A variation on the typical Abbott and Costello vehicle: no songs or musical numbers and our heroes actually play characters with specific, identifiable goals (to be radio writers) as opposed to just helping our the romantic leads. Indeed, you get the feeling this was originally written for some other comic before being re-fitted for Abbott and Costello. The plot has them pretending to be detectives in order to solve a murder at a radio station. The radio setting seems to energise the team – they enjoyed great success in that medium and this is one of their few films to pay homage to that: there’s a lovely in gag where Abbott and Costello overhear ‘Who’s on First’ on the radio and switch it off. The mystery component is quite effective too, done in that crisp black and white titled camera style that Universal were so good at.
There are some outstanding support actors including William Bendix as a dumb cop and Patsy Kelly as Costello’s romantic interest. The female lead character is another quasi-feminist (a radio producer), but stiff Patric Knowles is not very likeable as the sexist professor romantic lead (“I won’t take a hand out from a woman” – he does later apologise for this but then makes another dig about it). It’s kind of a shame that they, and not Abbott and Costello, ultimately solve the mystery – though our heroes are the one who save the day. Aussies will get a kick out of the fact the radio station at the end does a transmission to Melbourne, Australia.
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