Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd

I taped this off UK TV in 1988 – the washed out condition of the print even then made it look as if it could be from 300 years ago, but recently seeing the even more degraded copy TCM US is showing made me think it really was! How did this get into such a state – the wobbly cheap colour and choppy copies from multiple TV dupes haven't helped to be sure, but it all makes it a bit of an ordeal to sit through without rose-tinted glasses on.

At the cutely named Death's Head Tavern Bud & Lou unwittingly join forces with Charles Laughton playing Captain Kidd on the track of a treasure island – much fun is made of the map of Skull Island continually getting mixed up with Lou's supposed My Darling Darling Darling love letter. Add a deliberately devilish Leif Erickson as a sidekick for Laughton and elegant Hilary Brook as a pantomime Captain Bonney for something good to look at and you have the main crew. There's plenty of lusty non-pc songs, maybe too many but some not too bad and all well sung, my favourite being the romantic Speak To Me sung by the corny romantic leads on the pirate ship. It was the 2nd of the two films A&C did for Warners in 1952 (this was Bud's choice, Jack was Lou's), and was amazingly successful noisy slapstick at the time; the reason given by Laughton as to why he accepted the role was to learn how to do double takes from Costello. He generally hammed it up nicely and he and the boys in particular seemed to enjoy themselves, but it all seemed a bit too laboured at times.

For anyone new who might be interested in A&C this is not the film to start with, unless you're under 10 years old. And yet … I still end up watching this jolly nonsense every five years or so, never mind the grotty condition.

I don't mind that the movie has no plot or that it's so noisy my 90-year old grandmother complained or that Charles Laughton thinks he's the one who should supply the laughs and not the menace. What I do mind is that A&C have so little to do. They manage a few bits, but these are crowded out by the chaotic knock-about. It's like someone said we don't have a script or any routines, so let's just run around, make noise, and maybe no one will notice. Maybe the best thing is the really great special effects. The masted ships and sea battle look like they come from an A-production, which they may have. But even the explosions on the sea-shore sets are well done. Too bad the rest of the movie doesn't rise to that level. And pity the poor regally composed Hillary Brooke who looks like she's missing all the mayhem, at the same time Laughton manages more mugs per minute than a race car generates RPM's. In my little book, this is one of the least of the 5 or 6 entries in the A&C Meets... series.

Bud and Lou only made two color films--this and "Jack and the Beanstalk"--and for some reason the color on both of them is terrible, with this the worst of the two. For some unfathomable reason it was shot in shoddy Cinecolor, which was a cheap alternative to Technicolor developed mostly so low-budget producers could afford to make color films (Technicolor was too expensive for those smaller outfits). However, since this film was made by Warner Bros. you have to wonder why the studio didn't shoot it in Technicolor instead of cheap, muddy Cinecolor; it's not like Warners couldn't afford it! Anyway, the lousy photography detracts from what could have been, with a few improvements, a much more enjoyable film. It's good to see Hillary Brooke in color; the miserable quality of the photography can't hide the fact that she's a stunningly beautiful woman, with an icy, regal sexiness reminiscent of Grace Kelly or Eva Marie Saint. However, the romantic subplot between her and the terminally bland Bill Shirley is a complete bust, as the two have no chemistry whatsoever and you find yourself wondering what a babe like Hillary is doing with a slug like him. In addition, everything comes to a screeching halt so they can throw in some interminable, and third-rate, musical numbers. The picture would have been better off with fewer of them. In fact, it would have been better off with NONE of them.

That being said, however, this is still an enjoyable film, although far from prime A&C. The boys are starting to show their age, and their timing is a little off in spots, but they still know how to wring laughs out of a script as lame as this one. Besides, Charles Laughton is really fun to watch. It's said that he agreed to do this film because he thought Lou Costello was one of the industry's best physical comics; he had always wanted to do slapstick, and figured if you're gonna do it, learn from the best. He acquits himself quite well, too, even though every so often you can see where he tries a bit too hard; some of his bits look like they were precisely rehearsed, which they no doubt were, but good comedy isn't supposed to look like it was rehearsed. Still, he seems to be having a whale of a good time, and considering that he had never done anything like this before, does a very impressive job.

As I said, this is hardly Bud & Lou's best, but it's not among their worst ("Dance With Me Henry" holds that honor) or even their not particularly good ("A&C Go to Mars"). The two best things about it, besides Bud & Lou, are Laughton and Hillary Brooke; she's truly gorgeous, and it's easy to see why Costello used her as his love interest in the team's TV series. If you haven't seen this film before, it's worth checking out.

Charles Laughton did a badly edited biographical film of Captain Kidd in 1945 although his performance as the cockney captain with aspirations to class is memorable. We don't often get a second crack at roles when they don't become mega-hits, but Laughton got it and made the most of it.

Laughton got one here although he had to take on Abbott and Costello as co-stars. But I will say that the distinguished Mr. Laughton more than held his own with those two burlesque comics. Especially when you consider that his co-stars names were in the title of the film.

Of course it was fans of A&C who went to see the film, but you get your audiences from where they come. Check Laughton's deadpan face when he's doing the old handcuff gag where Costello thinks he's got Captain Kidd cuffed behind his back and helpless. They did the same routine on their television show with Gordon Jones as Mike the Cop and the results are just as hilarious.

Speaking of the television show, Hillary Brooke from the cast of their show is also on hand as Laughton's rival, Captain Bonnie. Fran Warren and Bill Shirley have a great pair of voices, too bad the songs that they got to sing in the film aren't worthy of them.

Abbott and Costello were on a downward slide of their careers, but this film does hearken back to their early days at Universal when they were grinding out a whole bunch of comedy gems.

But the thing that has always gotten me about this film is the way Charles Laughton just dove right in to the slapstick spirit of this movie. Costello was known for not getting along with several of his co-stars, many of them had less than kind things to say. But according to observers, Laughton got along just fine with the boys.

You can tell by the side splitting results.

I am an admirer of Charles Laughton,who I regard as the finest ever British screen actor.This is often viewed as the nadir of his movie career but it did seem to me he entered into the spirit of proceedings admirably,mugging energetically and taking pratfalls with the best of them Bud and Lou will satisfy their fans but win no new devotees in a movie slowed down by stultifyingly bad musical interludes and the colour is garish and ugly

Laughton,seemingly relishing the chance to play a variant on the pantomime villains he doubtless enjoyed watching in the theatre as a child,is the main reason to give this the time of day