it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This Abbott and Costello comedy brings to mind the earlier rather similar "Road to Zanzibar", staring Hope, Crosby and Lamour. Both involve interactions with gorillas and cannibals. They differ in that the gorilla in the present film is friendly and helpful toward Costello because be rescued it from a pit fall trap. Also, we get a look at a King Kong-sized gorilla, which just stands there. It's unclear if this is supposed to be the Orangutan gargantuan-a fabled giant form of orangutan that the expedition supposedly was seeking. All present naturally occurring orangutans are confined to the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, no where near Africa. Partial fossils of a long extinct giant form of Orangutans (Gigantopithecus) have been found in parts of eastern and southern Asia.Getting back to the movie, Lou is afraid of all animals. We see him cracking a whip at some unseen animal, which turns out to be a house cat. Doesn't sound like a good candidate for a safari to darkest Africa! Nonetheless, he's invited to go on such an expedition organized by Diana Emerson, who seems to be an independent wealthy young woman, who was actually after diamonds rumored to be plentiful in one small area of the Congo basin. Lou claims to have memorized the lost map of where these diamonds are. Abbott invites himself on the expedition. Ex-boxers Max and Buddy Baer: Diana's henchmen are also present, while Shemp Howard, of The Three Stooges, plays gunner, who is nearly blind, despite very thick glasses. Incredulously, he's supposed to be ready to shoot any dangerous animals, in case the primary shooter misses. He appears as the focus of attention occasionally, serving as a running gag. We also have wild tropical animals experts Clyde Beatty and Frank Buck. Clyde snaps his whip to encourage some lions to do his bidding in a large bamboo enclosure. Lou enters this enclosure, locking the door, confident that he can get along with the lion inside, thinking it's Abbott, in his lion suit. When he sees Abbott outside the cage, he panics, and later hides under a wicker enclosure. Abbott returns and doesn't see Lou, thus supposes the lion ate him, clothes and all(right!). Later, Abbott finds Lou, who finds a large clear stone. Abbott declares it's a diamond(very unlikely). As they walk along the jungle path, they find more, until they come to a native village, where they see that a native has been planting these stones to make them come to their village. They're tied to poles, while a big cauldron of water is being boiled. A gorilla comes along and unties Lou's ropes, then he unties Abbott's ropes, and they skedaddle. Abbott has the stones in a sack, which he hides in the jungle while Lou is elsewhere. When Abbott returns for his diamonds, they aren't to be found, as the gorilla took them. Meanwhile, the Baer brothers are roaming the jungle when a group of chimpanzees decides to have fun with them. They pile palm leaves on the trail, which one trips over. They hit one with a pea shooter. Soon, the two are fighting each other. The chimps end the fight by dropping coconuts on their heads.We see Abbott paddling a raft down the river, when Lou yells he wants to go with him. But Abbott refuses, saying, since his diamonds were stolen, he's going home. The next scene is in front of a tall skyscraper in NYC. Lou gets out of a car, smartly dressed, enters the skyscraper, and goes to the elevator. Abbott is the elevator operator. He asks Lou if he can have a raise. Lou says he will have to consult with his business partner. Guess who his business partner is. You got it!Although this was filmed in B&W, I saw the colorized version at YouTube, which was quite good. This was a relatively short A&C film, at 75min....Hillary Brooke, who played Diana, had an extensive film and TV career. She played a pirate captain in "Abbott and Costello meet Captain Kidd.", and was Lou's usual girlfriend on "The Abbott and Costello Show"This is a moderately interesting film, especially for children, with some childish performances here and there.

As a kid, there were two kinds of movies I always watched - all the ones with Abbott and Costello in them, and anything having to do with wild jungle animals. Catching this one back in the day then was obviously a bonus, how many times could lightning strike like this for a young movie fan! Of course back then, I wouldn't have known too much about all of the supporting players who appear here, so watching it today was a real trip down memory lane. Hillary Brooke of course was a regular on the comedy pair's TV show, usually going by her real name, while Joey Besser also had a fair share of appearances there as a character named 'Stinky' Davis. Besser's former 'Three Stooges' team member also shows up here as a sight challenged safari member named Gunner who gets to do a couple of gimmicks with Lou.Then of course you have the most famous pair of wild animal experts of the era in Clyde Beatty and that 'Bring 'em Back Alive' guy Frank Buck. All but unknown today, they were like household names for me as I did my wild animal research back in the Fifties. On top of all that though, you've got a couple of pro boxing brothers here in the way of Max and Buddy Baer, and even though their connection to the sport isn't specifically mentioned in the story, I got a kick out of Buddy's remark as his character Boots Wilson got into a scrap with Grappler McCoy - "I'll hit you harder than Louis ever did" - a cool reference to Ring Magazine's 1924 Fight of the Year in which Joe Louis beat Max in the fourth round of their heavyweight bout.With all that, the story here is almost superfluous, but filled with plenty of Abbott and Costello's traditional gags, and plenty of wild animals to boot! Interestingly, as straight man Buzz Johnson, Abbott faints dead away at the sight of crocodiles, lions and gorillas, leaving his partner to handle all the double takes and feigned fear of becoming part of the lunch menu. Watching as a kid, that scene of Lou seeing the 'Orangatan Gargantua' just blew me away, something I had forgotten about until that scene played out this time around.

Of all the Abbot and Costello films, Africa Screams has always been one of my favorites. With the added supporting help of soon to be stooges Joe Besser and Shemp Howard, the laughs are fast and furious. The main problem is that the movie, for some inexplicable reason, fell into the public domain. The good part is there is no lack of exposure for this film. The bad part is the versions that make it to DVD are simply horrible transfers. I think it is a terrible shame that so many classic comedies, like Afirca Screams, Morgy and Shoo in Chatanooga Shoo Shoo and The Stooges handful of short subjects like Disorder in the Court, Malice in the Palice, etc seem to get short-changed because some suit in the copyright-renewal office fell asleep at the wheel. I hope Africa Screams someday gets the remastered restoration it deserves.

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'?