JohnHowardReid Copyright 1955 by Universal-International. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: June 1955. U.K. release: July 1955. Australian release: 17 November 1955. Sydney opening at the Lyceum as the lower half of a double bill with Foxfire. 79 minutes. Cut to 63 minutes in Australia. Alternative title: Meet the Mummy.SYNOPSIS: Abbott and Costello play two Americans who are stranded in Egypt. They hope to return home with an archaeologist. But he is murdered by members of a secret society. NOTES: The last of the twenty-nine pictures Abbott and Costello made for Universal. A studio press release notes that for their first movie, One Night in the Tropics (1940), the comedians were each paid $8,750. This had now increased to $100,000 each, plus a 25% each share of the profits. The studio felt that Abbott and Costello's popularity was now on the wane and that a 50% share of dwindling profits was no longer worth the trouble of keeping the comics on the payroll. Accordingly, their contract was dissolved-a move the studio was later to bitterly regret. Although MCA will not disclose actual figures, it is estimated that the corporation has grossed more than $60 million over the years for licensing A&C movies to domestic television alone. In other words, more than $2 million per film.COMMENT: Entertaining A&C comedy, but not one of their best! Charles Lamont's direction hovers around the routine mark, John Grant's screenplay often amounts to self-plagiarism and producer Howard Christies's budget is not as lavish as usual), but the boys are still happily in good form and they receive adequate support (though Richard Deacon is sadly miscast as the High Priest). Attractive photography by ace cameraman George Robinson proves another big asset.OTHER VIEWS: Abbott and Costello signed off from Universal in reasonable style with some typical verbal and slapstick routines in a fairly well produced, atmospherically photographed and competently directed vehicle that cleverly combined laughs with screams in line with many of their earlier successes. A great support cast helped too. Needless to say, Messrs A&C come across as delightfully incompetent boobs. However, Bud Abbott, the perennial straight guy, looks as if the wealth he's accumulated over his past thirty-plus pictures, has all gone to his stomach. He'll have to watch out or he'll soon be mistaken for his chubby partner. In the supporting cast, villainess Marie Windsor proves quite effective; but singer Peggy King seems to lack vocal power.Summing up: Satisfyingly shuddersome.

Byrdz 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.

Leofwine_draca Despite being one of the later films in the Abbott and Costello series, it remains one of their most entertaining movies – thanks to a fast-paced plot, a touch of clever scripting here and there and gags which come thick and fast all the way through. The story is as light as ever, involving scheming gangs of nefarious villains, people being chased all over the scenery, lots of secret passages and sarcophagi, a murderous mummy (a pretty poor shambler to be honest) and our duo getting involved in their usual hijinks; namely, Costello seeing all manner of weird and scary stuff, and straight man Abbott missing all the fun each and every time.Although it's a low budget movie with some unconvincing Egyptian locales, not to mention actors (I guess they got through a fair few tins of boot polish here) there is much to enjoy here. Costello is less irritating than usual and is funny on occasion and more than a few jokes are successful; the dinner-table routine with the cursed medallion is a particular highlight and many moments recall the glory days of vintage comedy, in the Laurel & Hardy era.The film does have some longeurs, namely the incessant musical interludes – apparently they had to pad the running time out, even though it only clocks in at seventy-five minutes – and supporting talent from a better-than-usual cast, including a young Mel Welles. Cheesy special effects add to the movie's endearingly dated appeal; an animated bat is even worse than the effects in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN and a plethora of rubber snakes only add to the jokey fun. Made with a tongue firmly in cheek and with gusto from the cast and crew, this is one of the most straightforwardly enjoyable Abbott and Costello films out there.

Robert J. Maxwell 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.