Here Come the Co-eds

Here Come The Co-Eds is a film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It's directed by Jean Yarbrough and acting support comes from Peggy Ryan, Martha O'Driscoll, June Vincent, Lon Chaney Jr. & Donald Cook. Plot finds the bumbling duo at Bixby College for young ladies, where they get involved in numerous escapades in trying to save the school from closure.

Easily one of Abbott and Costello's best film's, Here Come the Co-Eds finds the boys hitting the high laugh standards they set themselves at their peak. Even the familiar routines are given new life as they seem to respond well to Yarbrough's smooth direction. Top moments are a glue based kitchen sequence, a wrestling match, a basketball game and an excellent boat (on the road) chase finale. Film is boosted considerably by the presence of Phil Spitalny's all-girl 'Hour of Charm' orchestra and the sprightly Peggy Ryan. The latter of which helps provide a show stopper of a tap routine at the basketball match.

Tomfoolery unbound, and with a good production value to boot, this is classic A&C and prescribed to lift the blues. 8/10

The main attraction in Here Come the Coeds is seeing Lou Costello in drag during a girl's college basketball game. One of the players is injured and he substitutes. When he's conked on the head he develops amnesia and then Abbott and Peggy Ryan tell him he's Daisy Dimple the world's greatest female basketball player and he proceeds to act the part.

Some here have said that Costello was hardly convincing in drag. But I have to say I've seen drag performers a whole lot worse.

Abbott and Costello are paid dancing escorts at a dime a dance palace. Why anyone would pay to dance with Costello is anyone's guess. But they get fired and land jobs at a girl's college where Abbott's sister, June Vincent, enrolls due to a publicity gimmick Abbott thought up.

There was some other comment that this was the only time any female, Peggy Ryan, showed an interest romantically in Lou. Not true at all. In previous films Martha Raye and Joan Davis did. But this was the only film Costello got to do a song and dance with a female partner. He did do an outrageous waltz with Joan Davis in Hold That Ghost, but there was no singing.

Peggy Ryan was doing a whole lot of musicals with Donald O'Connor at the time at Universal. She had a nice fresh appeal and partnered well with O'Connor. Working with Costello must have been something different.

Donald Cook as the Dean of Students is paired with June Vincent. As they are a pretty sappy pair fortunately there's not much film wasted on them. Charles Dingle as the head of the board of trustees fares much better. He's his usual pompous stuffed shirt, a part he played like no one else in film history. I wish they'd given him some comedy bits with the boys.

Lon Chaney, Jr. plays the head caretaker and the nemesis of the boys. He gets right in with the comedy and serves as a great foil for Costello, especially in the wrestling match sequence. It's a ripoff of what they'd done in Buck Privates in a boxing match, but who cares, it's still a very funny sequence.

I saw just about all of Abbott and Costello's films as a lad. WPIX television in New York used to run them constantly on Sunday morning. For some reason Here Come the Coeds wasn't among them, I only got to see it a few years ago. But it was worth the wait.

With "Here Come The Co-eds," Abbott & Costello have their funniest film since 1942's "Who Done It." The duo seems more energetic in their performance, and the storyline (two ballroom dancers who find themselves as caretakers at an all-girls college) suits them well.

The "Jonah" routine shines here, and the comic timing the duo display is exquisite. Costello shows his basketball prowess during the climactic basketball game. Also a plus -- a decent supporting cast featuring Peggy Ryan ("She's cuuuuute!") and Lon Chaney Jr. as the deliciously evil head caretaker.

The movie avoids heavy and sluggish moments and is paced well, although one could still due without the music filler. All in all though, a solid effort with solid laughs. 8 out of 10.

Costello certainly earns his money in this lively romp. Between getting knocked into potted palms or whirled around like a spinning top, his sight gags fly thick and fast. The plot has the boys joining a girl's school as caretakers, and then working to save the school from bankruptcy by outwitting (sort of) crooked gamblers.

It's a good chance to catch teen fashions, circa 1945, as the co-eds parade around in casual wear of the day. Universal certainly stocked the screen with a crowd of young lovelies to look at. Still, my money's on the hugely talented Peggy Ryan who steals the show with her mugging and sprightly dancing. She's a perfect foil for the equally versatile Costello. Too bad her movie career was so brief. Also, there's Phil Spitalny and His All-Girl Orchestra. They're a matter of taste, but Evelyn sure knows how to saw away on her Magic Violin.

Anyway, it's a fast 90-minutes, with the boys in fine energetic form, along with an excellent supporting cast, especially with baddies like Dingle and Chaney, and the expected whirlwind finish.

The really amazing thing in this film is the progressive nature of the treatment of women's education. The film argues that women should be given equal education to men, a progressive, if not radical position in 1946.

There are a number of wonderful elements in this movie that raise it a notch above the average A and B comedy. Peggy Ryan is absolutely delightful as Costello's love interest. Lou makes the hilarious observation that he feels like Donald O'Connor. Apparently Peggy and Donald were in a series of popular movies just before this time, so the reference is to that fact. Peggy is perfectly cast as she mirrors Lou's innocent boyish quality with her own innocent girlish quality. Peggy's character's name is Patty and I would wager that Charles Schulz's Peppermint Patty character comes from the character in this movie.

The dropping of the handkerchief bit is still hilarious and Costello's trick basketball shooting while in drag is quite enjoyable.

Altogether, it is a delightful mixture which works on many levels. I would put it just below "Time of Their Lives" and "Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein" as my favorite A and B film.