Reviews (1)

I envy Diego's Patience!
Don Alejandro's brother-in-law, Don Estaban (played by Cesar Romero!!) comes to visit, and wrecks havoc on the peaceful life of the de la Vega's. Through his various get-rich-quick schemes, he manages to amuse Diego and infuriate Don Alejandro. Don Estaban manages to even capture the attention of Zorro, who manages to foil each scheme as it happens. And how Zorro/ Diego kept his sense of humor with Don Estaban is beyond me... Even when Don Estaban steals Tornado and tries to set Diego up with Margarita (then decides that her 10,000 acres and 1000's of head of cattle would make his fortune pretty quickly)! I thoroughly enjoy this movie! ... Read more

Description

With SHIRLEY TEMPLE. Directed by CHARLES LAMONT. Curly-haired, dimpled Shirley Temple, Americas - and the worlds - Depression-era Sweetheart, began her phenomenal career, at age four, with these "Baby Burlesks." Charming parodies of famous movies or genres, they featured all-child casts in adult roles. The precocious, amazingly talented kids wore adult clothing on the upper parts of their bodies and diapers (with gigantic safety pins) below. Although children will love these films, their satiric humor is really quite sophisticated. Its star once called them "the best things I ever did." She may have been right!1.POLLY-TIX IN WASHINGTON (1932-USA). Shirley is Polly-Tix, a sexy temptress hired by unscrupulous politicians to sway the vote of an idealistic senator. (Hes against their mandatory castor-oil consumption bill.) Wearing two-piece black undies and acting like Mae West, she gets the senator literally to eat (whipped-cream cake) out of her hand. Theres a climactic water pistol battle between good and evil and a surreal ending satirizing the notion that "prosperity is just around the corner."2.THE PIE-COVERED WAGON (1932-USA). Parody of the "Covered Wagon," with Shirley, a pioneer, kidnapped from a wagon train and tied to a post by savage Indians. The settlers run out of ammunition and their dog volunteers to race to the fort. Reinforcements and ammunition (a huge supply of custard pies) arrive just in time! (CONTINUED) ... Read more

Reviews (8)

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO IN THE FOREIGN LEGION!
LAUGH your heads off as Bud and Lou end up in the French Foreign Legion! SEE Walter Slezak as the tough sergeant who has to whip these two comic misfits into fighting shape! WATCH as the desert sun beats down unmercifully on them all! DROOL over the dancing slave girls! AVOID the camels at all cost! Can you trust your eyes during the comic WRESTLING sequence or is it all a MIRAGE!

Abbott and Costello take to the desert--or is that a mirage?
This time around Abbott and Costello are wrestling promoters Bud Jones and Lou Hotchkiss. Their star, Abdullah (Wee Willlie Davis), refuses to loose when they tell him to and he returns home to Algeria. The boys have to go after Abdullah and bring him back because they borrowed $5,000 from the syndicate to bring him to America in the first place. However, Abdullah's cousing, Sheik Hamud El Khalid (Douglas Dumbrille) and the evil Foreign Legionnaire Sgt. Axmann (Walter Slezak), have been raiding the railroad being constructed so they can get rich extorting money for protection. The bad guys assume Bud and Lou are spies for the railroad and order them killed. Lou has also upset the Sheik by outbidding him on six beautiful slave girls, including Nicole (Patricia Medina), a French spy. Anyhow, the boys end up enlisting in the Foreing Legion, narrowly avert death several times, and end up saving the day with ample help from Abdullah and Nicole.

This 1950 film, directed by Charles Lamont, was the 25th film featuring Abbott & Costello, then in their 15th year as a comedy team. The film suffers somewhat in comparison to Laurel & Hardy's 1939 classic "The Flying Deuces," but there are enough laughs in this one to make "Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion" at least an average comedy by the boys. Of course, to be fair, Costello had faced a pair of serious illnesses, rheumatic fever and a gangrenous gall bladder, in the months before this film was produced. The wrestling sequence remains the comic highlight of the film, along with the mirages the boys encounter in the desert. The bit between Lou and the Commandant where the word play of "we"/"oui" is merely cute. Still, this movie is arguably the second best Foreign Legion comedy of all time, for what that is worth.

THIS TIME THE TEAM WREAKS CHAOS IN THE FORIEGN LEGION
This basic Abbott and Costello comedy is a fast paced adventure about Abbott and Costello as wrestling promoters. When I first watched this I thought it wouldn't be as funny as the teams other outings but then I was wrong. I noticed that Abbott and Costello do the same old same old though but never the less the team does pull through.

BEWARE WATCH OUT

For the teams most funniest routines.

Pleasant
This is a great A&C movie.There are a great many big laughs.These include The Mirage Scene and the big fish scene.There is also a good scene with lou kissing the arab girls.You wont be disappointed.

Why Put Spmething on DVD Without Extras?
I am a big fan of Abbott and Costello, but this title is not one of their best films. Later this summer the superior ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN is slated for DVD release, and I hope it is a better reproduction. What is the point of releasing these old titles on DVD if there are no extras? MCA/Universal is very bad at this. At least the old box set laser discs of A&C films had the trailers included. A complete filmography would be nice. Another reviewer mentioned this release was supposed to be in widescreen, but that is doubtful because it was not a widescreen film when it was released in theatres almost 50 years ago. MCA/Universal, though, is notorious for being cavalier with their video releases and making mistakes. Read the liner notes put out by the studio for this title, and you'll see that they misdescribe events and get character names wrong. They also identify a fish as a crab! Abbott and Costello may have been low budget but their pertformances and routines were quality. Their films made a lot of money for the studio when the studio needed it, and I would expect the studio to have greater respect for the boys. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

TWO OF LOU and ABBOT's BEST!
What makes ABBOT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN dynamic is that Bella Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. play the monster roles as straight as their audence expects. They should have received bonuses for restraint! It's funny, scarry, and flies with an active story and creative cast. IN ABBOT & COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN, the boys are fresh out of detective school and looking for a place to start. A famous boxer, Tommy Nelson is wrongfully accused of murder. By a freak lab insident, Tommy is made invisible and needs LOU and ABBOT to find a rat in and out of the boxing ring. You have to see the fight scene with Costello. It roars! Excellent combination.

"I saw two men...carrying no man."
By the 1950's, Abbott and Costello's film career was beginning to slide. Fortunately, "A&C MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN" is a bright spot among these later films. Since it seemed unlikely that the scare comedy of "MEET FRANKENSTEIN" could be topped, someone wisely decided to make this more of a mystery-comedy with a sci-fi twist thrown in. And it works. Bud and Lou are joined by a great supporting cast including Arthur Franz (as the invisible one), Sheldon Leonard, and William Frawley (very funny as a befuddled detective!)

Meet the Invisible Man
Abbott and Costello meet the Invisible Man is their adventure as two private eyes hired by boxer (Arthur Franz) to prove his innocent of murdering his manager. Franz takes the invisibility serum and with the aid of Costello acting as a "champion" boxer, with Frantz doing the boxing, the duo find the real killer.

Franz takes the same invisibility serum as Claude Rains took in the original The Invisible Man. You will see his picture hanging in the scientist's lab.

Abbott and Costello later meet Dr. Jekyll and Hyde (1953) and The Mummy (1955); they had already met Frankenstein (1948) and The Killer Boris Karloff (1949).

THE BEST OF ABBOTT AND COSTELLO
The best of Abbott and Costello is definitely in this pack!I love Abbott and Costello(as actors)!Not even the 3 stooges can beat the abbott and costello when they meet the monsters!Everyone should have the right to watch the talented Bud Abbott and Lou Costello!There should be more copies!So whoever is reading this that hasn,t seen it I won't spoil it,only give a tiny summary on my favorite one.:
Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde
Slim and Tubby(Bud and Lou)are American cops in London to study police tactics and knowing them,they wind up in jail. They are bailed out by Dr. Jekyll who has been murdering fellow doctors who laugh at his experiments. The boys look to solve the recent murders to get back on the police force. The serum ends up into the system of Tubby and several police officers, causing many Hyde's running around London.

Classic Family Fun at its best
Bud & Lou graduate detective school or at least Bud does, Lou graduates because the teacher is bribed. A suspected killer comes to them to help prove he is innocent and later becomes invisible to hide from the police who happens to be william frawley (fred mertz from i love lucy). frawley had lou sent to a shrink to explain disappearing men and ends up hypnotizing the shrink - very funny. The theme is a boxing frame up, when a figher doesnt take a dive and knocks out the mobs boxer- you get a murder. Next Bud and lou go undercover as boxer and manager to prove the set up and with the invisble man as lou's real boxing hands it is very funny and a very well put together hollywood gem that you can watch with the whole family, unlike the current [stuff] hollywood puts out today, this is good clean fun and a keeper. ... Read more