BUD & LOU THE ABBOTT AND COSTELLO STORY

THIS 1 DVD. QUALITY IS A SOLID 9/10 FOR BOTH PICTURE AND SOUND

RUNNING TIME 98 MINUTES

DVD’S COME IN PLAIN PAPER SLEEVES, NO ART WORK.

This film (based on a book by their manager Eddie Collins
(Arte Johnson)) describes how the team made it as a national
phenomenon, particularly after they played their best remembered
routine, "Who's On First" on national radio. Actually Korman and
Hackett are just fine, in performing that mental twisting skit. No
they are not the real Abbott and Costello, but they don't have to
be the real ones. The real ones performed it flawlessly again and
again throughout their careers, while Korman and Hackett only had
to do it for this one film. Similarly they had only to do the
"Captain Jonah and the Whale" story joke only once. They had to do
it in the context of the movie.

The tragedy of Costello's infant son's tragic drowning is
shown, and how it adds to the tensions in the partnership. So is
Abbott's epilepsy (I remember one scene where Korman is in a
dressing room and feels a seizure coming and uses a pencil to
prevent himself from swallowing his tongue). Tax problems caught up
with both men (somewhat unfairly - the IRS apparently targeted
them, despite their having worked selling bonds during the war
years). Universal Studios, growing tired with the bullying behavior
of Lou, dumped them when they were in need of help with the IRS
(leading to Johnson's best moment in the film - telling off the
owners of the studio that if it wasn't for Bud and Lou there
wouldn't be a Universal Studio). Abbott's growing alcoholism leads
to a fiasco in
Las Vegas that ends the partnership. And soon after Costello
dies of a heart attack. The film, by the way, shows the end
correctly: Lou having a milk shake in his hospital bed (thanks to
Eddie) and remarking it was the best he ever had, just before
dying.

It was a well acted film, only missing out on one ironic last
point about Lou. He was going to play Mayor LaGuardia in the new
musical FIORELLO when he died. Had he done so, his career would
have zoomed off again.

STARRING

HARVEY KORMAN - BUD ABBOTT

BUDDY HACKETT - LOU
COSTELLO

ARTE JOHNSON - EDDIE COLLINS

MICHELE LEE - ANNE COSTELLO

ROBERT REED - ALAN RANDALL

DUE TO THE EASE OF COPYING DVDS, ALL
SALES ARE FINAL. I WILL REPLACE ANY DEFECTIVE DVD