ABBOTT AND COSTELLO-RIDE EM' COWBOY

 

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO-RIDE EM’ COWBOY

Okay, let’s get the nasty out of the way. First, the movie starts and proceeds like BUCK PRIVATES, KEEP EM FLYING, and IN THE NAVY. There’s a good guy who comes off as a fake and phony who is out to prove he’s not. There’s a girl who saves his life (and for once, the girl is actually doing something a man might do but alas, it’s stated by her TWICE, that a man could do it better!). Then, there’s even an opening song. The boy girl thing isn’t as heavy handed or boring but it’s close.

 

The actors doing this are pretty good though. Thankfully, the third in the “triangle” is Alabam and the entire triangle approach played down…a lot. In fact, it’s not totally clear who ends up with whom. As the movie goes into its first half, the boys do a lot of goofing and are genuinely and absolutely funny. Hilarious even. Funny as ever. However, the second half is saddled (!) with more songs and while most of the earlier songs (Ella Fitzgerald lends a great number in a Tisket A Tasket) are watchable, the later songs are skippable. The movie even ends with a musical number just like the boys’ earlier movies and ho hum.

 

Second, I don’t know about anyone else but there are a number of disturbing things about this movie that bothered me in the 70s and bother me today. One thing is a scene where Costello is feeding a baby pig and the Indians (!) pull he and the pig and Abbott over a fence. We can’t see what they are doing but one mentions a barbeque and is doing something to the pig. The Indians, trying to force Costello to marry Moonbeam (a chubby native girl!---another offense of the movie as Costello WOULD HAVE MARRIED her skinny, good looking sister SunBeam!), a girl he accidentally shot an arrow through her tent thus an Indian ritual says he must marry her. Okay, a lot of that is played for laughs but…when the boys are returned to the previous spot on the fence…the pig is totally missing. It leaves a bad feeling.

 

Third, and this is really part of second: the POV today is that the movie might just be racist against Native Americans, who I am sure would not enjoy their depiction in it. Yes, it is a comedy but they made to look backward, silly, and mean spirited as well as threatening.

 

Fourth, the INSOMNIA sequence or rather CRAZY HOUSE sequence was usually cut by whatever station I saw it on (WPIX?) and I believe it might have been cut out of the theatrical version, too. If so, it should have remained out of the film and I hate censorship. The problem is that that sequence, a dream sequence which shoehorns an old vaudeville or burlesque routine into the movie about crazy people invading Costello’s sleep JUST DOESN’T WORK. At all. It’s not funny, feels rushed and never hits the mark. At all. On the TV series, the boys do the entire thing and it makes sense as Costello seeks the sanitarium for peace and quiet, the name of the episode PEACE AND QUIET as Lou has insomnia and it is one of the best episodes of the two seasons they did. Here, it just feels awful and is awful. It’s almost embarrassing as it there is a huge smack of racism, too. 

 

Fifth: I’m not sure I fully understand why Bob would bet against his team to lose the money…the way I see it…the lost money was going to go to Anne’s father somehow in another cross bet?

 

So we have women not being as good as men; Native Americans being depicted as Indians and backward and threatening; the vanishing of a baby pig; an awkward routine dream sequence; and the same procedural script as BUCK, KEEP EM, and IN THE NAVY. I know this was to be their third movie so that might explain some of this and the time and place, the 1940s, might explain the backward, parochial portrayal of Native Americans and women. So is the movie worth watching and/or funny?

 

I believe it is. Ella has presence and…

 

The extra cast is fine. Anne Gwynne is a fine presence and I believe her grand son is Chris Pine, who’s dad was in LOST IN SPACE-VISIT TO A HOSTILE PLANET, the 1947 episode. She was also great as a terrible murdering villainess in the third FLASH GORDON serial, FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE. Morris Ankrum was in EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS, GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN, and other classic sci fi, horror movies. I would have sworn he was in at least one mummy movie but can’t find any info on that. Dick Foran who played with the boys in KEEP EM FLYING and IN THE NAVY, WAS in THE MUMMY’S HAND, one of the best mummy movies. They all bring a certain something to the movie.

 

As for the boys, other than the CRAZY HOUSE routine (again, best served by their TV show version, which is the version I first saw and it does not have the Indian thing involved in it), are funny in every scene. From the opening where they are selling hot dogs and getting on their boss’s nerves (although this is like ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS and KEEP EM FLYING) and losing 50 cents down the back of a woman’s dress or charming Anne, they are uproariously funny.

 

Lou, in particular, impresses and makes one laugh at every glance, every line, everything he does, actually. The boys also seem to have more screen time in the short run of the movie’s 1: 25 minutes or so. Again, however, the whole cow milking thing is better served by the TV show’s THE WESTERN STORY. The swimming pool sequence, some claim put in just to showcase swimming girls, is quite funny. As usual there are a lot of fast one liners, answers to Bud’s straight man set up lines, and setting comedy (Lou ropes a baby pony and then a killer horse) and none of these fail to make us laugh and feel good. The movie is quite funny.

 

One of the best things about the movie, apart from the stunning location settings, is the chase sequence toward the end. It is madcap and quite funny. There is a spectacular sequence where the boys, being chased by Indians, are driving a car and the car goes into a tunnel and has to fast drive back out as the train is coming at it! There are also pigeons and birds and a bear that gets into the car as well as a Native. It’s a fun sequence and impressive as it drives through a farm house and a bed with a man sleeping on it is now in front of the car!

 

All in all RIDE EM COWBOY presents as a fun watch, just remember that time it was from and made in and it is heavily dated in its presentation of many things as noted above. It does, however, make one laugh out loud and that’s down to Lou and Bud, both of whom seem to be working their tails off to make us laugh…and both succeeding.