Deux Nigauds en Afrique

"Africa Screams" was Abbott and Costello's independent production for 1949, filmed at Nassour Studios. A&C are booksellers who find themselves on an African expedition; the leader of the expedition (lovely Hillary Brooke) is after diamonds. Hilarity ensues as A&C dodge lions and gorillas; Will A&C get their share of the diamonds?

"Africa Screams" boasts one of the finest supporting casts A&C worked with. In addition to Hillary Brooke (who later co-starred on their TV show), the movie is aided greatly by the appearances of legendary funnymen Shemp Howard and Joe Besser. An air of authenticity is given with the appearances of Frank Buck and Clyde Beatty. The tough-guy roles are nicely handled by boxers Max and Buddy Baer.

Bud is given more to do in this film, and he shines - he shows again that he would have made a wonderful character actor. He stands up to Hillary Brooke and her goons, and cuts deals for himself. Although he takes advantage of Lou once again, I can report that Bud does get his in the end! (How, I won't reveal. Watch for yourself and see.)

What prevents me from giving this film a higher rating than "6" are the low-budget sets at Nassour. Bud and Lou never had a big-budget film at Universal, but this film looks paltry by comparison. What also hampers the enjoyment of the film is the fact that it appears to still be in public domain; low-grade, scratchy prints are usually what can be found in the bargain section of the video store. All in all, though, a fun film. 6 out of 10.

I am a big fan of Abbott & Costello. Out of all their movies they only made a couple of duds. "Africa Screams" is not one of them. But it does not belong in their Top 10 either. It is fast moving and mostly funny. It has very little down time. "AS" does not have any musical numbers which is a welcome change of pace for an A&C move. It also features two of the Three Stooges (Shemp Howard and Joe Besser). As you would suspect, they're both funny in this movie. For years I was down on this movie because it was only available on crappy out-of-copyright VHS tapes. There was never any joy watching those tapes. However, my DVD of "Africa Screams" looks great and is a fun watch.

This is a generally enjoyable Abbott and Costello comedy, with a light and often silly feel that nevertheless works well enough. Hillary Brooke adds an elegant presence as their antagonist, and the story makes relatively good use of its comic possibilities.

The plot has the kind of deliberately implausible setup that Bud and Lou usually handled well, as their two characters become part of an African expedition led by the scheming Brooke. Once there, there are plenty of lions and other beasts that get tangled up with the characters. Frank Buck and Clyde Beatty also appear as themselves, although they are mostly only incidental to the story.

Brooke and the Baer brothers, as her henchmen, make their end of things work well, and there are also some good moments from Shemp Howard and Joe Besser. Not all of the comedy ideas are of the same quality, but most of it works well enough as long as you don't take it too seriously.

Hi, Everyone, I have a theory that any movie scene will get better if you put a gorilla into the mix. It works better if the gorilla is big.

There is a reason to spend the one dollar you might have to cough up for this film. There is a Crosley in the movie. Most people have never seen a Crosley. Most people do not know what a Crosley is. The Crosley was a small somewhat popular car that was built shortly after World War 2 (by a refrigerator manufacturer). If you watch this movie until the end you will see Lou getting out of a Crosley station wagon.

This is also a pleasant romp through the wild jungle with Bud and Lou and some ex champion boxers, famous wild animal tamers, one pretty girl and a couple of stooges. The scenes with Clyde Beatty and his lions are obviously real. He was an actual lion tamer. The scene with Lou in the cage with the lion looks very real even though it had to be a blue screen or matte job.

One oddity I noticed here was that Lou Costello is playing the part of Stanley Livington (no "s"). First name Stan and last initial "L." I wonder if that was a tribute to Stan Laurel? The gorilla is very well played. The gorilla suits used in many of the movies of the 1940s and 50s looked much better than the Chew Baca and other more modern gorillas.

Worth a look.

Tom Willett

In my younger days pre teens in fifties Britain always regarded A and C movies as a treat and there is something about the unsophisticated bye play between them that appeals more to the child in us than to the adult mature taste Here they play two sales assistants who go to Africa as part of a safari to locate diamonds ,although the hapless pair have been told it is to locate a species of orang utang There are predictable encounters with lions,gorillas and alligators,giving ample opportunity for Lou to do his patented terrified voice and herky-jerky motions to denote extreme terror.The movie is casually racist as was all too typical of its period -natives are either loyal but cowardly bearers or lip smacking cannibals with bones through the nose The most interesting bit was the performance of Joe Besser as a decidedly camp butler,a performance that today looks almost John Inman-esque.I wonder if the audience of the day picked up on it.There are roles for noted hunters of the day Clyde Beatty and Frank Buck as well as the Baer pugilists Max and Buddy

The film looks ugly with little in the way of production values

Recommendable to admirers only.The rest will probably find it an ordeal at best and wince making at worst