Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy
DVD review of one of Abbott and Costello's last films, 'Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy' - surprisingly funny and entertaining!Editorial Review of Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy courtesy of Amazon.com
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After 15 years of hit movies for Universal Studios, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello left the studio in the twilight of their partnership with the last of their monster comedies. Decked out in desert safari gear, the boys go looking for a job with an Egyptologist and wind up in the middle of a conspiracy concerning the murdered professor, an ancient mummy, and a magical medallion that, true to form, bumbling Costello manages to eat for dinner. Marie Windsor, the boss lady of a gang of treasure hunting crooks, dresses in a harem outfit to vamp for our chubby little hero, and the eternally stiff Richard Deacon hilariously plays the leader of an Egyptian mummy cult like a high school principal decked out for Halloween. Directed by longtime collaborator Charles Lamont, it's a typical Abbott and Costello farce with disappearing corpses, mistaken identities, and wacky word plays ("Take your pick" riffs on "Who's on first" with garden tools). While not as clever or spirited as their original monster mash Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, the vaudeville veterans are still masters of the double take and fast-talk patter, and the picture climaxes with a screwball chase that involves not one, not two, but three mummies skittering through the phoniest looking pyramid this side of community theater. You were expecting realism? The boys appeared together once more on film, in Dance with Me, Henry, and then split up. --Sean Axmaker
[Editor's note: Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy is also available as part of The Best of Abbott and Costello, Volume 4
Trivia for Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
- Though Bud Abbott’s character in this film was named Peter Patterson and Lou Costello’s character’s name was Freddie Franklin, they addressed each other by their own, real names ("Heeeeey Abbott!") throughout much of the picture.
- This was Bud Abbott and Lou Costello’s last film for Universal.
- In this film, the name of the mummy has been changed from "Kharis" to "Klaris."
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