Deux nigauds dans une île

Until the VHS of Pardon My Sarong was released I had never seen the complete film. When I was a lad and WPIX television in New York City used to show Abbott and Costello films every Sunday morning, the film always began with Costello crashing that bus into the harbor. I used to wonder why as prominent an actor like William Demarest had such a brief part.

So when I was a kid I missed the Ink Spots do a number and I missed cop Bill Demarest get bamboozled by A&C. Both Abbott and Costello disguise themselves as a magician and make Demarest the fall guy for some gags. This might be the only time Abbott was ever a comic in any of their films and he was good.

I guess the Chicago Transit company didn't want to put two buses in jeopardy which was why both boys were on the same bus. Millionaire Yachtsman Robert Paige has some how talked these two into leaving their Michigan Avenue route and driving him and a bevy of beauties to Los Angeles for the start of a boat race.

Of course having lost their jobs as bus drivers with this harebrained move the boys sign on with Paige as a yacht crew along with Virginia Bruce who is the sister of one of Paige's rivals and they get blown off course and wind up on an island Dorothy Lamour would be found on if the film had been made at Paramount.

Don't ask me how, but the natives make Costello some kind of Deity and he gets to be the big man on campus there. Of course we also have resident villain Lionel Atwill looking to loot some treasure.

Like Douglass Dumbrille in a few Abbott and Costello films, Atwill looked like he was having a great old time burlesquing his own sinister image, especially in the chase sequence at the end.

One of the best from Abbott and Costello's early Universal days.

I wanted to see this film because my grandfather acted in it. His name is James Spencer. This film was very fun to see and watch the entertainment of the war years. I specially enjoyed the songs and dancing in this film. There is very little of that kind of entertainment in today's films. A great shame! "The Boys", Lou & Bud, were never better!

This is pure silliness at its best. If you plan to watch, bring your sense of silly. A native dance turns into a nightclub act; Lou the bus driver gets confused by the instructions "go ahead and back up"; and many other classic bits.

Bud and Lou obviously had a great time making this movie (Lou is hysterically funny). A smile never left my face during the last half of it, even though this a 60+ year old movie now. I'm sure it was popular escapist fun for Allied troops during WWII.

Abbott and Costello play bus drivers who steal their company's bus to chauffeur playboy Robert Paige and his lady friends around. Detective William Demarest chases after them. Through a series of events Bud, Lou, Paige, and Virginia Bruce wind up on a tropical island where Lionel Atwill is up to no good. Among the island natives are Leif Erickson (!) and Samuel S. Hinds (!!), as well as gorgeous Nan Wynn. She sings a couple of nice songs and there's also some great musical numbers from the Ink Spots and Tip, Tap, Toe. Romantic subplot with Paige and Bruce is one of those tired old "she hates him but she really likes him" things. It's putrid and the worst part of the movie. Virginia's nice to look at, though. The comedy is good, with Abbott & Costello getting to do some funny bits with William Demarest in the first half. Once it moves to the island Bud kind of fades into the background and it's Lou's show from then on. This is a pretty good A&C movie. Not their funniest but funny enough with some nice music and a good supporting cast to help out. It's completely impossible for any movie with both William Demarest and Lionel Atwill in it to be bad.

Having returned to Universal following MGM's somewhat disappointing "Rio Rita," Abbott and Costello get back on track with "Pardon My Sarong," sort of their version of the Hope-Crosby "Road" pictures.

A&C play Chicago bus drivers, who through a series of funny machinations, end up on a tropic isle with evil Lionel Atwill. There are many funny moments both at sea and on the island.

If there are people who don't like Abbott and Costello, it is probably because they don't like Abbott's often callous treatment of Costello. While this is part of their characterizations, and is often funny, the screenwriters went admittedly overboard in "Sarong." While Virginia Bruce does stand up to Abbott on Costello's behalf several times, one tasteless gag includes Abbott matter-of-factly giving Costello a gun to shoot himself! Such gags have limited the duo's appeal over time, but if looked upon broadly, "Sarong" is a funny film and shows A&C at their peak, which ran roughly from 1941 to 1945. 7 out of 10.