ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD (1952) (**)

Certainly not one of the pinnacle of Abbott and Costello's career for sure. When it came to them meeting fictional characters, they should have stuck to monsters. This pirate spoof does little to skewer the genre. The pirate theme serves only as a new dressing for their old routines.

Bud Abbott plays Rocky Stonebridge and Lou Costello is Puddin' Head, a duo of tavern workers. On the way to work, Lady Jane (Fran Warren) gives them a love letter to give to the tavern singer Bruce Martingale (Bill Shirley, I DREAM OF JEANIE). Dinning at the tavern that evening are notorious pirates Captain Kidd (Charles Laughton, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY) and Captain Bonney (Hillary Brooke, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH) and Puddin' inadvertently switches the letter for a treasure map. Captain Kidd spends the remainder of the film trying to get the map back.

Like many of the Marx Brothers films, the plot here is only a framework for the comedians' material. The movie features all the elements of broad appeal comedies of the era. Gag routines, pun-filled dialogue, songs and a little romance. The problem is that most of the "plot" revolves around the fairly boring romance between Lady Jane and Bruce, who of course are the film's musical talent. Why make a movie with Abbott and Costello in the title and make it about the love between a noble woman and a common man that really has none of the drama that a scenario of that sort should have.

What people want to see in this film is Abbott and Costello routines. After wading through six pretty awful songs, they do get routines, but routines they've seen before. From eating soap and talking out bubbles to the handcuff gag, the film either steals other comedians' material or just uses stuff that Abbott and Costello did before. The duo bring no new energy to these tired gags. They're just going through the motions at this point.

The only real bright spot is Laughton, who relished the chance to play the buffoon. Not that the material he is given is great, but he brings energy and joy to it. Unlike the rest of the film that uses the pirate genre as window dressing, he does get a chance to play up the character he originated and also poke fun at his legendary Capt. Bligh. Some point to this film as a display of the decline of Laughton's career. But for me, it's a display of his great range.

You'd have to be a very forgiving Abbott and Costello fan to really like this one. Even the good routines (even if they are old standards) are lost within the film's bad show tune like musical numbers. THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE this isn't. This film is a leaky ship; it sinks fast. Metaphor inspired by the originality of the film.