ABBOTT AND COSTELLO IN THE FOREIGN LEGION has some funny scenes scattered around but the 1950 silliness, while no doubt pleasing kids at the time, is today only of interest to A&C’s die-hardest fans (nothing wrong with that) or completest reviewer types. Directed by Charles Barton (one of his nine A&C’s), written by John Grant, Martin Ragaway and Leonard Stern, it was the sole item from the duo in ’50, Lou having been out of action for months with a serious bout of rheumatic fever: note that he looks a lot thinner this time around. Box office placement at 91st doesn’t signal a “wow!” but the production cost was just $689,677, the gross $3,600,000. That notch on the roster becomes downright impressive when realizing the year saw an astounding 1,876 feature films jammed onto screens.

Brooklyn wrestling promoters ‘Bud Jones’ (Abbott) and ‘Lou Hotchkiss’ (Costello) lose their star attraction when ‘Abdullah’ (Wee Willie Davis, 6’5″, 290) gets miffed and returns to his native Algeria. Owing five grand to gangsters, the guys head to North Africa to track Abdullah down. Once there (‘where all is mystery and danger’—kind of like, well, Algeria) they stumble into a hitch with the French Foreign Legion, find out their sergeant is a crook in league with the a cruel tribal leader (who, naturally, is Abdullah’s cousin) and join forces with beautiful slave girl ‘Nicole’ (because she’s a French spy, and therefore beautiful). The sand is a deadly enemy…

Goofy as it sounds, the silliness works to the degree it does because of the team’s honed skill set and by having solid supporting players in Patricia Medina (in a run of exotic roles), Walter Slezak (ditto with villains) and Douglas Dumbrille (ditto times 2 with bad guys). Watching this one may mull the array of comic performers who, as part of their act, employed exaggerated vocal expressions signalling various states of distress, confusion or delight—Jerry Lewis, Charlie Callas, Robin Williams for fast examples—but no-one, not even The Three Stooges immortal Curly Howard, could match the staggering battery of noises that Lou Costello could issue.

With Marc Lawrence, Leon Belasco, Tor Johnson, Dan Seymour, Ann Robinson (a few years later screaming her jeemies out in The War Of The Worlds).

* William Grundy Davis—“Wee Willie”, appeared in 31 movies, including biggies like Reap The Wild Wind, Samson And Delilah, The Asphalt Jungle and To Catch A Thief. Among his wrestling names: The Black Menace, The Black Panther, Diablo #1, Dr. X, The Hood, The Masked Avenger, The Masked Marvel and Red Devil #1.  Mr. Davis went to the great mat in the sky in 1981 at the age of 74.