Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955)

Good concept, poorly executed.

An action-packed slog

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Don't expect the major part of this comedy featuring A&C to be interactions with the Keystone Kops. This does happen in the climactic chase scene at the end, which isn't all that interesting if you've seen the Kops a few times. For those who haven't, this is probably a film highlight. The familiar-looking Fred Clark, as swindler Joseph Gorman, as well as silent film director Sergei Toumanoff, along with his fashionable girlfriend Leota Van Cleef(Lyn Bari) are the chief villains. Both had a long career in both Hollywood and TV. At age 42, Lyn was still looking quite youthful. She mostly played 'the other woman' or villainous women, occasionally in comedies, such as "Francis Joins the WACs", released the year before.The film begins with Lou in a silent film theater, crying his eyes out over the plight of a woman and her child, who are being chased by the villain through snow and an ice-covered river. He creates a scene by standing up and shouting at the villain, resulting in him being roughly escorted out. But, he left his bag with $5000. inheritance from his aunt under the seat. So, he buys another ticket(from his real daughter) and enters to retrieve his bag. He makes another scene and is again roughly escorted out, where Abbott waits for him. Abbott slaps him, and a passerby socks Abbott and pushes him into a large potted plant. Lou then slaps Abbott, and the passersby ignore it. Then Abbott slaps Lou, and he again gets socked and pushed into another large potted plant.Amazingly, without Lou seeing it, Gorman sells him a small movie studio, as Abbott recommends. They find this was Edison's old broken down movie studio, and that they aren't the first to fall for this scam. Gorman then skips town(NYC) with Lyn, hoping to become a movie director by the name of Toumanoff. A&C attempt to follow them, mostly by hopping on various empty boxcars, with many adventures along the way. They encounter Gorman again, when they accidentally get mixed up in a western Gorman is shooting. They don't recognize the director as Gorman, because he has donned a toupee to cover his mostly bald head. Nonetheless, he doesn't want them around, for fear they will eventually recognize him. But the producer is very impressed with an accidental stunt they performed, so suggests they become stuntmen for him.Lou is assigned to double for Lyn, in a parachuting scene. Even though he puts on a dress and woman's hat, he looks nothing like Lyn. Nonetheless, he and Abbott take the plane up. What follows strongly resembles a similar scene in "Keep 'em Flying", except that they are shot at with live bullets instead of blanks, courtesy of Hinds(Maxie Rosenbloom): Gorman's henchman. Fortunately, they survive this assassination attempt.Eventually, the producer, as well as A&C figure out that director Toumanoff is Gorman, but the director decides not to blow his cover, as he thinks he has potential to become a good comedy director. However, he doesn't know that Gorman has stolen $75,000. from the studio.In a scene I don't much understand, A&C go to Gorman's house, Abbott dressed as a stereotypical cat burglar, while Costello is dressed as a Victorian bobby. Abbott gains entrance to the house, but Gorman catches him. Calling for police, Costello responds, and takes Abbott. However, he releases him outside, and Abbott again enters the house and Gorman again catches him and calls for police. This time a real policeman(or is it a Keystone Kop?), dressed exactly the same, rings the doorbell, and takes Abbott out. But Abbott soon enters the house again, and Lou answers the call for police. This cycle is repeated several more times, driving Gorman crazy. In conclusion, this is an entertaining A&C comedy, lacking any singing, which is what many reviewers want.

This is actually one of the boys better outings. It has their regular script writer in John Grant & one of their regular directors in Charles Lamont at the helm. It is in a way, very much a salute to the early silent Mack Sennett Comedies as it's title suggests.Fred Clark does a very good turn as the heavy though evil stands little chance in getting one up on Lou Costello as he proved in taking on all the monsters & milking them for laughs. The film starts with a little history as A&C are conned into purchasing the historic Edison studios in New Jersey which by the 1950's were a run down set of slums.Then through only the kind of trip A&C can make, they decide to go to Hollywood. One way or another they ride the rails & live by their wits & stale bread reaching their destination. Here is where some fine silent slapstick sequences are put together in order to foil the heavy.The sequences are borrowed from Harold Lloyd, W C Fields, & the Keystone Kops are thrown in for good measure. Enjoy it

"Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops" is a film about the early days of cinema, and contains a lot of cinematic tricks itself: stunt doubling, back projection, fast motion, reverse motion, freeze frame, special effects, etc. Some of these tricks work (the horse jump over a cliff is a fantastic shot which I still can't figure out how they pulled off), some don't (the plane scenes look especially fake), but the real problem is that the story is episodic and A&C have only two routines worth mentioning: one at the start, with Abbott mistaken as Costello's violent father, and one involving two pairs of cops and burglars, one fake (Bud & Lou) and one real. The climactic chase, involving the title "Kops", is frenetic but unfunny. This type of slapstick will still appeal to young kids, but anyone over the age of 12 will probably be begging for some more verbal humor. (**)

This Abbott and Costello movie is pretty good. Abbott and Costello was good as always! Its a funny movie. One funny scene is when Abbott and Costello are in the house and Abbott play the robber and Costello plays the cop. It was hilarious! If you like Abbott and Costello then see Abbott and Costello Meet The Keystone Kops!