Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff

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Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff
File:A&ckiller.jpg
Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff Theatrical Poster
Directed byCharles Barton
Written byJohn Grant
Hugh Wedlock, Jr.
Howard Snyder
Produced byRobert Arthur
StarringBud Abbott
Lou Costello
Boris Karloff
Lénore Aubert
Edited byEdward Curtiss
Music byMilton Schwarzwald
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release dates
August 22, 1949
Running time
82 min.
LanguageEnglish
Budget$686,00

Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff is a 1949 comedy horror film starring Abbott and Costello and Boris Karloff. The full onscreen title is Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.

In 1956 the film was re-released along with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

Plot

Prominent criminal attorney Amos Strickland (Nicholas Joy) checks into the Lost Caverns Resort Hotel, and is later discovered murdered by the bellboy, Freddie Phillips (Lou Costello), who is implicated in the crime. Casey Edwards (Bud Abbott), the house detective, tries to clear Freddie, but Inspector Wellman (James Flavin) and Sergeant Stone (Mikel Conrad) keep him in custody.

Seven of Strickland's former clients happen to be at the resort, and they are all suspects. These former clients are Swami Talpur (Boris Karloff), Angela Gordon (Lénore Aubert), Mrs. Hargreave (Victoria Horne), T. Hanley Brooks (Roland Winters), Lawrence Crandall (Harry Hayden), Mrs. Grimsby (Claire DuBrey) and Mike Relia (Vincent Renno). They gather for a meeting, and decide that they must conceal their pasts and that Freddie must take the blame for Strickland's murder. They try unsuccessfully to get Freddie to sign a confession, e.g., Angela tries to seduce him, but the police stop her when they fear she's posioned the champagne. Then the Swami attempts to hypnotize him into commiting suicide, but his stupidity saves him.

Freddie and the two police officers, in an attempt to lure the real killer, inform everyone that Freddie is in possession of a blood-stained handkerchief that was found at the murder scene. Soon afterwards, several attempts to kill Freddie are made, including gun shots at at window of his booby trapped room, and locking him in a steam cabinet. Eventually Freddie hears a voice that calls him to bring the handkerchief to the Lost Cavern. There he meets up with a masked figure who offers to save him from the hole he has just fallen into in exchange for the handkerchief. Freddie makes the mistake of telling the mysterious figure that he left it in his room. He is left in the hole, but is eventually rescued by the two police officers.

Back at the hotel, everyone has gathered together and Stone returns with some muddy shoes that belong to Melton (Alan Mowbray), the hotel manager, which proves that he was the one in the caverns with Freddie. His motive for the murder was that he, Relia and Millford, Strickland's secretary, where blackmailing the owner Mr. Crandell. When Strickland found out he came to investigate, so Melton killed him. Millford then sent down the former clients to use as decoys for the police, but Melton then killed Relia and Millford to cover it all up. He attempts to escape through a window, but is caught by a booby trap previously set by Freddie.

Production

It was filmed from February 10 through March 26, 1949.

The original script, titled Easy Does It, was written with actor-comedian Bob Hope in mind. However, Universal then purchased the rights and reworked it for Abbott and Costello.[1].

The role eventually played by Boris Karloff in the film was originally a female character named Madame Switzer in the final shooting script which was then titled, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killers. Five days before shooting, Karloff was hired and the character was changed to a swami.[2].

After filming was completed, Costello was bedridden for several months due to a relapse of rheumatic fever, which he originally battled in 1943. As a result, the duo would not make another film together until one year later, 1950's Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion.

Alternate versions

In Australia and New Zealand, every scene with a corpse was removed prior to distribution. In Denmark, due to the scene in the film where corpses play cards, this film was banned.[3].

Routines

  • Changing Room, where Costello keeps finding a dead body and when he tries to show it to Abbott (or anyone else), it is no longer there. This comic device was first used in Hold That Ghost (1941).

Cast

Quotes

  • [The Swami tries to get a hypnotized Freddie to kill himself]

Swami Talpur: Perhaps you should choose the manner of your death. How would you like to die?

Freddie Phillips: Old age.

  • Casey Edwards: Freddie, where did you that gun?

Freddie Phillips: I don't know.

Casey Edwards: Freddie! I am going to ask you for the last time. Where did you get that gun?

Freddie Phillips: I don't know.

Casey Edwards: Where did you get that gun?

Freddie Phillips: Hey, that's not fair. You said "for the last time". I answered it.

  • Swami Talpur: [to Freddie] You're going to commit suicide if it's the last thing you do!
  • Freddie Phillips: It's a booby trap.

Casey Edwards: For what?

Freddie Phillips: For boobs.

  • Freddie Phillips: [upon escaping a steambox] I saw a hand turn around the corner, and he put on a lot of steam, all the steam he could put on, f-full force...I think somebody's trying to kill me.
  • Angela Gordon: Do you have any idea who the real murderer is?

Freddie Phillips: [looking around and answering] The culprit.

Angela Gordon: Well, who is the culprit?

Freddie Phillips: The murderer. Casey has a full report on him, and he only has to find out one thing before he turns him in. [pauses] If he did it.

Angela Gordon: If who did it?

Freddie Phillis: The murderer, don't you understand?

  • Swami Talpur: [to Freddie in a hypnotic voice] You didn't see me...you didn't see me...you didn't see me...I wasn't here

[leaves]

Casey Edwards: [to Freddy] Ready to go?

Freddie Phillips: I didn't see him.

Casey Edwards: You didn't see who?

Freddie Phillips: The man who wasn't here.

Casey Edwards: What're you talking about?

Freddie Phillips: All I did was open the door, see if the coast was clear, my mind went blank.

Casey Edwards: You mind's always been blank.

  • Freddie Phillips: I have a confession to make.

Angela Gordon: You did it?

Freddie Phillips: No, I mean that stuff [champagne]

Freddie Phillips: I don't drink that stuff, that's like drinking poison.

Angela Gordon: Oh come on...

Freddie Phillips: Oh stop it, the bubbles' is tickling my nose.

Angela Gordon: For little Angela...

Freddie Phillips: I wouldn't drink it for big Angela.

  • Casey Edwards: [seeing one of Freddie's booby traps] That is the craziest thing I've ever seen.

Freddie Phillips: Oh yeah? Well let me tell you something, if the murderer comes in here alone, somebody else is gonna carry him out.

DVD Release

See also

References

  1. ^ Furmanek, Bob and Ron Palumbo (1991). Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. New York: Perigee Books. ISBN 0-399-51605-0
  2. ^ Furmanek, Bob and Ron Palumbo (1991). Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. New York: Perigee Books. ISBN 0-399-51605-0
  3. ^ Furmanek, Bob and Ron Palumbo (1991). Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. New York: Perigee Books. ISBN 0-399-51605-0

External links

Template:Americanfilms1940s

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