Abbott and Costello try something a bit different – a hillbilly comedy. It starts with a weird number – a song by a pretty singer (Dorothy Shay) in an evening gown who pretends to be drunk. Abbott – now starting to look a bit old - is the girl’s agent; he also represents Costello, who is an indept escape artist. The plot starts when Shay believes Constello might be descended from the McCoys, and he might be entitled to find some treasure. It’s a weak idea for a film – and things aren’t better later on when it’s contrived that Costello has to get a wife… cue from antics with a love potion. The Charles Barton era of strong plots was clearly over (since Abbott and Costello kept using the same writers, one can only assume Barton cared about preparing the scripts in a way Charles Lamont didn’t).In compensation, this has more songs in it than any Abbott and Costello film for a long time (mostly hillbilly stuff) and they rehash an old routine, “you’re forty she’s ten”. Normally one of the best things about hillbilly comedies is seeing the cast really get into it with outrageous accents – but this bunch aren’t up to it. Like Granny is a gift role, but the actor playing Granny is a bit blah (the shadow of the Beverly Hillbillies Granny lingers long over such portrayals). Indeed, this is all round a very tired film. If I’m not mistaken the young girl who flings herself at Costello is fourteen years old.
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