Product Description

Buzz (Bud Abbott) and Abercrombie (Lou Costello) work in a Tinseltown haircut salon where they usually just take a little off the side. But why not take 10% off the top instead? So the fellas become movie talent agents, setting in motion the lights-camera-comedy antics of Abbott and Costello in Hollywood, including Costello being mistaken for a prop dummy during the filming of a saloon brawl, Bud and Lou coping with insomnia, and a pursuit finale in the cars and on the tracks of a roaring roller-coaster. You'll also find Lost in a Harem. Locked in is more like it, as the two land in the hoosegow twice, where their timing, repartee and monkeyshines shine. Douglas Dumbrille plays the evil potentate who uses hypnosis against the boys ? making this a tale of Arabian daze and nights. The grand wazir orders you to watch!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32522 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-11-21
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 192 minutes

Customer Reviews

YOU WON'T BE LAUGHING !!
In my opinion this DVD release is a total slap in the face to Abbott & Costello fans. Warner home video should be ashamed of themselves with this release, the video transfer quality is absolutely terrible. After watching this double feature, it's evident that no amount of restoration went into this DVD release from Warner. While Abbott and Costello fans will find the movies funny, they won't be laughing over the video quality.

DVD Features:
Abbott and Costello in Hollywood theatrical trailer
Languages: English & French
Subtitles: English, French & Spanish (feature films only)

What Happened To The Transfers?!
Although it's a great idea to feature both of these films as a 2-fer DVD, each one suffers from bad transfers. The worse of the two being "In Hollywood". There is a strange blue/gray blemmish at the top of the film that lasts throught the entire movie. While the films are not the best made by Abbott & Costello- thanks to MGM who never knew how to make comedies, they are still fun to watch and are a must for completist geeks like myself.

Classic A&C Humor, You Won't Find Anything Like It Today!
First, the issue of quality. The only quality defect I noticed on my copy were vertical white lines and specks due to scratches on the film throughout parts of the "Harem". As far as I could tell, the quality of the transfer of "In Hollywood" is flawless. I already had these two movies on DVD-R burnt from laser disc, and the quality of these releases is no worse than that of the laser disc. "Lost In A Harem" and "In Hollywood" are two movies Abbott & Costello did with MGM movies studios. The boys almost sign with MGM before their lucrative deal with Universal, so to appease MGM for their near-miss, Universal allowed Abbott & Costello to film three movies with for MGM. The other two being "In Hollywood", available on this disc, and " Rio Rita", mysteriously absent from this disc. The twenty-eight movies Abbott & Costello released under Universal can be found on four separate volumes available just about anywhere.

Lost In A Harem has the boys as Vaudeville performers stranded and looking for any kind of work in a faraway Arabian land, accompanied by beautiful blonde singer Hazel Moon, played by Marilyn Maxwell. All three are offered safe passage back home by Prince Ramo if they help him regain his thrown which was usurped by his villainous uncle Namativ. Throughout the movie, the boys dodge and evade all kinds of sandies and dunies who are threatening to kill them. In one instance the boys even pretend to be Hollywood talent scouts to gain safe entry into the palace. Twice the boys are captured and put in jail, where they run into a derelict with dementia, who goes crazy after hearing the word Pokomoko. While this is an unoriginal heist of The Three Stooges "Niagara Falls" routine, it contains enough discrepancies so as not to be a total rip-off. In most if not all Abbott & Costello movies, politically incorrect humor, which sadly lacks in today's films, is very abundant. "Lost In A Harem" is no exception. One classic scene between the boys and the villainous uncle, Natmativ question Costello's eyesight. The dialogue goes as follows:

Namativ: Eyes Bad?
Costello: Is you?

Scenes such as the preceding make "Harem" a very enjoyable classic.

"In Hollywood" has the boys working in a Hollywood barbershop. When an aspiring young actor/singer leaves his home town of Des Moines to search for fame in Hollywood, Abbott & Costello give up their hair-cutting gig to become his agents. The fast-flowing plot culminates in an amusement park movie set, including a chaotic chase scene atop a roller coaster, leading to an explosive ending. As is the case in all A&C movies, "In Hollywood" involves a romantic sub-plot, in this case between the aspiring youngster and a former beauty salon worker and friend of the boys who has "caught her break" in the movie industry. Skits here include Costello's first barbershop customer, Rags Raglan, who is in desperate need of a shave. That has disaster written all over it. Another hilarious skit features Costello being mistaken for a movie prop dummy by a director shooting an old West bar room brawl, and getting tossed all over the room! The obligatory (and much appreciated) politically incorrect scene has Costello disguised as an islamobaddie cab driver, equipped with a turban and beard, to avoid being detected. Why was he trying to avoid detection? I won't give that away. Watch the movie and find out.

There never has been another comedy duo quite like Abbott & Costello. These two movies confirm it! "Lost In A Harem" and "In Hollywood" will have you laughing for hours. Now if only someone will release their third (actually first in chronological order) MGM film "Rio Rita", another classic!