Movie review – A&C # 14 – “Here Come the Co-Eds” (1945) **1/2

A rare Abbott and Costello film where the characters are related to someone – here Abbott is brother to a brainy dancer who wants to study at college. She wins a scholarship to study, and Abbott and his mate Costello tag along since they happen to be on the run (disappointingly, nothing more is made of this) – they go to work as caretakers under Lon Chaney Jnr (who surely was too big a star to play this sort of role at the time?). Because it’s an Abbott and Costello film, the female college has plenty of time for music, which the students constantly singing or playing in orchestras. The male “juvenile” character is a middle aged dean, who surely must be the most stuffy, old and unlikely romantic lead of an Abbott and Costello films. I know there was a war on but surely Universal could have picked someone better? Perhaps aware of this, the plot only hints at him romancing a student, there is no kissing.

The film features a version of the “Jonah and the Whale” routine – this was the third time this routine had been used by Abbott and Costello! (And it’s not a very well done sequence, the duo performing it in front of a class of school girls who laugh – laugh tracks don’t work in comic movies). Far better is where Costello destroys a kitchen, with some funny stuff involving a jar of molasses that sticks to their hands, and Costello getting in the wrestling ring (always a sure-fire laugh-getter).

But generally this film goes on far too long and feels padded (at 90 minutes). The story is lousy, just boring stuff about a clash between the Dean of the college and its main financial backer, and the struggle to save the college (there’s not even a bitchy female student/rival for the lead man’s affections – there is a sort of triangle but the other girl likes her rival, which may be a bit different but is boring dramatically). The most interesting about the movie is that it’s possible to do a feminist reading of it, with its all-female college, ineffectual males (the women here aren’t adornments for the men – indeed, there’s not even a couple in a clinch at the end), emphasis on women playing instruments and sport, strapping Amazon players, a showgirl female lead who is interested in education, her non competitive rival in love. Costello does almost save the day at the end with his basketball skills… but only because he’s conked on the head and thinks he’s a famous female basketball player.