HOWEVER UNFUNNY JOE BESSER WAS WHEN HE JOINED THE THREE STOOGES, IS INVERSELY PROPORTIONATE TO HOW FUNNY HE IS AS "STINKY" ON THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO SHOW!
It's actually remarkable how much Besser cracks me up as Stinky when he barely makes me crack a smile as one of THE THREE STOOGES. For our Halloween Countdown, we'll be talking about the episode "HAUNTED HOUSE" (also known in some quarters as "THE HAUNTED CASTLE" which was broadcast on February 20, 1953 as the 12th episode of the series first season.
The episode begins with Bud and Lou walking down the street and encountering Stinky who wants to play football with Lou. A lot of smacking and pinching (Stinky's usual M.O. with Lou) goes on until Stinky abandons the game. Great stuff! Love that Stinky!!! The scene switches to series regular Hillary Brooke (who Lou is sweet on) in the office of Lawyer Melonhead (the ubiquitous Sid Fields) discussing her late uncle's will; which stipulates that, if there is only one heir, two witnesses must be present at the reading of the will. That means Bud & Lou who are thrown into lawyer Melonhead's office (literally)! As usual, Hillary will get her uncle's old castle IF she manages to spend the night there. If all this sounds familiar, it's because most of THE ABBOTT AND COSTELLO SHOW features tried & true comedy routines from Bud & Lou's vaudeville and movie routines. When they get to the cobweb-ridden, spooky castle, we're treated to such old favourites from the boys' films HOLD THAT GHOST and ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. The tried-and-true "moving candle" routine is always welcome and the gorilla -- or rather, the man in a gorilla suit -- which is a seemingly required by law to appear in every single horror comedy from the 1930s to the 1960s -- is on hand as well. However, there are a good many new comedy bits as well. This is not just a rehash of HOLD THAT GHOST but is livened-up with new touches to the script by Eddie Forman.
This comedy series was apparently rerun endlessly but, somehow, it was never rerun in my area when I was growing up. All the A&C movies, yes. THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO SHOW, no. But I do know that up until now, the show has been available is subpar prints and usually looks terrible. I've really become a big fan of THE ABBOTT AND COSTELLO SHOW now since I got the recently-released ClassicFlix edition of Season 1 which features ridiculously-gorgeous prints of the episodes. Let's hope ClassicFlix releases Season 2 soon!
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