In Society

In Society (1944)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Abbott and Costello play plummers who are accidentally invited to a rich person's house for the weekend where they much try to become part of society. Apparently A&C were causing a lot of troubles for the production of this thing due to a contract issue and the final results really show. This certainly isn't their worst film but it's certainly middle of the ground stuff. Most of the jokes just don't flow right as they seemed rushed and forced. Still, there are several minor laughs that keep this thing going for fans.

"In Society" has a promising set-up - Abbott and Costello as bumbling plumbers who get invited by mistake to a high-society weekend party and try to act as if they belong there - but the film doesn't exploit this premise for all it's worth. At its best, the film approaches the surreal craziness of the Marx Brothers movies (the flooded room, the Susquehannah Hat Company sketch, etc.). But there are too many songs, 4 to be specific in a 70-minute movie (though at least one of them, "No bout adout it", has likably crazy lyrics - "I sove you lo much, I mean I love you so much"), the back projection during the big chase scenes couldn't be more obvious, and Abbott's character is thoroughly obnoxious. (**)

Made towards the end of their first contracted stint with Universal Studios, "In Society" is possibly the last eminently watchable Abbott and Costello feature until they initiated their horror spoofs with "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", the picture which has probably survived the sands of time better than any of their others. In "In Society", the emphasis is very much on the physical and visual side of the pair's vaudevillian humour and there is little in the way of the verbal routines or snappy one-liners which are dotted around many of their other movies. But the visual set-pieces are performed with a great vivacity and enthusiasm for which Costello's apprenticeship as a stuntman in some pictures of the late twenties had prepared him well, and it is refreshing to find an unexpected but heart-warming tribute to W.C. Fields, including shots taken directly from the master's 1941 "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break".

Abbott and Costello are plumbers who accidentally get themselves invited to a High Society social event. Like so many of their films, this one's got a good amount of funny bits to enjoy, but they also come at the price of enduring some musical interruptions (at least Marion Hutton sings "No Bout Adoubt It" better than she can deliver dialogue). But ignoring those, some of the best gags in this movie include: Bud and Lou trashing a ritzy bathroom with their plumbing incompetence; a hilarious sequence where a policeman beats Costello up for blowing a car's horn late at night while Abbott doesn't lift a finger to help (they often revamped this routine in other films as well as their TV show, but it was never better done than it is here); Costello jumps in a pool to save a man's life and gets berated for it; and the classic highlight of the picture -- the "Bagel Street" bit where Lou attempts to get directions to the Susquehannah Hat Company from all sorts of nutty people he meets on the street. **1/2 out of ****

Years ago Alan King had a great line about plumbers that it was indeed a noble profession and should be celebrated the way astronauts are. Without plumbers King reasoned, we'd all be astronauts. But when you hire Abbott&Costello as plumbers you'd better be checked out in a space suit.

Bumbling plumbers Bud and Lou after wrecking the home of Thurston Hall and Nella Walker get invited to a big society bash when they get that instead of a threatening letter from Walker. When they went to that job they got a lift from their friend, Rosie the Riveteer cab driver Marion Hutton who was mistaken for a society girl in costume by Kirby Grant who was similarly attired. So begins Marion's Cinderella like odyssey.

In fact Marion and Kirby are given a great deal more screen footage than you would normally expect in an Abbott&Costello feature. I'm guessing that Universal was trying to turn Hutton into a big film star the way Paramount was doing with her older sister Betty. Marion was a lighter and sweeter version of Betty, maybe if she had a more distinct personality of her own she might have had a film career. In any event she was more interested in singing than acting. She got a couple of really good songs to sing, No Bout Adoubt It is in the style of her sister. And one of the big song hits of 1944 was introduced by Marion with My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time. Television's future Sky King also has a fine number with What A Change In The Weather. This should prove a pleasant surprise to his fans who probably didn't know Kirby Grant started as a singer.

But Bud and Lou get their innings as well here as they make an ungodly mess of Thurston Hall's lovely home. And they do one of burlesque's celebrated routines, the famous Susquehanna Hat Company on Beagle Street. Who could possibly believe that such horrific events in people's lives could have happened on that street or been connected with that hat company?

The last chase sequence as society crook Thomas Gomez tries to steal a valuable painting on the fire engine is re-edited from W.C. Fields's Never Give A Sucker An Even Break. You'll recognize it of course if you are a fan of Fields, but it is certainly edited nicely into In Society.

This is one of the best A&C films from their early Universal period, a must for their still growing legion of fans.