Bud AbbottFilmography

Historic Reruns, Vol. 9: Abbott and Costello

Synopsis: This video is part of a series that showcases some of the high points in the early history of American television. This volume contains two episodes featuring the beloved American clowns Bud Abbot and Lou Costello. Appearing on The Abbot and Costello Show, they perform in "The Drug Store" and Read More

Classic Movie Bloopers

Synopsis: This documentary video is a collection of vintage screen bloopers. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Classic Comedy Teams

Synopsis: A documentary video that looks at the many hilarious comedians in history. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Entertaining the Troops: American Entertainers in World War II

Synopsis: Entertainment history. Uses film clips and contemporary interviews to show what Hollywood did during World War II in raising money for the war and entertaining the troops. Shows entertainer Bob Hope and his performing troupe today. Other entertainers include Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, The Andrews Sisters Read More

The Best of Abbott and Costello Live

Into the Night

Actors: Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer, Richard Farnsworth, Irene Papas, Kathryn Harrold

Synopsis: Filled with enough cameos to keep film buffs entertained, this otherwise routine action-comedy by John Landis boasts Michelle Pfeiffer as one of its major attractions. She plays Diana, a woman prone to having affairs with some very dangerous men, and Jeff Goldblum is Ed Okin, an aerospace engineer Read More

The Hollywood Clowns

Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film, Vol. 4 - Hollywood Goes to War

Synopsis: This nostalgic video uses five short films to look back at Hollywood's efforts to bolster both overseas G.I.s and the folks back home during WW II. Each of the five shorts features an all-star cast doing things to cheer people up during a difficult time. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Hey Abbott!

Synopsis: Narrated by Milton Berle, Hey Abbott! is a compilation of highlights from Abbott & Costello's numerous television programs. Includes routines like "Who's on First," "The Birthday Party," "Floogle Street" and "Oyster Stew." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

More Milton Berle's Mad World of Comedy

Actors: Milton Berle

Synopsis: Watch the comedy unfold as Milton Berle trades wisecracks with his hilarious guests on this videotape. Some of the funniest people in show business are featured in this collection hosted by "Mr. Television" himself. Pat Buttran, Dick Martin, Mort Sahl, and Eddie Quillon are interviewed. Footage of Read More

The World of Abbott and Costello

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marjorie Main

Synopsis: The World of Abbott and Costello is a dismal attempt by Universal Pictures to cash in on the popularity of Robert Youngson's silent-movie compilation films. Random scenes from eighteen of the films of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are yanked out of context, then assembled in a patchy continuity by Read More

MGM's The Big Parade of Comedy

Actors: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Gary Grant

Synopsis: This compilation film is one of the few Robert Youngson productions to incorporate sound as well as silent excerpts. All the clips are culled from 40 years' worth of MGM comedy material. The silent scenes spotlight such funsters as Marion Davies, Buster Keaton, Karl Dane and George K. Arthur Read More

Hollywood and the Stars: Funny Men

Actors: Joseph Cotten

Abbott and Costello Holiday Special

Dance with Me, Henry

Actors: Lou Costello, Bud Abbott, Rusty Hamer, Mary Wickes

Synopsis: Dance With Me, Henry was the screen swan song for the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Most of the action takes place in Kiddieland, an amusement park owned by soft-hearted Lou Henry (Costello). An inveterate collector of strays, Lou has adopted orphaned kids Shelley (Gigi Perreau) and Read More

Abbott and Costello Live

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marie Windsor, Michael Ansara, Dan Seymour

Synopsis: Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy is the last of the team's vehicles for Universal-International. Stranded in Egypt, Bud and Lou hire themselves out as travelling companions to archeologist Kurt Katch. Before long, Katch is murdered by a group of cultists, and a medallion, embossed with a map Read More

Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Fred Clark, Lynn Bari, "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom, Mack Sennett, Hank Mann

Synopsis: The best thing that can be said about Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops is that it's better than the team's previous outing Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Set in 1912, the film casts Bud Abbott and Lou Costello as a couple of New Yorkers who are swindled out of their Read More

Abbott and Costello Meet the Creature...

Abbott & Costello: Best of Live

Synopsis: This videotape consists of kinescoped highlights from Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's appearances on TV's Colgate Comedy Hour (1951-54). Along with such standards as "Who's on First" and the "Moving Candle" bit, we are treated to guest appearances by the likes of Lon Chaney Jr. and Charles Laughton. Read More

The Abbott & Costello Show: Jail

Synopsis: When Lou (Lou Costello) accidentally shoots his neighbor Mrs. Crumbcake (Elvia Allman) out of a tree and perforates her bucket, he ends up in court, being defended by a less-than-competent attorney (Sidney Fields) recommended by Abbott (Bud Abbott). He manages to land in jail over a 79 cent Read More

The Abbott & Costello Show: Police Rookies

Synopsis: Bud and Lou get ready to attend police rookie school. Mike the Cop (Gordon Jones) and Mr. Fields (Sidney Fields) are driven out of A&C's apartment by the antics of Bingo the Chimp. And at tryouts for rookie school, Costello runs afoul of Professor Melonhead (Sidney Fields) and judo expert John Read More

The Abbott & Costello Show: The Dentist Office

Synopsis: Lou (Lou Costello) has a terrible toothache, and Abbott (Bud Abbott) takes him to see a near-sighted dentist (Sidney Fields). The pair try several other methods to remove the bad tooth, including tying a rope from the tooth to a dog and getting the dog to chase a cat -- to no avail. But Lou's Read More

Abbott and Costello Go to Mars

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Mari Blanchard, Robert Paige, Horace McMahon

Synopsis: They don't really go to Mars, they go to Venus, but first they go to New Orleans. While working at a missile base, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello inadvertently launch a rocket ship with themselves aboard. After a wild ride around New York City (the Statue of Liberty ducks when the rocket heads her Read More

Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff, Craig Stevens, Helen Westcott

Synopsis: This was the last in a string of spoofs that found the comedy duo tangling with various classic Universal Studios monsters. In this case, Slim (Bud Abbott) and Tubby (Lou Costello) play American detectives who cross wits with Dr. Henry Jekyll (Boris Karloff) in Edwardian-era London when they Read More

Abbott and Costello: The Christmas Show

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Margaret Whiting, Ingrid Bergman, Gary Cooper

Synopsis: As originally syndicated on television in late 1952, Abbott and Costello: The Christmas Show presents approximately one hour of holiday-themed musical and comedy variety material by the titular comedy duo. Guest stars include Gary Cooper, Buster Shaver and Olive, Ingrid Bergman, Douglas Fairbanks Read More

The Abbott & Costello Show [TV Series]

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello

Synopsis: The Abbott & Costello Show marked the last major commercial success for the comic team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. The duo, who had started out in burlesque in the 1930's (and each had long experience in entertainment and performing before they met), had been a veritable fixure on radio since Read More

Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Charles Laughton, Hillary Brooke, Bill Shirley

Synopsis: Though out of favor with many Abbott and Costello buffs, Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd is actually a lot of fun, so long as the viewer parks logic and dignity at the door. Captain Kidd is played by no less than Charles Laughton, who reportedly agreed to sign up for this film because he Read More

Lost in Alaska

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Mitzi Green, Tom Ewell, Bruce Cabot

Synopsis: One reviewer of Abbott & Costello's Lost in Alaska summed up the proceeding in three pithy words: "Lost is right." While not A&C's worst film, it's several miles removed from their best. Cast as firemen in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, Bud and Lou rescue would-be suicide Tom Ewell. It turns Read More

Jack and the Beanstalk

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Buddy Baer, Dorothy Ford, Shaye Cogan

Synopsis: In 1952, the comedy team of Abbott and Costello entered into a joint agreement with producer Alex Gottlieb and Warner Brothers, whereby two color musical comedies would be produced: Bud Abbott would serve as producer--owner of one of the films, while Lou Costello would do same for the other. Costello Read More

Colgate Comedy Hour: December 23, 1951

Actors: Lou Costello, Bud Abbott

Colgate Comedy Hour, Vol. 1

Colgate Comedy Hour: January 7, 1951

Actors: Lou Costello, Bud Abbott

Colgate Comedy Hour, Vol. 4

Comin' Round the Mountain

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Dorothy Shay, Kirby Grant, Joe Sawyer

Synopsis: In this Abbott & Costello vehicle set in rural Kentucky, a magician (Lou Costello), his agent (Bud Abbott) and his sister (Dorothy Shay) unwittingly become involved in a down-home feud. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Colgate Comedy Hour, Vol. 3

Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Nancy Guild, Arthur Franz, Adele Jergens

Synopsis: The best of Universal-International's followups to Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man casts Bud and Lou as mail-order private eyes. The boys champion the cause of boxer Arthur Franz, who has been framed for murder. Utilizing the formula created by Claude Rains Read More

Abbott & Costello in the Foreign Legion

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Patricia Medina, Walter Slezak, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello play wrestling promoters whose star attraction, Wee Willie Davis, skips town to return to his home in Arabia. While scouring the desert in search of Davis, Bud and Lou inadvertently purchase slave girl Patricia Medina, and with equal inadvertence join the Foreign Read More

The Colgate Comedy Hour [TV Series]

Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff, Lenore Aubert, Gar Moore

Synopsis: This Abbott & Costello vehicle was originally planned as a Bob Hope comedy titled Easy Does It. The Hope role is fairly evenly divided between Bud Abbott, as hotel house detective Casey Edwards, and Lou Costello, as bumbling bellhop Lou Costello. When a much-hated criminal attorney (Nicholas Joy Read More

Africa Screams

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Hillary Brooke, Max Baer, Buddy Baer

Synopsis: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello temporarily leave their usual Universal stamping grounds to star in the Huntington Hartford production Africa Screams. Costello plays the colorfully inept Stanley Livingstone, a meek book salesman who poses as a big-game hunter at the behest of his shifty pal Buzz Read More

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney, Jr., Bela Lugosi, Glenn Strange

Synopsis: It seems that Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi), in league with a beautiful but diabolical lady scientist (Lenore Aubert), needs a "simple, pliable" brain with which to reactivate Frankenstein's creature (Glenn Strange). The "ideal" brain belongs to the hapless Lou Costello, whom the lady doctor woos to Read More

10,000 Kids and a Cop

The Noose Hangs High

Actors: Lou Costello, Bud Abbott, Cathy Downs, Joseph Calleia, Leon Errol

Synopsis: For their first independently-produced vehicle, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello chose to appear in a remake of the 1939 Universal programmer For Love or Money. Bud and Lou are cast as Ted and Tommy, two bumbling window washers hired by gangster Mike Craig (Joseph Calleila) to collect a $50,000 Read More

Mexican Hayride

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Virginia Grey, Luba Malina, John Hubbard

Synopsis: Cole Porter's Broadway musical Mexican Hayride was optioned by Universal in the mid-1940s, then remained in "development hell" until 1948. By the time the property made it to the screen, the entire Porter score had been removed, and the play's original star Bobby Clark was replaced by Bud Abbott Read More

Buck Privates Come Home

Actors: Bud Abbott, George Beban, Jr., Lou Costello, Don Beddoe, Nat Pendleton, Tom Brown, Lennie Bremen, Joan Fulton

Synopsis: After serving with a notable lack of distinction in WW2, Corporal Slicker Smith (Bud Abbott) and Private Herbie Brown (Lou Costello) return to the US. Unbeknownst to their sourpussed sergeant Collins (Nat Pendleton), Slicker and Herbie have smuggled cute little war orphan Evie (Beverly Simmons) Read More

The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap

Actors: Bud Abbott, William Ching, Bill Clauson, George Cleveland, Edmund Cobb

Synopsis: The Abbott & Costello western spoof The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap is predicated on an actual Montana law of the 19th century, which dictated that if a man killed another in a gun duel, that man was responsible for the care and support of the victim's family. The film gets under way with an Read More

Little Giant

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Brenda Joyce, Jacqueline De Wit, George Cleveland

Synopsis: With the profits of the Abbott & Costello films in decline, Universal decided to experiment with the comedians' standard formula. In both Little Giant and The Time of Their Lives, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello play separate characters, rather than the usual smart guy/dumb guy comedy team. In Giant, Costello Read More

The Time of Their Lives

Actors: Lou Costello, Bud Abbott, Marjorie Reynolds, Binnie Barnes, John Shelton, Gale Sondergaard

Synopsis: While perhaps not Abbott & Costello's best film, The Time of Their Lives is certainly their most unusual. Lou Costello plays a Revolutionary War-era tinker, whose prized possession is a letter from George Washington, commending Costello as a loyal patriot. Costello's lady love is Anne Gillis Read More

Abbott and Costello in Hollywood

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Frances Rafferty, Robert Stanton, Jean Porter

Synopsis: The last of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's three MGM features, Abbott & Costello in Hollywood is a loose remake of Buster Keaton's Free and Easy. Bud and Lou play a pair of Tinseltown barbers who dream of becoming high-priced showbiz agents. Their first clients are Frances Rafferty and Robert Stanton Read More

The Naughty Nineties

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Alan Curtis, Rita Johnson, Henry Travers

Synopsis: Abbott and Costello's The Naughty Nineties offers a million laughs and a nickel's worth of plot. Most of the film takes place aboard a 19th century showboat, owned by kindly Captain Sam (Henry Travers). Bud Abbott plays the showboat's leading man Dexter Broadhurst, while Lou Costello is handyman Read More

Here Come the Co-Eds

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Peggy Ryan, Martha O'Driscoll, June Vincent, Lon Chaney, Jr.

Synopsis: At 88 minutes, Here Come the Co-Eds is one of the longest of Abbott & Costello's Universal starring vehicles, and though not necessarily the best, it manages to sustain a high comic content throughout. The scene is a financially strapped girl's college, where professional dancer Molly (Martha O'Driscoll Read More

In Society

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Kirby Grant, Marion Hutton, Ann Gillis

Synopsis: For their first film in a year, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello played it safe with a medley of old burlesque routines and slapstick setpieces -- and never mind a coherent plot. The boys play Eddie and Albert, a pair of plumbers hired to fix the pipes of a fancy society mansion. While a masquerade Read More

Lost in a Harem

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marilyn Maxwell, John Conte, Douglas Dumbrille

Synopsis: Lost in a Harem is arguably the best of Abbott & Costello's trio of MGM films; it's certainly the silliest, with any number of nonsensical plot twists and sidesplitting gags. This time, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello play Pete and Harvey, two American magicians stranded in a mythical Arabian Nights Read More

It Ain't Hay

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Grace McDonald, Cecil Kellaway, Eugene Pallette

Synopsis: In one of their most genial comedies -- based on a Damon Runyon story -- Bud Abbott and Lou Costello have to help one friend (Cecil Kellaway) replace his beloved carriage horse, and another friend (Leightno Noble) put together a US Army camp show. Through a misunderstanding, they take what they Read More

Hit the Ice

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Ginny Simms, Patric Knowles, Elyse Knox

Synopsis: The Abbott & Costello vehicle Hit the Ice started life as satire of health clinics, with Lou Costello cast as a hypochondriac who used a streetcar conductor's change-purse to dispense pills to himself. By the time the film hit the screens, it was a standard A&C melange of comedy, music and Read More

Rio Rita

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Kathryn Grayson, John Carroll, Patricia Dane

Synopsis: MGM's Rio Rita is an in-name-only remake of the 1929 RKO Radio musical blockbuster, itself based on the long-running Ziegfeld Broadway extravaganza. Bud Abbott & Lou Costello take over from the original film's Burt Wheeler & Robert Woolsey as the comedy leads, while Kathryn Grayson (in her first Read More

Who Done It?

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Patric Knowles, William Gargan, Louise Allbritton

Synopsis: With only a minimal romantic subplot and no music whatsoever, Who Done It? is pure, undiluted Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, and a good mystery on its own to boot. Bud and Lou star as Chick Larkin and Mervyn Milgrim, a pair of soda jerks who aspire to become radio detective-show writers (their Read More

Ride 'Em Cowboy

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Dick Foran, Anne Gwynne, Johnny Mack Brown

Synopsis: Bud Abbott & Lou Costello invade the wild west in Ride 'Em Cowboy. The boys play Duke and Willoughby, a couple of rodeo peanut vendors who get mixed up in the travails of western novelist Bob Mitchell (Dick Foran). Ostensibly a true Son of the Frontier, Bob has actually never been west of Brooklyn Read More

Pardon My Sarong

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Virginia Bruce, Lionel Atwill, Robert Paige

Synopsis: One of the most often revived of Abbott & Costello's early-1940s films, Pardon My Sarong casts Bud and Lou as Chicago bus drivers Algy Shaw and Wellington Pflug. At the behest of millionaire playboy Tommy Layton (Robert Paige), Algy and Wellington hijack their own bus and speed off to California Read More

In the Navy

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Dick Powell, Claire Dodd, The Andrews Sisters

Synopsis: The third of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's starring films, In the Navy was released second; Universal had just made a bundle off Abbott and Costello's Buck Privates, and the studio wanted another "service" comedy put into circulation in a hurry. Abbott and Costello share over-the-title billing Read More

Hold That Ghost

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Joan Davis, Richard Carlson, Evelyn Ankers, Mischa Auer

Synopsis: Hold That Ghost was the second of Abbott and Costello's starring films, but was held back from release in favor of their third picture, the more "topical" In the Navy. In Ghost, Bud and Lou play a couple of service-station owners who happen to be hanging around when gangster Moose Mattson (William B. Davidson Read More

Keep 'em Flying

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Martha Raye, Carol Bruce, Dick Foran, William Gargan

Synopsis: Having joined the army in Buck Privates and the navy in In the Navy, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello signed up with Air Force in Keep 'Em Flying. Abbott and Costello play Blackie and Heathcliff, carnival workers who are fired from their jobs along with their pal, reckless stunt pilot Jinx Roberts (Dick Foran Read More

Buck Privates

Actors: Lee Bowman, Alan Curtis, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Jane Frazee, The Andrews Sisters

Synopsis: Filmed on a B-picture budget, Buck Privates was Universal's biggest box-office hit of 1941, firmly securing the movie popularity of the studio's hot new team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. The story is fairly evenly divided between the antics of Bud and Lou-here cast as sidewalk salesmen Slicker Read More

One Night in the Tropics

Actors: Bud Abbott, Allan Jones, Nancy Kelly, Lou Costello, Robert Cummings

Synopsis: The third film version of Earl Derr Biggers' novel Love Insurance, One Night in the Tropics stars Allan Jones as a hotshot insurance salesman who sells a policy to his best pal Robert Cummings. Cummings will earn $1 million if he fails to marry his fiance Nancy Kelly. Half of the policy is Read More

Abbott and Costello: Funniest Routines, Vol. 2

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello

Synopsis: The comedy compilation film Abbott and Costello: Funniest Routines, Vol. 2 presents a 79-minute compendium of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's most cherished routines. Highlights include "The Ice Cream Bit," "Bryant-4444," "The Porthole Bit," "The Hammock Routine" and "A Figure of Speech." As an Read More

Abbott and Costello: Christmas Special

Abbott and Costello: Funniest Routines, Vol. 1

Actors: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Errol Flynn

Synopsis: The inimitable comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello return for the archival compilation release Abbott and Costello: Funniest Routines, Vol. 1 - a 78-minute compendium of the duo's funniest bits. Highlights include: "7 x 13 is 28," "Jonah and the Whale," "The Lemon Bit," and of course Read More

The Abbott & Costello Show: The Drugstore

Synopsis: In the introductory episode of The Abbott & Costello Show, we meet the two heroes, down-on-their-luck performers who owe too much rent to their landlord, Mr. Fields (Sidney Fields). To help pay it off, slick conman-type Bud Abbott maneuvers roly-poly comic Lou Costello into a job as a soda jerk Read More

The Abbott & Costello Show: Who's on First?

Synopsis: This classic performance features the "Who's on First?" routine with Abbott and Costello. This program is used as a humorous starter for meetings on communication. ~ All Movie Guide Read More