Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Good movie but grossly overrated

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is a very funny movie. It is also scarier. I really I have to say it is scarier then The Shining. And that is not easy to do. It is not has scary has The Mummy's hand mind you. And not has scarier has The Mummy's tomb. It is also not has scary has The Mummy's ghost. Also it not scary has The Mummy's cure . The Mummy's cure is one of the scariest movie of all time. This is one of the funniest of all time. It has great acting. It also has great special effects. It also has a great story line. 6.5 is a good ratting. But this is such a great movie that 6.5 is underrating.

Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) This one depends on your enthusiasm for Abbott and Costello. Mine has waned over the years and Lou is more childish than childlike for me now. Bud's slapping routine is just annoying. I saw the beginning, napped through most of the middle, and caught the end. I feel that I didn't miss too much.Richard Deacon was there as the head priest and Michael Ansara was also seen. The costumes were odd and so was what there was of "plot".There were several dance / music sequences some of which, illogically , were based on Hindu Mythology rather than on Egyptian.For me it was pretty lame and not to be recommended.

Abbott and Costello were a popular comedy team in the early 40s, with their dumbed-down burlesques of life in the Army or Navy. Occasionally they'd branch out, when Universal Studios let them, and make a film of more substance -- and funnier -- as in "The Time of Their Lives." But after a few years they began to fade, until they were revivified with "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" in 1948. Universal's monster genre, which began in the early 30s, had run its course and there was nothing left to do but parody them, and Abbott and Costello were the instruments of that parody.Here we are in 1955, with "Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy" and it's the dead edge of yonder for both the comedy team and the line up of monsters. You can't parody a parody.This may be the only film -- it was the next to their last -- in which Bud Abbott is almost as thick as Lou Costello. Abbott's voice is harsher and a little gravelly. When he insults Costello or order him around, it's a little unpleasant because he doesn't sound like a vaudeville straight man anymore; he sounds really mean.The story is dispensable except for Marie Windsor. What is she doing here, taking a vacation from being a moll? She looks mighty fine, in an Ileana Douglas sort of way, with those big and inviting eyes. Yes, eyes. Nobody else really counts. And the plot redoes some earlier successful gags. The "Who's on first" routine here is morphed into a lesser breed of gag involving "pick a shovel." I used to get a kick out of Abbott and Costello when I was a kid, and maybe the kids would find all this running around, being chased by thieves and mummies, bumping into dead bodies, and so forth, amusing. Although -- I don't know. I'm not attuned to the tastes of today's kids but my general impression is that they prefer violence to comedy or, better yet, slaughter that is presented as a joke.

Awfully tired Abbott and Costello comedy, their 28th (and final) film for Universal, benefits from a good supporting cast--although the script is cluttered with villains who don't end up doing much. Two pith helmet-wearing Americans in Cairo get hold of a medallion which points the way to hidden treasure once owned by a princess (but in hieroglyphics!). Soon, they're on the run from the mercenary Madame Rontru and her stooges, plus three roaming mummies guarding the princess's tomb. Lots of frantic activity, but not enough jokes. As the nefarious Madame, Marie Windsor gives the proceedings a much-needed shot in the arm, however Bud and Lou phone their performances in. *1/2 from ****