Lougennaire’s Disease

What do boxing promoters have to do in the Middle East? Other than throwing a he-jab or two (I know, I know, a touch lame), absolutely nothing, unless you are caught up in another one of Bud and Lou’s zany misadventures. . . namely, Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950).

Directed by Charles Lamont (his first of eight features with the comedy team –
the efficient filmmaker was not overly excited to head these simple projects) and written by frequent A&C screenwriters’ John Grant (every one except Lost in Alaska and Dance With Me, Henry), Martin Ragaway and Leonard Stern (both wrote three), the story finds two boxing promoters, Bud Jones (Bud Abbott) and Lou Hotchkiss (Lou Costello) – a rare time the pair used their first names, losing control of one of their star wrestlers, Prince Abdullah (William ‘Wee Willie’ Davis) – who is infuriated that he is slated to lose his next match, returning home to Algiers instead of taking the loss (but not before roughing up poor Lou – who did all of his own wresting stunts in the film – leading to a wrenched arm socket and a stretched tendon).

Angering their ‘not to be angered’ boss, Frankie the Loan Shark (Marc Lawrence – a recognizable face from A&C fare), the pair head to the Middle East to retrieve their star attraction.

Of course, as these things go, the mismatched pair stride into a number of dangerous situations, first being mistaken as American spies. . . as Abdullah’s cousin, Sheik Hamud El Khalid (Douglass Dumbrille), is a terrorist extortionist scamming a railroad company, then mistakenly signing up to serve a five year stint in the Foreign Legion – which leads to its own form of dangerously comedic side-splitting scenarios. Throw in an unscrupulous Legionnaire, Sgt. Axmann (Walter Slezak), a female French spy, Nicole Dupre (Patricia Medina), another behemoth of a wrestler, Abou Ben (Tor Johnson), and a harem of women, and you’ve got the makings of some frivolous fun.

Etched with numerous verbal and visual gags, the duo, as always, show their excellent comic timing. When poor Lou has been chased by a group of dagger wielding assassins (something Bud never sees), Lou tries to explain , “and they had knives, and they had little knives too – they got another name for them”, to which Bud helpfully adds, “Dirks?”, “Yeah, the whole three of them were dirks!”. Later, Lou spots some slave girls – confused, Bud explains, “Slave girls – a girl you take home, she sews for you, does your washing, she’s a servant for the rest of your life. In Algiers, they call them slave girls.” Lou: “In America, we call them wives”. And, of course, since this is the French Foreign Legion, it wouldn’t be an Abbott and Costello flick if Lou didn’t confuse ‘oui’ for ‘we’ a few times. As to the visual front, both wrestling sequences are priceless, while a lengthy segment finds Abbott and Costello stranded in the desert, Lou constantly seeing mirages until Bud finally spots an actual oasis – though Lou simply thinks his friend is cracking up as well. Another battle of the dimwits has the pair tracking a supposed tail late one night (wink wink, nudge nudge, it’s the other), while there is also an entertaining running gag which finds Lou constantly having veils in his mouth (as he is always caught in the midst of trying to kiss the lovely ladies).

Abbott and Costello’s twenty-sixth film in only their tenth year in Hollywood, Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion demonstrates the finely oiled machine the comedy duo had become. Chock full of comedy, there is nothing like a good film from the pair. Two final notes: firstly, a talking skeleton chats with Lou as he hallucinates in the desert (the voice heard – comic Candy Candido, ironically the man Bud Abbott would team up with after Costello passed away), secondly, the boys headed out to France, Germany and Italy after the film was released to
entertain the American troops (showing their respect for those men who served their country). So, join the laugh-happy troop in this raucous comedy, it will be sure to save your day.