When WPIX in NYC would run this film, it always started with the scene at the gas station, so all the music at the start was cut out. The rest of the film was intact, including the final music scenes. This was probably the only A&C film where WPIX cut out music. Believe it or not, they would cut out A&C comedy routines and leave each and every song intact!
Then for some reason WPIX aired this one in a longer timeslot and showed the entire film uncut, and I was glad to finally see the full movie.
I think that HOLD THAT GHOST is much funnier that A&C MEET FRANKENSTEIN, though the latter is still one of my favorites as well. That film actually dresses two routines from the former film in new clothing. The scene in the House of Horrors with Dracula's coffin is the moving-candle gag. When the boys explore Dracula's castle and go through the revolving panel, it is basically the changing-room scene from HOLD THAT GHOST. What makes A&C MEET FRANKENSTEIN great, though, is that it is not a parody a la YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. It is instead basically another entry in the Universal monsters series that also happens to star A&C. It is a great film, but at the end of the day, HOLD THAT GHOST is funnier. A&C MEET FRANKENSTEIN terrified me as a young kid, while HOLD THAT GHOST did not.
In the Bob Furmanek book, A&C IN HOLLYWOOD, it says that when they were watching the dance scene with Joan Davis at the studio, perhaps the rushes, Lou was a bit peeved at the laughs Joan Davis got. He felt he was being upstaged. This was according to Robert Lees, one of the script writers on the film. I wonder if this was before they knew what a hit BUCK PRIVATES had become -- and perhaps Lou wasn't yet confident with his film career.
(Jerry Lewis in interviews usually comes across as a self-aggrandizing snob to many, but in the DVD for his classic THE BELLBOY, there is a commentary track with himself and Steve Lawrence, where the latter asks Jerry about a comic scene that does not contain Lewis. He basically asks him how he felt about another comic getting such big laughs. Jerry's response make sense, since he says something to the effect that he wanted to make a good comedy, and he didn't care who in the film generated the laughs. It was an interesting question to ask, but since Lewis wrote, directed, and produced the movie, he obviously had complete control. )
Later in their career, there are a few examples where other comics were featured or got big laughs in an A&C movie, such as Sid Fields (MEXICAN HAYRIDE, LITTLE GIANT), Murray Leonard (LOST IN A HAREM), Joe Besser (AFRICA SCREAMS), Shemp (AFRICA SCREAMS.) And of couse Besser and Fields were in their TV show.
Even though it was only 3 movies, they sure wore out the service comedy theme pretty quickly. At least we have HOLD THAT GHOST to break up the monotony.
It is interesting that as those service comedies progressed, they did alter the formula slightly, though. In BUCK PRIVATES, they start out as civilians, in IN THE NAVY they are already, well, in the navy. In KEEP'EM FLYING, they technically join the Army Air Forces, but they are only ground crewmen. To me, the latter is the weakest of the service trio.
So the musical numbers in HOLD THAT GHOST are just bookends, and don't interfere with the film proper. The following year, they made WHO DONE IT? which has no musical numbers at all, and ranks as one of their best.
A lot of the magic of HOLD THAT GHOST comes from the fact that it was essentially only the second starring film that they made. It has been well documented in various published books on A&C about how their energy diminished as their film career progressed, no doubt exacerbated by the tragedy in Lou Costello's life in 1943. But the energy in HOLD THAT GHOST leaps off the screen. You wouldn't notice it from watching their early films, but Bud Abbott was already 46 in 1941! (BTW, Wikipedia makes him 2 years younger, but all my published books say he was born in 1895.) Lou was much younger at 35.
Other than the bookends, it is almost all A&C. The only brief lulls are the romance, but since they contain Evelyn Ankers, I don't mind. Richard Carlson plays the male romance lead, and he gives a great performance, since he plays a kind of absent-minded professor. A few months ago, I saw THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON for the first time, and he was in it! I said to myself, "That's the guy from HOLD THAT GHOST!" I don't think I've seen any other of the movies he was in.
Joan Davis is great, and she was given her own sitcom (I MARRIED JOAN) in the 50s, co-starring Jim "Mr. Howell" Backus. I don't think I've ever seen an episode, since it was pulled from syndication in the early 60s when Davis died, due to legal issues with her estate, according to Wikipedia. Wiki also claims it has been shown on cable as recently as 2018.
The candle-moving gag, the Lou/Davis dance, and the changing room gag, are the highlights, but the film is packed with amusing dialogue involving the boys with each other, and with the other actors, throughout.
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned that Shemp is in this film! I always enjoy Shemp in A&C's movies, but the only one where he remotely resembles his Stooge character is in AFRICA SCREAMS. Otherwise, he usually plays normal people, and is a straight-man for Lou, or others like W.C. Fields in THE BANK DICK.
There are probably no other films they made after this one that are funnier, although THE NOOSE HANGS HIGH comes pretty darn close, and was made 7 years later as an independent production. That film to me is vey much underrated.
A&C basically "remade" this film, condensed, in the HAUNTED HOUSE episode of the first season of their TV Series. They did make lots of changes, though, since the plot involves having to stay with Hillary overnight in a house so she can get an inheritance. Pity that they had to introduce a gorilla into the finale. Still a fun episode, and one of the best in the series.
