In the Navy | Abbott and Costello | Bud Abbott | Lou Costello | the Andrews Sisters | Shemp Howard | Dick Powell | clown ministry

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In The Navy, starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Dick Powell, The Andrews Sisters, Shemp Howard

In the Navy - Abbott and Costello - Bud Abbott - Lou Costello - Those 'Buck Privates' are bounding main-iacs - Dick Powell - the Andrews Sisters

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Bud Abbott and Lou Costello‘s follow up after the amazing success of Buck Privates was In the Navy—which actually did better than Buck Privates. Like their previous film, Shemp Howard and the Andrews Sisters provide a comic foil and musical interludes, respectively. In a nutshell, Abbott and Costello join the Navy, get involved in a romantic subplot with Dick Powell, and do some of their most famous routines, including a version of the con artist shell game using lemons, and Lou demonstrating his clownish math skills by trying to prove that 28 divided by 7 equals 13—this bit alone is worth the price of admission.

I rate it 4 clowns on a 5-clown scale.

Editorial Reviews of In the Navy, courtesy Amazon.com

After the huge success of Buck Privates (cleverly referenced in a spoofing credits sequence), Abbott and Costello traded army green for navy blue to play landlocked gobs sent to sea after six years in the service. The actual story belongs to Dick Powell, who plays a radio crooner who has ditched fame and fawning fans for the sailor’s life, while an ambitious female reporter (Claire Dodd) shadows the singer and stows aboard his battleship to expose his secret. Meanwhile Bud Abbott continues to con the ever-gullible Lou Costello, and Costello woos Patty from the Andrews Sisters. Director Arthur Lubin overcomes bargain-basement production values (rear projection footage, toy boat special effects) with the snappy repartee and energetic by-play of his stars. Skit highlights include a typically crooked Bud Abbott shell game, a hysterical series of spit-gags (in which the boys keep cracking up on camera), Costello’s mathematical proof that 7 times 13 equals 28, and the climactic toy boat fantasy of naval maneuvers gone mad, courtesy of Captain Costello. The Andrews Sisters sing four songs (including ”Gimme Some Skin”), Dick Powell sings two, and the Condos brothers perform a delightful dance specialty act. The boys would once again overcome Lubin’s lackluster direction in their next release, Hold That Ghost , which was actually shot before this film. --Sean Axmaker --This text refers to the DVD edition.