IN SOCIETY

(1944)
With Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marion Hutton, Kirby Grant, Margaret Irving, Ann Gillis, Arthur Treacher, Thomas Gomez Directed by Jean Yarbrough
Black and White

Reviewed by JB

    IN SOCIETY was the first A&C film put into production after Lou Costello recovered from a lengthy bout of rheumatic fever.  The most expensive Abbott and Costello film to date, IN SOCIETY featured superb production values, several musical numbers and a firetruck chase fashioned from excerpted footage of the chase scene in the W. C. Fields film NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK.  With all the attention Universal gave to this comback film, it's a shame it isn't funnier.

     Bud and Lou play a pair of plumbers who accidentally get invited to a high society party (it could happen).  But most of the fun in the film comes before this.  A few minutes into the film, the two engage in some pretty loud but amusing slapstick as they attempt to fix a wealthy man's leaky faucet and wind up flooding the joint.  Later, Lou attempts to find out where the Susquehanna Hat Company is, in what is likely the best rendition of the old burlesque routine "Floogle Street" ever captured on film, although here it is titled Bagel Street.  Once they get to the party, not a whole lot happens, although it's always amusing to see how much ad-libbed business Lou can throw out there in otherwise middling scenes. 2½ - JB

Abbott and Costello     The Age of Comedy


IT HAS THE SOUL OF THE BEAUGARDE!

Toward the end of the movie, there is business concerning a stolen painting that had just been unveiled at a high society party.  Perhaps not coincidentally, Margaret Irving plays the Grand Dame who owns the painting.  Ms. Irving was very familiar with this particular plot twist, as she had "stolen" a painting as a practical joke in the 1930 Marx Brothers classic ANIMAL CRACKERS.