In Society (1944)

A Disappointing Continuation

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

NOTES: A vaudeville episode, "The Language Scene", with Lou Costello and Sid Fields, was shot but deleted from the movie before release. Because of Universal's practice of splitting receipts (the movie was invariably double-billed), In Society does not figure on any champion money-making lists, even though it was a tremendous success in America and Australia, earning a fortune for the studio. The title is sometimes erroneously cited as Abbott and Costello in Society, or even Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Society. PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: Abbott and Costello rated 8th place in the annual poll of top money-making stars for 1944, voted by circuit and independent exhibitors throughout the United States. COMMENT: One of the most enjoyable of the Abbott and Costello series. Some genuinely funny sequences and routines are given a lift by an excellent support cast, and are leavened with some really attractive musical interludes. Marion Hutton makes a bright, bouncy heroine, Ann Gillis has a sexy song, and it's always a pleasure to see Arthur Treacher. And by the humble standards of Jean Yarbrough, the direction even has a modicum of pace, polish and style.OTHER VIEWS: Both Abbott and Costello are in fine form, taking full advantage of some superior material, much of it deriving from classic burlesque, such as the Floogle Street (here called "Bagel Street") routine involving the infamous Susquehanna Hat Company. The various strands of humor plus the song breaks have been put together with professional precision. The movie is always attractive to look at - and I don't mean just because of all the girls - and, as said above, it boasts a most appealing lead in Marion Hutton. - G.A.

IN SOCIETY (1944)*** One of Abbott and Costello's finest and funniest comedies with the boys as bumbling plumbers hobnobbing with the hoi palloi with some amusing moments in one of the first snob/slob comedies. Best bit: "Bagel Street" bit with poor Lou being abused while trying to run an errand for a friend.

This movie is so disjointed no one seems to know why they are in it... except perhaps to recycle tired old vaudeville gags. With the movie's tenuous attempt to evidence any continuity, the viewer is confused and disappointed..... try Buck Privates, or Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, or better yet Hold That Ghost, if you really want a well made Abbott and Costello comedy.

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".