Jan 281955
 
two reels

Peter and Freddie (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello) find themselves mixed up in the murder of a professor.  Trying to clear their names only makes things worse as both a criminal (Marie Windsor) and a cult leader (Richard Deacon) want the amulet they have, an amulet that leads to the treasure of an ancient tomb, guarded by a mummy.

Yes, I’m once again pushing the definition of “Classic,” but this is where the trail leads from the Universal monster films.

Early in Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy, Costello finds a dead body, and runs out, yelling “Abbooooooott!”  The thing is, Abbott isn’t playing a character named Abbott.  He’s playing Peter Patterson.  Throughout the film, the two continue using each other’s real names.  So, was this a bit of humor, breaking the forth wall, or was the continuity just that bad?  Either way, it showed they didn’t care.  And that says all you need to know about this film.

Meet the Mummy isn’t bad.  Certainly it is a long way from the best of their “meets a” movies, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, but it isn’t horrible, provided you like Abbott and Costello. But it’s tired. The jokes are very old.  You’ve heard them all before. They confuse language, switch a plate of food back and forth while forcing the other to look at girls coming in the door, and Abbott yells at Costello that he’s imagining things when he claims to see a dead body or a monster. If it was funny once, well then it’s…well, that’s the thing about jokes—they really aren’t funny the sixty-fifth time.

The secondary actors all play it relatively straight, and the Mummy is a sad, skinny guy in ribbons. Again, they aren’t bad. That seems to be the best thing I can say.

With Meet the Mummy, the duo finished their collaborations with Universal monsters, and nearly finished their careers. Costello would die four years later from a heart attack.  Watching them here, they feel finished. If this pops up on TV, you probably won’t have a bad time if you leave it playing, but why bother? If you need an Abbott and Costello fix, there are better films to watch that will have the same gags.

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