Read an Excerpt
Excerpt from Turner Classics Movies Presents Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide:
Aaron Slick From Punkin Crick (1952) C-95m. D: Claude Binyon. Alan Young, Dinah Shore, Adele Jergens, Robert Merrill, Minerva Urecal, Veda Ann Borg. Innocuous musical of dreamy farm widow Shore, obsessed with moving to the city; she’s courted by shy-bumpkin neighbor Young, and is taken by on-the-lam crooks Merrill and Jergens. Based on a 1919 play—and it shows. Unmemorable score. Film debut of opera star Merrill.
Abandoned (1949) 79m. ½ D: Joe Newman. Dennis O’Keefe, Gale Storm, Jeff Chandler, Raymond Burr, Marjorie Rambeau, Will Kuluva, Meg Randall, Mike Mazurki, Jeanette Nolan. Pretty good exposé about a baby'selling racket; reporter O’Keefe tries to help Storm find out what happened to her sister. Good L.A. locations; snappy dialogue by William Bowers.
Abandon Ship (1957-British) 100m. D: Richard Sale. Tyrone Power, Mai Zet-terling, Lloyd Nolan, Stephen Boyd, Moira Lister, James Hayter. Tyrone is officer suddenly in command of lifeboat holding survivors from sunken luxury liner. Tense, exciting study of people fighting to stay alive while exposed to savage seas and each other. British title: SEVEN WAVES AWAY.
Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953) 77m. ½ D: Charles Lamont. Robert Paige, Mari Blanchard, Martha Hyer, Horace McMahon. Unimaginative vehicle has Bud and Lou sailing through space with escaped gangsters, landing on Venus, a planet populated with scantily clad women. Look quickly for Anita Ekberg.
Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945) 83m. D: S. Sylvan Simon. Frances Rafferty, Robert Stanton, Jean Porter, Warner Anderson, Dean Stockwell. Uneven comedy with A&C as barber and porter in Tinseltown. A few peeks behind the scenes at MGM with Rags Ragland, Lucille Ball, Preston Foster, Butch Jenkins, and director Robert Z. Leonard. Officially titled BUD ABBOTT AND LOU COSTELLO IN HOLLYWOOD.
Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950) 80m. D: Charles Lamont. Patricia Medina, Walter Slezak, Douglass Dumbrille. Unexceptional vehicle pitting A&C against nasty sergeant Slezak. Best scene involves mirages in the desert.
Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952) C-70m. D: Charles Lamont. Charles Laughton, Hillary Brooke, Fran Warren, Bill Shirley, Leif Erickson. Middling pirate spoof with too many lousy songs, worth catching to see Laughton having the time of his life in atypical low comedy.
Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953) 77m. D: Charles Lamont. Boris Karloff, Craig Stevens, Reginald Denny, Helen Westcott, John Dierkes. Disappointing attempt to mix A&C with Jekyll (Karloff) and Hyde (stuntman Eddie Parker), with too few funny scenes. Special effects are film’s main asset.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) 83m. ½ D: Charles Barton. Lon Chaney, Jr., Bela Lugosi, Lenore Aubert, Jane Randolph, Glenn Strange, Frank Ferguson. Dracula (Lugosi) plans to put Lou’s brain in Frankenstein’s monster; werewolf Larry Talbot (Chaney) has his paws full convincing the boys they’re in danger. All-time great horror-comedy still works beautifully, mainly because the monsters play it straight. Yes, that isVincent Price’s voice at the end. Officially titled BUD ABBOTT LOU COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) 82m. D: Charles Lamont. Nancy Guild, Arthur Franz, Adele Jergens, Sheldon Leonard. One of the team’s best vehicles, with Bud and Lou as detectives helping boxer (Franz) who’s been framed by mobster Leonard, with aid of invisibility formula. The effects are top-notch.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955) 79m. D: Charles Lamont. Fred Clark, Lynn Bari, Mack Sennett, Maxie Rosenbloom, Frank Wilcox, Henry Kulky, Sam Flint. Low-budget comedy could have been better. Clark is fine as conniving producer in this synthetic period piece of silent-slapstick movie days.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff (1949) 84m. ½ D: Charles Barton. Lenore Aubert, Gar Moore, Donna Martell, Alan Mowbray. Pleasant blend of comedy and whodunit with bodies hanging in closets perplexing hotel dick Abbott, and phony mystic Karloff trying to do away with klutzy bellboy Costello.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) 79m. ½ D: Charles Lamont. Marie Windsor, Michael Ansara, Dan Seymour, Kurt Katch, Richard Deacon. Amusing adventure with A&C mixed up with villainess Windsor, a subterranean tomb, and a mummy who’s still alive.
ABC Murders, The SEE: Alphabet Murders, The
Abductors, The (1957) 80m. ½ D: Andrew McLaglen. Victor McLaglen, George Mac-ready, Fay Spain, Gavin Muir. Boring ac-count of McLaglen and Macready’s scheme to steal and hold for ransom the remains of Abraham Lincoln; based on fact. Only time McLaglen was directed by his son. Regalscope.
Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) 110m. D: John Cromwell. Raymond Massey, Gene Lockhart, Ruth Gordon, Mary Howard, Dorothy Tree, Minor Watson, Alan Baxter, Howard da Silva. First-rate Americana; sincere story of Lincoln’s life and career is beautifully acted by Massey, with top support from Gordon as Mary Todd. Based on Robert Sherwood’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play.
Abe Lincoln of Ninth Avenue, The SEE: Streets of New York
Abie’s Irish Rose (1946) 96m. BOMB D: A. Edward Sutherland. Joanne Dru, Richard Norris, Michael Chekhov, Eric Blore, Art Baker, J. M. Kerrigan. Outmoded remake of 1920s Broadway comedy about a Jewish boy marrying an Irish girl. Filmed before in 1929. Produced by Bing Crosby. Look for Shelley Winters as a bridesmaid.
Abilene Town (1946) 89m. D: Edwin L. Marin. Randolph Scott, Ann Dvorak, Edgar Buchanan, Rhonda Fleming, Lloyd Bridges. Above-average Scott vehicle as patient sheriff tries to straighten out homesteader conflict out West after the Civil War. Also shown in computer-colored version.
Abominable Snowman, The (1957-British) 90m. ½ D: Val Guest. Forrest Tucker, Peter Cushing, Richard Wattis, Maureen Connell, Robert Brown. Intelligent tale of good man (Cushing) and corrupt man (Tucker) heading an expedition seeking the elusive title creature, with surprising results. Aka THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF THE HIMALAYAS. Original U.S. running time 85m. Widescreen Hammerscope.
About Face (1952) C-94m. ½ D: Roy Del Ruth. Gordon MacRae, Eddie Bracken, Dick Wesson, Phyllis Kirk, Joel Grey. Dull comedy-musical remake of BROTHER RAT, about three friends in military academy, one of them secretly married. Grey’s film debut.
About Mrs. Leslie (1954) 104m. D: Daniel Mann. Shirley Booth, Robert Ryan, Marjie Millar, Alex Nicol, Sammy White, James Bell, Eilene Janssen, Henry (Harry) Morgan, Gale Page, Ellen Corby, Amanda Blake, Joan Shawlee, Benny Rubin, Jack Larson, Jerry Paris. Flashbacks reveal romance between chanteuse (Booth) and mysterious, lonely magnate (Ryan). Well-acted soaper; forgivable illogical coupling of stars.
