JohnHowardReid Associate producers: Lolly Cristillo, Shirley Feld. Producer: Charles Barton. Executive producers: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello. Copyright 4 March 1948 by Pathé Industries, Inc. Presented by Eagle Lion Films. New York opening at Loew's State: 28 May 1948. U.S. release: 17 April 1948. U.K. release through Universal- International/General Film Distributors: 6 December 1948. Australian release through British Empire Films: 1 December 1949 (sic). 7,139 feet. 79 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Lou manages to lose $50,000. The money belongs to a bookie (Calleia) who needs it to pay off a winning wager from a gambler named McBride (Errol).NOTES: A new contract signed by Abbott and Costello with Universal- International, allowed the team to make one independent movie a year. This was the first.COMMENT: This mild Abbott and Costello entry will delight their rabid fans but leave others feeling short-changed. The initial plot gimmick of running down 800 names would seem to offer some promise for amusing comic variations, but this issue is speedily resolved. Instead, the writers offer six or seven wheezy old vaudeville routines, including Try To Get Thrown into Jail, Dress/Undress, Fodder/Mudder, I Don't Like Mustard, Who's on the Phone and Someplace Else. Oddly, Abbott doesn't partner Costello in all these variations. Leon Errol plays straight man for Lou in Fodder/Mudder (and also teams with Lou for an hilarious game of billiards), whilst Abbott works Mike Mazurki for the first part of Someplace Else and then Costello, would you believe, takes over as straight man? But he doesn't stop at Someplace Else. He also usurps Abbott from Who's on the Phone in which Joseph Calleia (of all people) plays the victim. Both Errol and Costello do extremely well. Abbott, on the other hand, is so nastily aggressive in the long-winded Mustard routine, he loses all audience sympathy. In fact, in this instance he consistently displays a mean, persuasively spiteful streak that goes well beyond the customary cowardly bullying of the team's usual routines. Fortunately, as said, Leon Errol picks up a lot of the slack, whilst Cathy Downs makes an attractive heroine. Direction and other credits are competent but nothing special.A SECOND VIEW: Aside from the opening sequences with the sore tooth chase through various back yards, the foot in the bucket on the window ledge and the follow-up scene in the dentist's office, the humor is mainly verbal with the comedians (counting Mike Mazurki and Joseph Calleia, there are five of them) exhausting some elaborate routines based on the weakest of puns (often in extremely long takes). Although he figures in the action a great deal, Leon Errol, for once, is charmingly restrained. Perhaps, like us, he was unsure of the character's motivation (is he just lucky or is he really a plain nut?) and wisely decided to play it safe. The support cast is studded with favorite faces, almost all of them not credited, except for Fritz Feld. whose part is one of the smallest.

utgard14 Very funny Abbott & Costello comedy that has the boys crossing a bookie (Joseph Calleia) and trying to find a way to pay him back $50,000 of his money they lost. Nicely paced with one great routine after another. I don't think there were any clunkers here. Sometimes the boys used bits that felt stale like they were dusted off vaudeville routines from twenty years before, but not here. Even the reworked gags feel fresh. Bud and Lou are in top form in this one. They had me in stitches. Great support from Calleia, Leon Errol, Mike Mazurki, and Alvin Hammer as a racetrack tout in one of the more subtly funny scenes. It's one of my favorite A&C comedies that didn't have monsters or the supernatural as part of the plot.

vawlkee_2000 I love Bud and Lou but I hate their feature films - except this one! All the stuff they did for Universal had them playing 2nd banana to some two-bit love situation. Donald Curtis, Dick Foran - who cares! I watched A&C for THEM! - not some grade Z romantic comedy with them occasionally stepping in for comic relief! "Noose" is obviously what their TV series pulled from. The boys doing all their shticks from their vaudeville days - and it works...BOY does it work! I loved their TV series because it was just THEM and they were unencumbered by the external plot devices! "Noose" is, in my humble opinion, their best film.

lanzarishi The Noose Hangs High contains what I consider one of the funniest scenes ever in a A&C movie. Very early on Lou's toothache brings him to Dr.Richards the "painless dentist". The minute they walk into the office the patient from the next room lets out a scream and Lou is up and leaving. Abbot pulls him back and a woman exits the office with a bandage wrapped around her face. Lou gets up again and Abbott pulls him back again. Then the crazy doctor appears signaling for Lou. The next 5 minutes inside the office are amazing. The timing, sound effects, EVERYTHING is just incredible. These 5 minutes alone are worth the price of admission. Whenever I watch this scene time stops for me. This is what makes Lou Costello so enjoyable. Pure humor! The rest of the movie is classic A&C at their best. Trust me!!