Topic: The Abbott and Costello Show, Season 1, Ep. 8 - THE ARMY STORY

[metaldams]

       You know the way in the rock world there are album artists and there are singles artists?  For the latter, you really just want the greatest hits album, none of the filler.  Well, THE ARMY STORY is that greatest hits album of the early service comedies all of us fans want who are mostly interested in the comedy and less so the swing numbers and romantic subplots.  I fall into that category personally, so I love this episode.  This episode draws heavily from BUCK PRIVATES with a little IN THE NAVY thrown in for good measure.  This also serves as a greatest hits for season one itself as the majority of the characters get a nice scene, so consider this a very well rounded and funny episode.

      I have always been a huge fan of 7 into 13 equals 28 and Lou gets to do that routine with Sid Fields.  It is a classic routine no matter where or when it’s done and I’ve discussed this before - but there is a subtle twist that makes this one funnier to me.  They are using crayons on the wall of the apartment.  You would think Sid the landlord wouldn’t allow that but he’s fine with it.  Lord knows my mother killed me when I did that as a kid!  But yes, a classic routine that is nice to have consolidated into a strict comic setting.  For me, the whole purpose of these TV episodes and why I love them so much.

     Other familiar and classic routines are the army dice game and the drill routine.  The former is the old stand by where Lou plays innocent about dice yet blurts out insider terminology revealing the charade.  Just a great routine giving Bud and Lou the chance to do some oneupmanship in the dice game and a wonderful excuse for Bud to explode and slap Lou.  Lou takes some nice hits and those falls on the bed are all laugh worthy.  The famous drill routine is also done here and I love the fact it’s Bud giving the orders.  Also love the camera work.  Those high and medium long shots showing Lou in the middle of two lines of soldiers acting out of synch is excellent.

      Lou also gets scenes with Hillary Brooke and Joe “Stinky” Besser, each doing what they do best.  Hillary is sweet and beautiful and Lou gets kisses out her with dramatic music playing in the background.  The big reveal is that Lou’s service is not overseas, so Hillary’s kisses were for naught.  She was a wonderful choice for this show and always complimented Lou well.  Besser gets about as many laughs as he did in all sixteen of his Stooge shorts combined here.  Again making Lou, by contrast, seem like an adult and getting a huge laugh out of me with that double jump rope routine.  Another fine episode overall.

[HomokHarcos]

I'm not the biggest fan of Abbott and Costello's service comedies, despite being arguably their biggest hits, they are probably my least favorite movies they did. This episode had the highlights, so it's definitely an improvement over those films. While not mentioned directly, it's likely the war they thought they were being sent over to fight was in Korea, as it was ongoing when this episode was produced and Americans were being sent to battle.

The 7 X 13 sketch is one of my favorite Abott and Costello have done, and I like this version much better than the performance in Little Giant. Surprisingly, Bud is replaced by Sid Fields, but it works magnificently! Most of the time Lou gets the short stick in these sketches, but twice in the episode he is coming out on top. I also noticed that Fields didn't care about him drawing on the wall, it would have been funny if after Sid announces that they don't owe any back rent, that he has to pay for a new paint job on the walls.

The dice sketch has Lou display some of his street smarts, playing dumb and winning at dice, a good chance to see Lou display some of his resourcefulness. Having Bud be the leader in the marching scene was surprising, I actually expected Mike the Cop to be revealed as the one giving out orders.

I wouldn't say this is my favorite episode of the series, but it's certainly more condensed and better than their service features.

[Umbrella Sam]

Well, if you want some of the best work of the service comedies without the romantic plots/singing numbers, then this episode is definitely for you. The dice and training routines were both done excellently here. Yeah, I was expecting Mike to take Abbott’s place in the training routine too; it kind of felt like a waste of a big reveal. At the same time, though, Abbott was generally the leader in this routine anyway, so it still makes sense.

As far as the pre-Army scenes go, I really like the interaction between Lou and Stinky. 13 x 7 is good and it’s nice to see Sid Fields get a shot at it, but this one is a case where I think THE COLGATE COMEDY HOUR version is so good that it overshadows practically every other version; Costello has so much energy in that version that I don’t think he ever recaptured in any of the other filmed versions that I’ve seen. But again, it’s still good, and Sid Fields does very well in the Abbott role. The drawing on the wall aspect also is quite amusing. Another fun episode.