In Society
Two bumbling plumbers are hired by a socialite to fix a leak. A case of mistaken identity gets the pair an invitation to a fancy party and an entree into high society. As expected, things don't go too smoothly.
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- Cast:
- Bud Abbott , Lou Costello , Marion Hutton , Kirby Grant , Ann Gillis , Arthur Treacher , Thomas Gomez
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Reviews
Best movie of this year hands down!
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Abbott & Costello play two bumbling plumbers who are accidentally invited to a ritzy country club after being hired to do some emergency plumbing work by a wealthy man(and making a mess of things in the process). This gets them mistakenly invited to a ritzy country club, where they get into more trouble. Also there is woman taxi driver Elsie Hammerdingle(played by Marion Hutton) who begins a romance with a rich man, who doesn't know her true identity. Underrated comedy from the team has a most appealing performance from Miss Hutton, and some very funny moments: the best of which is the Bagel Street sketch, the single funniest scene I have ever seen in a film! Ending and some songs are weak, but otherwise most enjoyable.
Years ago Alan King had a great line about plumbers that it was indeed a noble profession and should be celebrated the way astronauts are. Without plumbers King reasoned, we'd all be astronauts. But when you hire Abbott&Costello as plumbers you'd better be checked out in a space suit.Bumbling plumbers Bud and Lou after wrecking the home of Thurston Hall and Nella Walker get invited to a big society bash when they get that instead of a threatening letter from Walker. When they went to that job they got a lift from their friend, Rosie the Riveteer cab driver Marion Hutton who was mistaken for a society girl in costume by Kirby Grant who was similarly attired. So begins Marion's Cinderella like odyssey.In fact Marion and Kirby are given a great deal more screen footage than you would normally expect in an Abbott&Costello feature. I'm guessing that Universal was trying to turn Hutton into a big film star the way Paramount was doing with her older sister Betty. Marion was a lighter and sweeter version of Betty, maybe if she had a more distinct personality of her own she might have had a film career. In any event she was more interested in singing than acting. She got a couple of really good songs to sing, No Bout Adoubt It is in the style of her sister. And one of the big song hits of 1944 was introduced by Marion with My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time. Television's future Sky King also has a fine number with What A Change In The Weather. This should prove a pleasant surprise to his fans who probably didn't know Kirby Grant started as a singer.But Bud and Lou get their innings as well here as they make an ungodly mess of Thurston Hall's lovely home. And they do one of burlesque's celebrated routines, the famous Susquehanna Hat Company on Beagle Street. Who could possibly believe that such horrific events in people's lives could have happened on that street or been connected with that hat company?The last chase sequence as society crook Thomas Gomez tries to steal a valuable painting on the fire engine is re-edited from W.C. Fields's Never Give A Sucker An Even Break. You'll recognize it of course if you are a fan of Fields, but it is certainly edited nicely into In Society. This is one of the best A&C films from their early Universal period, a must for their still growing legion of fans.
A&C as plumbers - cue a 100-or-so cross-talk routines, trouble with pipes and a plethora of vulgar noises, before the duo somehow becomes embroiled in a high-society art theft. Naturally they save the day, but not without ruining the substantive part of it first.This particular A&C film is often much funnier than most, but it nevertheless remains as unbearably noisy, frenetic and annoying as any similar 'Three Stooges' short spun out to feature-length would have been.Rather more insultingly, a lot of the footage is lifted from WC Fields' 'Never Give A Sucker An Even Break'.
IN SOCIETY (1944)*** One of Abbott and Costello's finest and funniest comedies with the boys as bumbling plumbers hobnobbing with the hoi palloi with some amusing moments in one of the first snob/slob comedies. Best bit: "Bagel Street" bit with poor Lou being abused while trying to run an errand for a friend.