AC Meet Chaplin

Stumbled across this item in ABBOTT & COSTELLO IN HOLLYWOOD by Bob Furmanek & Ron Palumbo:

'WHO DONE IT was supposed to be dedicated to Lou's idol, Charlie Chaplin. Before the production, Lou was a guest of honor at Chaplin's Beverly Hills home. According to a newspaper clipping, Chaplin entertained his guests with an impersonation of Abbott & Costello' (I would have loved to have seen that!) 'and the two great comics discussed the possibility of doing a picture together. Lou asked about the possibility of buying the rights to THE KID. Later, Lou explained: 'Charlie told me heplanned to remake THE KID with me playing the role he created. Then I guess the whole thing was dropped because he got involved in this poloitical situation and left the country.'

Can this be true? I find it very difficult to imagine Chaplin remaking any of his pictures, let alone THE KID

Well I saw that same book and I can see Lou Costello doing a great job in the role. Would he top Chaplin? I doubt it. But Costello is one of the few comedians at the time that could evoke genuine emotion from an audience. Costello was very likeable and had that sincere quality to evoke empathy. Unfortunately he has only attempted that serious side of him a few times in his films and tv series. Perhaps it was this quality of Costello's, along with Costello's humor, that made Chaplin, in the early 1940s, call Costello the 'best comic working in the business today.'

Chaplin was always talking about working with people he liked

It is likely Chaplin did intend to do something with Lou Costello, but other things got in the way. Not only for Charlie, but for Lou, who was quite a big star himself during this period.

As far as Lou starring in a remake of THE KID- - I don't care for remakes too often, but I do believe Chaplin could have created something similar (with humor and pathos) to fit Costello's own style.

I always felt Abbott and Costello were rather casually dismissed when in fact much of their material holds up quite well today.

<snip>

Their *material* might.

Their films do not.

Abbott and Costello are sort of the Anti-Chaplin

You think THAT was hard to envision?! How about Bud Abbott as THE KID?!

Well, some people think that 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein' is one of the best horror-comedies ever made.

Hard to regard the pair as the 'Anti-Chaplin' simply because Universal ground 'em out. The studio was certainly in the 'B' class in those days and should not be confused with the behemoth public company of today. A & C were one of their financial mainstays.

One wonders how well Chaplin would have done at their pace. I've always felt that CC got a bit lazy after 'Modern Times' and his films hardly reflect painstaking technical smoothness. (Sorry to open that can of beans.)

His output slowed because the powerful motivation that drove him out of poverty probably had subsided. He relaxed.

By contrast, Abbott and Costello were very much 'working comedians' until the day Lou died. Both had tax troubles which plagued them all their working lives.

In no sense can A & C be equated with the genius of Chaplin, though I love them just as much. Probably more.

Bobster123

I thought YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN was funny, but the reason why I'd nominate A&C MEET FRANKENSTEIN as the best comedy-horror is becuz YF never really had horror. The monster there was a buffoon and not serious at all, while the A&C picture left the horror element of the monsters in tact.

But to keep this on topic, Chaplin never delved into horror comedy

Yes to some extent, but A&C had a huge bag of routines to pull from, so it probably didn't take long to write a script for them. Their films and popularity did start to decline around the late 40's, but then A&C MEET FRANKENSTEIN put them back on top and kept them going through the mid-50's, although their films hit an all-time low during this period.

Also- I thought BUCK PRIVATES COME HOME was pretty good- and who can deny ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN as being probably the best comedy-horror film of all time (with the possible exception of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN).

Tom stated re/A&C:

Most of their films are pretty bad, with some inspired moments here and there. The only one that I would posit as actually being a decent film is 'Buck Privates.'

And possibly 'The Time of Their Lives,' which I don't really think of as being an 'Abbott and Costello' movie.

When I referred to them as the anti-Chaplin, I wasn't, of course, trying to imply that they were filmmakers.

But the fact is that Chaplin made his films slowly and painstakingly, while Abbott and Costello allowed themselves to be put by Universal into as many films as they could crank out.

Buster Keaton had some scathing things to say in that respect about Abbott and Costello in the Kevin Brownlow documentary 'A Hard Act to Follow.' So apparently *he* thought they were the anti-Chaplin, too.

Tom Moran