I figured I should watch at least one of the Universal Abbot and Costello flicks this month, but I’ve already seen my favorite (MEET FRANKENSTEIN) so I chose the next best thing: a flick with Boris Karloff not only in it, but also in the title!This one’s not as fun as MEET FRANKENSTEIN because there are no real monsters in it. It’s just a murder mystery, with Abbott as a bellhop who finds a dead body in the hotel where he works and is suspected of the crime. Costello plays the house detective who tries to find the real culprit. Meanwhile there’s a ton of suspects (Boris Karloff among them) and they all want to pin it back on Abbott.
It’s interesting, for a comedy, this flick sure has a slow pace. There are plenty of funny parts, like recurring gags with booby traps Abbott sets up, but the movie seemed to last forever. There are also generally good production values, specifically in a series of sequences set in an underground cavern that look great – but they sure seem to be in that cavern a looooong time.
I just wish instead of starring in this one Karloff had reprised his role as the monster in MEET FRANKENSTEIN – then we could have had Lugosi, Chaney and Karloff all in one movie, all as their most famous characters. But it wasn’t meant to be.
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