big Frank arranges Abbott to meet with one of his men also in Kiddyland.(Do these guys not use their hideout?) The gangster and the D.A arrive at the same time and the D.A gets shot. Abbott naturally manipulates the converstion with the police and subsequentely Costello gets the blame for the murder and is arrested even though when the police turn up, Abbott is holding a hammer. After Costello is released, he is kidnapped and with Abbott, forced to go to Kiddyland to locate the money. It all concludes with a homealone style finale with loads of kids, who, at the drop of a hat manage to sneak away from home, helping the boys out and eventually catching the crooks. Alls well that ends well.

This old fashioned film wasn't quite as bad as one of their other films. When you think of all the 'trendy' films Martin and Lewis made during the last 6 years one wonders why A+C didn't try to branch out further. Lou Costello was once the funniest man on the earth - no doubt about that. Tragically, due to ill health his vitality was robbed and this was the end product. It would of been better played straight. Abbott had all the best lines and I thought he was rather good. Though gone are the days of Rio Rita, Hold that Ghost and Buck Privates, the (reportedly)sixty one year old comedian gave a better performance than in recent vehicles. Costello who for some reason had not been given any funny lines at all, seems to try and impress the audiences by shaking his head while looking down at a telephone and repeating the phrase'Oh my!' The gangsters who played it straight somehow turn 'lite' and manage to fall victim to the children's pranks. One of them gets whacked in the shins, one of them gets tripped up, one of them gets squirted by a water pistol etc...

It's known for their worst, which I disagree. ...Go to mars was worse than this. This film is, obviously of more interest to the fans who wish to see how this once great comedy team came to close their motion picture curtain. Tragic.

**1/2 out of ****

I think Abbott and Costello's last movie together is underrated. It's not among their finest, but they made less amusing movies together, and there still are some chuckles to be had here. At the time of production, Lou was reported as saying that the days of slapstick were over for them, and that both men were interested in actually doing more serious and emotional types of roles. But DANCE WITH ME, HENRY is obviously still a comedy even though it tries hard to inject some dramatic issues and sentiment along the way.

Lou Henry (Costello) operates "Kiddyland", a little amusement park, where he allows his drinking and gambling pal Bud Flick (Abbott) to work so his friend can pay off a huge debt he owes to a group of gangsters. Meanwhile, Lou is trying to gain custody of two orphan kids, but Bud's constant turmoil with the criminals keeps getting in the way.

Yes, it's obvious that the comedy team is older now, but they still have their moments in a few humorous scenes interacted together. I wouldn't say this A&C Swan Song is at all bad or unwatchable. The title of the film, which was named after a forgotten song that used to be popular and which has nothing to do with the story, doesn't help matters.

It seemed to me that this was essentially a children's film. While A and C made films that children could watch and enjoy, I think this and "Jack and the Beanstalk" were the only two films they made which were explicitly for children.

The beginning ten minutes (good set-up of a potentially funny situation) and the last ten (imagine "Home-alone" with twenty kids) are fine, but the middle is quite flabby. There are no memorable routines and very few (about ten) funny lines.

Actually, I do not know if the producers had it in mind, but the movie works well as a pilot for a T.V. series. One can imagine all sorts of great sitcom possibilities with Lou as a bachelor trying to raise two kids while owning and operating a "Kiddie land" amusement park. When this was made, Danny Thomas's "Make Room for Daddy" had been a hit show running for three years and "Bachelor Father" was about to begin its run, so a "raising kids" comedies were the type of thing a network might buy. I suppose if it had done well as a movie, it could have been developed into a television series. So, I believe that it was rather a smart career choice for A and C.

Sherry Alberoni as Boopsi and Rusty Hamer are the two stand-out kid performers. Sherry is Shirley Temple cute trying to convince the cops that she witnessed a murder and Rusty Hamer is the nicest and sincerest boy actor of that period (Ron Howard did steal his crown a few years later).

A and C fans will savor a few well done moments,(the visit of the nasty welfare worker at the beginning, for example) but on the whole only their fans will be able to sit through it.

The last shot of the movie with Costello playing the pied-piper is delightful and cute. If the rest of the movie had been so, this movie would have revived A and C's careers and fortunes.

The final Abbott & Costello movie sees them trying something different, with notably less emphasis on violent slapstick and more on emotional resonance. Costello is particularly subdued; his character isn't the bumbling incompetent he was in all their other pictures, and neither is he Abbott's scapegoat. It's not an entirely successful move, but it has its moments, and Costello is surprisingly effective.