Until DVDs arrived on the scene, this was one of the rarest of all Abbott & Costello movies - and with good reason: It's not very funny. True, the team are in good voice and have a couple of able assistants in Joe Besser (as a pamby manservant) and Shemp Howard (a near-sighted gunman). In fact, Besser and Howard are given more amusing material than the stars. Lacking their usual writer, John Grant, Abbott and Costello have been fashioned into rather unusual characters. At first glance, Abbott is his normal hectoring, looking-out-solidly-for-number-one self, but then we find him volunteering to don a lion-skin so that his fraidy-cat buddy can impress the blonde vamp - something the old Abbott would never do. Costello's character has undergone an even more startling metamorphosis: No longer a lovable dimwit, he is a lying, cowardly braggart of uncommon stupidity yet self-preserving disloyalty! It's obvious that writer Earl Baldwin gave no great thought to sympathy or consistency of characterization but simply threw every old wheeze and routine he could think of into an already overburdened script. Unfortunately a lot of this material wasn't even meant to be funny in the first place. With the exception of such extended ennui-inducing episodes as Lou taming a lion in the process screen, the straight material is even more tedious than the unfunny funny. By and large, Baldwin lost a contract-sent opportunity to send up the whole jungle genre. Contenting himself with a few mild japes (Lou propelling his canoe with an eggbeater; the Baer Brothers trading insults), he allows Hillary Brooke (attractive though she is) to strut around in dead seriousness like the queen of a Congo serial. This mood is abetted by Frank Buck and particularly Clyde Beatty who take themselves very earnestly indeed. So eager were the producers to get their money's worth out of Beatty, they even provide him a chair, a whip and a cage of lions. A daring act certainly, but as presented in Africa Screams, boringly long-winded.

Africa Screams is another silly comedy for Bud Abbott and Lou Costello; the title tells you everything you need to know about this one. Costello has the location of some valuable diamonds memorised, or so the bad guys think, so he and Abbott are roped along into a jungle expedition. They soon meet up with all of the clichés of the jungle adventure genre, from crocodile attacks to a man-in-a-suit gorilla, crazy natives, and some ferocious lions. I found the comedy to be dragged out far too much in this film, and Costello is an interminable presence at times; Abbott is just unpleasant for much of this. As a result the film is a bit of a chore to watch, even if it does contain the likes of Shemp Howard and other former celebrities.

Lou Costello's considerable charisma and Bud Abbott's twisting the bonds of friendship even more perversely than usual aren't quite enough to make this worthwhile, but fans may find pleasant reminders of their overall greatness.Mild-mannered bookstore employee Stanley Livington (Lou) is drafted by co-worker Buzz Johnson (Bud) when a beautiful woman (Hillary Brooke) offers $2,500 for a copy of a map made of a location in Africa only Stanley has seen. The woman plans to swipe the map and roll the pair, but that changes when Buzz gets wind of how much wealth could be involved. Buzz and Stanley end up joining the safari, Stanley most unwillingly. He's afraid enough of kittens, never mind lions and gorillas.Asked mid-expedition why he wants to go home, Stanley says it's because he forgot something: "I forgot to stay there."Watching Bud & Lou in their post-"Meet Frankenstein" period is always dicey. Both the laughs and the sets were getting cheaper as the pair fell from their plateau of being prime moneymakers. As a rare independent-studio venture, "Africa Screams" is cheaper still, with a slapdash script and a supporting cast that consisted largely of non-actor cameos outside of Brooke, rotund girly-man Joe Besser, and Shemp Howard as a squinty, bespectacled hunter whose function in the story is as clouded as his vision.There's also lion tamer Clyde Beatty and renowned hunter Frank Buck playing themselves, along with brothers Max and Buddy Baer, well-known fighters of the period, playing the Brooke character's muscle. Several black actors assay thankless lackey roles, being called "boy" every now and again, though Stanley is as well. Then again, when you are treated with as much respect as Lou Costello in an Abbott & Costello movie, you have a case for unfair denigration.Bud's depraved indifference to Lou's welfare achieves new lows. In other A&C vehicles Bud turned Lou over to the Redcoats and even tried to guilt him into committing suicide, but here the greed of Bud's character drives him to a kind of madness. Buzz shops Stanley's welfare out to everyone, caught up in visions of yachts and polo ponies. At one point he grudgingly throws Stanley a nickel."I give you an opportunity to make me $2,500, and this is the thanks I get," Buzz huffs.Buzz does have one of those "I-can't-believe-I-killed-my-buddy" scenes when his dead buddy comes over and joins him for a good cry, but otherwise he's a heel, and a pretty demented one as well. If the writers did a little more with that, it could have represented Bud's most dynamic showcase, but they seem content trotting out old jokes about alligators and monkeys. At least they don't attempt an African version of "Who's On First.""Africa Screams" does amuse, with seasoned Abbott & Costello director Charles Barton getting the most from his two game stars, but it also runs out of steam well before the picture is halfway over. It does rally a bit in the end, and provides a final couple of minutes that's up there with "Frankenstein" and "The Time Of Their Lives" for best A&C capper. Still, if you aren't a hardcore A&C fan you may have tuned out well before then.

And they did make an awful lot of films starting with their debut in Universal's ONE NIGHT IN THE TROPICS (1940). And they did stay busy at Universal; where along with Miss Deanna Durbin, they managed to keep the Studio's doors open. But, they did not go exclusive with Universal; opting for some simultaneous work to be done for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn Studios/United Artists as well as some independents.Of all their films, we liked ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (Universal-Intermnational, 1948) the best; but that, my dear Schultz, is another story and review. Following this would be both more simplified, yet more complicated; simplified because it provided a road map of where to start with an A&C vehicle and where to go with it. As for the more complicated aspect of the equation; it becomes a matter of, "how do we top this?" With the release of Africa SCREAMS (Huntington-Hartford/Nassour Pictures/United Artists, 1949), it is obvious that all of this business learned on the A&C Frankenstein Project was applied to the "jungle project".First of all, they started with a simple enough premise and storyline to boot. Bud & Lou work in a big, Downtown Bookstore; being kind of like a B. Dalton, Bookseller or Kroch's & Brentano's (here in Chicago). Lou entertains dreams of being a big time Jungle Guy, sort of like co-stars Frank Buck and Clyde Beatty.* In true comedy movie fashion, the pair get tangled up with Treasure Hunter s Diana Emerson (Hillary Brooke) and her Henchmen Boots Wilson (Buddy Baer) & Grappler McCoy (Max Baer).They wind up at her house, having plenty of interplay with her Butler, Harry (Joe Besser) and Safari "Guide", Gunner (a Coke-bottle spectacled Shemp Howard). They eventually get to be part of Miss Brooke's expedition by lying about knowledge of the map needed to find a treasure trove of diamonds, worth a King's Ransom. They get into trouble with the local natives, "Bring 'Em Back Alive" Mr. Frank Buck (Himself) and the "World's Greatest Animal Trainer" Mr. Clyde Beatty (Himself).Lou also runs into a Gorilla who has apparent crush on him, in an emotional lovelorn way; not being a sort of Wrasslin' maneuver. And the censors objected to a female Gorilla feeling amorous about Costello; so the production team made the Gorilla a Male! So our would be 'G' Rated (today) Saturday Afternoon Kids Matinée special now has a Homosexual Bestiality relationship, right out there in front of God and Everybody! (Isn't it great to see how lucky we are in having an Arbiter of Public Taste and Morals looking- out for us in the Movie Business!**) So, in no surprise to anyone, after all of the above has transpired and a Giant King Kong/Mighty Joe Young knockoff Gorilla brings the action on the Dark Continent to a climactic crescendo, the Comical Pair returns to New York; where Lou has become some sort of Tycoon and Abbott some kind of blue collar worker in Costello's employ! THE END! A film of only about 80 minutes in length, Africa SCREAMS is obviously a project conceived as an Abbott & Costello movie from the most embryonic of stages. While it is no masterpiece; it is a top flight laugh maker, which is what it is all about, after all is said and done! The film is a crazy-quilt of the most unusual collection of personalities involved in the production at all levels. First of all, we have the cast; which we have already acknowledged in previous paragraphs; but, here we go again. Other than Bud & Lou we have a relatively small (not in size for the Baers) cast. The just mentioned brothers, Heavtyweights in the Prize Ring both, provided the brawn heavies in the gang, the "muscle." "The Livermore Larruper" former Heavyweight Champion of The World, Max Baer and his "little" brother, the near giant Buddy Baer did just fine in performing their shtick with Bud & Lou. Both Hillary Brooke and Joe Besser were later regulars on "THE ABBOTT AND COSTELLO SHOW" (CBS TV/ NBC TV, 1952-53); with Hillary providing the glamour and Joe playing the Man-Boy, "Stinky" in the Buster Brown suit! And let's not forget the old-pro, the comedians' comedian, the maverick Stooge (himself), Shemp Howard as the "blind-as-a-bat" (with or without the "Harry Caray-style" glasses.)In going beyond the cast we find a really strange conglomeration of people in different roles. Take for example: Musical Director, Walter Schumann-he of the "DRAGNET" theme and music for NIGHT OF THE HUNTER! We have Donald Crispi as Executive Producer! William Nassour (Producer of "SHEENA, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE" TV Series, 1956) was Ececutive in Charge. Norman Abbott (Bud's nephew) worked as dialogue coach. Perhaps the most unusual member to be involved is Huntington Hartford, whose name is the same as his Production Company. Mr. Hartford, whose family owned the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as the A&P Food Stores; once totaling about 15,000 Supermarkets nationwide.Now in Public Domain, Africa SCREAMS is easy to find; being all over the place, much like IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (Liberty Pictures/RKO Radio, 1946) used to be.NOTE: * These 2 guys were real life Jungle Bwanas; Mr. Buck having been known as "Bring 'Em Back Alive" for some 25 years before this picture. Clyde Beatty had his own Circus, was known as "the World's Greatest Animal Trainer" and had made many films before, including 2 Serials portraying Himself.NOTE: ** This begs the question: Who's pitchin' and who's catchin'?