Here Come the Co-eds

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.

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.

1945's "Here Come the Co-eds" was the last great Abbott and Costello picture until at least 1947's "The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap," pairing Lou with the pretty and vivacious Peggy Ryan, already a veteran of a dozen films opposite regular musical co-star Donald O'Connor. Like The Marx Brothers, A & C were at their best in surroundings where they didn't belong, and working as caretakers at an all-girl college would be a dream job for any romantic fool. As Patty Gayle, perky Peggy Ryan shines as Costello's love interest, doing a charming song and dance called 'Let's Play House,' each in turn lascivious or childlike, Lou even prefacing the number by remarking, "I feel just like Donald O'Connor!" as Peggy smiles knowingly. Another rarity is giving Bud Abbott a sister in Martha O'Driscoll's Molly (despite the 27 year age difference!), who earns a scholarship to Bixby College, greatly improving their basketball team. The climactic game between Bixby and Carlisle gives Costello the opportunity to show why he used to be free throw champion of Paterson, New Jersey, making all the actual shots without missing, except for the final trick shot that bounces from one basket to the other (11 years later, he showed he still had it, effortlessly sinking a free throw for 'The Armory Five' on THIS IS YOUR LIFE). Three years before "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," Lon Chaney first encounters the team as the conniving caretaker, 'Strangler' Johnson, his best scene after Costello swallows his dice, making bets with Abbott by checking Lou through a fluoroscope! There's a comic wrestling match between Lou and Lon (the latter disguised as 'The Masked Marvel'), and one with Lou trying to eat oyster stew as its live occupant refuses to cooperate (revised for a frog in "The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap," then disguised as whale meat in "Lost in Alaska"). Lon Chaney worked with Martha O'Driscoll in several pictures ("Crazy House," "Follow the Boys," "Ghost Catchers," "The Daltons Ride Again" and "House of Dracula"), while reuniting with Peggy Ryan in her penultimate film, 1949's "There's a Girl in My Heart," featuring several other former Universal players- Lee Bowman ("Buck Privates"), Gloria Jean ("Never Give a Sucker an Even Break"), and Elyse Knox ("Hit the Ice," "The Mummy's Tomb").

FINALLY Costello does something physically brilliant without rear-projection. Originally I did not want to bother with a review of this cute little piece of fluff, but I have to respond to the reviewer who thought the basketball episode was fake. ONLY the final throw is a matte-job, and this is SUPPOSED to be goofy. You can stop-action through all the other shots Costello makes and it's really him and the ball. Although the movie should have been better written, this turns out to have the most fulfilling Costello scene in all the 8 movies of Volume 1 and the first 5 of this volume (I haven't watched the last 3).

My two criticisms of the film itself are that some of the songs are boring, and the ending makes no sense. But it does have the Dance Escorts vaudeville scene, Car 13, Rolling the Dice, a song and almost-dance with Costello and Peggy Ryan, Under Covers sketch, Costello's version of Oyster Chowder, and some great solo dancing by Ryan. And personally, I liked the violin concerto because the close-ups show so well how cleverly a violinist must negotiate this piece.