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Abbott & Costello Meet The Mummy (1955)

 
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 25, 2020 3:34 pm    Post subject: Abbott & Costello Meet The Mummy (1955) Reply with quote



"Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy'' Universal.
Released on May 23, 1955
Running Time: 79 minutes

Directed by Charles Lamont; Screenplay by John Grant; Original Story by Lee Loeb.

Bud Abbott (Peter Paterson); Lou Costello (Freddie Franklin); Marie Windsor ( Madame Rontru); Michael Ansara (Charlie); Dan Seymour (Josef); Richard Deacon (Semu).

This would be the last monster spoof for the Abbott & Costello films. It's also their weakest effort.

Budgeted at $738,250 for a 25-day shoot.

Age and illnesses had caught up with Bud & Lou by this time.

Years of heavy drinking made Bud appear older looking than he was; his weight was almost now equal to Lou's weight.

Lou suffered from a weakened heart. He lacked the vitality and energy he once had and looks worn out.

According to Michael Ansara, the relationship between Bud and Lou was strained.

Paddy Costello thought that Universal-International wasn't really spending the money they should have on the script.

And they weren't spending the dough on the production overall that they once would have done in the past.

When you add up all these factors, it's little wonder that this final monster film of Bud & Lou's turned out to be so poor.

The last time that the Mummy appeared on screen in a Universal film was the 1944 "The Mummy's Curse" with Lon Chaney, Jr in the lead role.

The Mummy had been named Kharis in those movie, but in the Abbott & Costello version it was changed to Klaris.

Lou insisted upon doing his own stunt work despite medical orders to the contrary.

Composer Henry Mancini scored the opening titles and other portions of the film.

Lou's friend & bit player in the A&C films, Bobby Barber, was sent to have everyone on the set sign Lou's anti-Communism pledge.

Richard Deacon refused and Barber was angry. Barber told Deacon that if Lou found out about his refusal that Deacon would never work again at Universal.

Nothing ever happened.

Even though Bud is named Peter Patterson in the film, and Lou is Freddie Franklin, they call one another by Abbott and Costello in the movie.

There is some of the comedic wordplay which made Bud & Lou so famous in the first place.

The Mummy's appearance on screen is very disappointing. Instead of the classic elaborate Jack Pierce makeup that the earlier Mummy films had, we are subjected to an actor in a suit. I kept looking for the zipper in the back.

Lou's daughter Carole plays a flower girl in this film.

One of the problems with this film is that the Mummy doesn't finally appear until late in the movie.

Bud and Lou are ordered to dig a hole in the desert. Here, they perform one of their funny verbal routines where they really excelled as a comedy team.

After they finished filming their movie, Bud & Lou rode the number one float in the 1954 Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

It was a shame that Abbott & Costello's final monster movie was such a bad one compared to their earlier efforts.

I guess effort is the key word here, because that seems to be what Universal-International was no longer doing substantially with the classic comedy duo's films anymore.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 26, 2020 9:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Here's the great trailer for this movie and several nice clips! In the one called "Opening Night Scene" Lou shows the way tp put on a tuxedo in 15 seconds! Laughing


__Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy Official Trailer


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_______________ Mummies Everywhere Scene


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____________________Opening Night Scene


__________

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 11, 2022 12:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Movie Comedy Teams by Leonard Maltin.

Oddly enough, the team's last film for the studio (Universal), Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy, was quite good, the best film they had done since Invisible Man. After Mummy, Universal dropped Abbott and Costello.

Sidebar: I found this review of Mummy by Maltin odd after he wrote that Abbott & Costello Go To Mars as "one of their dreariest movies." While I don't rate Mars highly either, Mummy is far from "quite good" in my opinion. Following in the steps of their meeting classic horror figures, we all know nothing Bud & Lou did could, or would, equal Meet Frankenstein. Their Invisible Man film isn't bad at all, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde is a mixed bag, and Mummy is disappointing.

Sidebar: As I've noted earlier, the Mummy makeup for the undead monster is surprisingly poor coming from Universal Studios who created the magnificent makeup in the first place for their earlier Mummy movies. I realize that in order to cut costs that the studio trimmed the makeup budgets for the A&C monster movies. Even their Frankenstein film no longer had the immense talents of the legendary Jack Pierce creating his iconic makeup for the monster and the Wolf Man. The painstakingly slow and expensive process that Jack came up with was tossed aside in order to do faster makeup utilizing prosthetic appliances.

Sidebar: If you compare photos of the A&C movie of the monsters to the original makeup they had in their original Universal films you do notice a difference. Yet, somehow the film with Bud & Lou manages to get by with the cheaper and quicker makeup processes.

Sidebar: Not so with the Mummy. The fact that the whole deal for the creature looks just like what it is, a stuntman wearing a zip-up suit. I have to believe that Universal could have done better even using cost effective make up. Almost anything would have been an improvement.

Sidebar: As to why Maltin, whom I greatly respect, finds Mummy a decent movie eludes me. Yes, it has several scenes that are funny just as all the weaker A&C films do. Bud & Lou even have one of their humorous wordplay routines involving a pick and a shovel. Low & behold, it's even a brand new one instead of a recycled classic routines of theirs that goes back to their burlesque days.

Sidebar: However, the movie title is Meet The Mummy, so no getting around the theme of the film. What we end up getting is a Mummy that doesn't arrive until late in the picture, and one that is a big letdown in appearance. That's two big strikes against their last comedy-horror movie for me. Mr. Maltin and I will have to agree to disagree on this one.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 12, 2022 2:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Mike, that is yet another damn fine addition to All Sci-Fi — and it came just as I about to announce that I was going to take a vacation from posting on the board, simply because everybody else seemed to be doing so as well! Laughing

As always, I continue to be impressed by the wealth of information you provide on a subject which (a) I'm very interested in, and (b) I know very little about.

Bravo, sir! Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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