Film number thirty three of thirty five, we’re really getting close to the end with ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KEYSTONE COPS. Interestingly enough, in what should be very obvious by the title, Bud and Lou are using one of their final films to reflect back on the very roots of film comedy - the silent era and more specifically, Mack Sennett studios. Blink and you’ll miss them, but Keystone regulars Hank Mann and Heinie Conklin appear in this film and in one scene, so does the man himself, Mack Sennett. With the latter, it’s simply an excuse to pay tribute to the man by having him throw a pie in Lou Costello’s face. Nothing wrong with that! But yeah, this film was released in 1955. Bud and Lou were most famously linked to World War II era American culture, so them, ten years later, in Eisenhower, Martin and Lewis and television America, paying tribute to an era thirty to forty years past, must have seemed really old hat. Indeed, there was even question of using the term “Keystone Cops” in the title due to the thought the term was no longer culturally relevant. You guys know me, though, I like Bud and and Lou and I like the old silent comedy stuff, so throw the two worlds together and I’m a pretty happy guy.
I’ll cut to the chase - at the end of the film. A lot of Bud and Lou films have chases toward the end that feel thrown together and have the use of way too many long shots, random screams and obvious back screen projection. Here, while nobody is going to mistake this chase for a 1925 Del Lord directed spectacle, we do get an entertaining chase here that belongs in the context of the film and has some fun moments. I actually want to to see a bunch of random cops thrown into a car like matches in a matchbox in in a tribute to silent comedy and some of the gags are pretty cool as well. I love the driving cars/motorcycles in a forest bit, real dangerous with all those trees around. We get plenty of shots of cops falling on their backsides out of the car, business with trains, and the old standby of driving by a hole of men digging a ditch, all throwing dirt in perfect synchronicity on the high speed comics passing by. While lacking the edge of your sear danger of a prime Sennett chase - and it would be wrong to expect that out of mid 1950’s Hollywood, there is still more care put into this chase than most others and considering the tribute context involved, very appropriate.
My favorite stuff in this movie is actually in the first half, though. The whole bit of Lou dramatically pretending he’s a son to Bud and pretending he’s getting beat up by Bud, causing a passerby the beat up Bud is a rare routine that shows up in these plot driven later Bud and Lou films and is quite a funny one. I also really love the outdoor traveling aspect Bud and Lou take together trying to get to California. They feel very much like a team for a long stretch here - not always the case in their films - and just watching them in an open outdoor setting, doing funny business with squirrels, trains, hobos and carrying each other around is great fun. In addition to the joy of seeing these two great comics work together for a long stretch, the outdoor settings and gags again have a very silent comedy feel to it, a great novelty in an Abbott and Costello film.
Once they get to California and are in the studio, while nothing terrible happens, the films hits a lull just a tad for me. The whole business with Fred Clark getting confused with the differing cops and robbers I suppose is a highlight, but it gets a little too plot oriented in parts and I do breathe a sigh of relief when the chase suddenly happens towards the end. But overall, this is a pretty entertaining film. I do feel these later Abbott and Costello films all rank in the top half and fit my tastes more, though of course there is some overlap.
A few more things of note. The teenage girl at the ticket counter in the beginning of the film is Carole Costello, daughter of Lou. Made funny because Lou has a line in the film making fun of her father. Speaking of blink and you’ll miss him, Joe Besser gets a very brief appearance here getting his rifle stolen and doing a quick routine of putting his hand on the top to see who gets the gun. Considering Joe’s use as Stinky during this time, it would have been nice to see him get more screen time like in AFRICA SCREAMS.
