Watch Abbott and Costello Go to Mars For Free

Load of rubbish!!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

In one of their better 1950s features, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are headed on a little interplanetary trip. But first, there's a little sidebar where the lovable duo land their spaceship in New Orleans in the middle of Mardi Gras--and of course, Bud and Lou think they have landed on Mars.Meanwhile, 2 crooks who just busted out of the clink, find their way onboard the ship, steal a ray gun and hold up a bank and clothing store. Of course, it won't be long before the crooks and A & C come together and thanks to Costello, blast off to the planet of Venus.And what a planet Venus turns out to be--inhabited by some very shapely bathing beauties. Certainly, these are the best looking "aliens" you will come across in a Hollywood movie.And the pleasing aesthetics of the planet Venus lead to Bud, Lou and the crooks getting banished back to Earth, where they receive a heroes welcome and a ticker tape parade.Overall, while the title of this film is rather confusing--maybe someone at Universal thought that "Abbott and Costello go to Venus" didn't have a great ring to it. Regardless, "Mars" is a good way to while away over an hour of your life.

Bud and Lou finally decide to invade outer space and interplanetary relations will never be the same after Abbott and Costello Go To Mars. And they couldn't even get that right because it's Venus they wind up on.Bud does maintenance and deliveries at a scientific base and Lou is the oldest orphan in the world who sneaks on an army base and has to be kept there for security reason by order of Dr. Robert Paige and his assistant Martha Hyer.Which says security on this base is lousy because Bud and Lou accidentally lift the rocket off while cleaning it and become the world's first astronauts. They arrive at New Orleans during Mardi Gras and think they're on Mars because of all the colorfully costumed people. That being done they go right back to the rocket ship and take off again this time with two escaped convicts, Horace McMahon and Jack Kruschen, who have just robbed a bank.Then they arrive on Venus where the planet is populated by Amazons, men having been expelled hundreds of years ago. It's quite a place, but has its rules.This jaunt to outer space by A&C is once again quite below the standards of their work in the Forties. With Universal having a new look being typified by new leading men, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, and Jeff Chandler, Bud and Lou were no longer keeping the studio on the plus side of the ledger. They were gradually being phased out and this picture and others kind of prove it.The film provided some work for Joe Kirk who occasionally appeared as Mr. Baccagalupe on the A&C television series. Today the Italian American Anti-Defamation League would get all kinds of upset with his caricatured Italian scientist with the exaggerated accent. Nothing different from Kirk's character on television however, but you'd never get away with it today. It's a carryover from the ethnic humor of the Abbott and Costello days in burlesque where that kind of stuff was standard.This is not a bad A&C feature, but hardly anything like Buck Privates.

Thanks to having director Charles Lamont on this one this film actually is better than some of the other films A&C made including their much inferior A&C Meet Captain Kidd. While this one does not have Charles Laughton & a lot of terrible music to support the boys, it doesn't need either of them.This film actually holds up better because there is less music & more A&C comedy. Both are welcome here. The slowest part of the film seems to be when they land on Venus. Even though there are a lot of attractive women on Venus, things slow down there.A critic when this film came out said "Go To Mars- And About Time". That comment really isn't fair to A&C as the special effects in this are sleazy & the script is grade B, yet A&C pull it up to a B Plus without much to work with. I am sure Charles Lamont's Direction had a lot to do with that.

"Abbott and Costello Go To Mars" is one of the better remembered films from my childhood, along with their romp with Frankenstein, and other Million Dollar Movie favorites like "Godzilla" and "King Kong". Perhaps it was the memorable New Orleans Mardi Gras setting with it's outlandish cast of costumed "martians", it would have been an even better visual treat in color. It's pure and simple fun, and doesn't use a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo to explain space flight, unless you rely on the comments by a couple of Orville's (Costello) young friends in the opening scene.The fact that the boys never do get to Mars is easily overlooked, particularly as they get sidetracked by a couple of bank robbers and take off for Venus. There we get an early look at the 1950's version of a Star Wars type land speeder, and get to see Venusian girls testing their accuracy in a game using saucers that pre-date the Frisbee. Presiding over the man-less Venusian landscape is Queen Allura, portrayed by Mari Blanchard and looking nothing short of gorgeous. Universal could have done a lot worse than populating the movie with an array of Miss Universe contestants.The funniest bit for me was probably meant to be serious; as the boys take off in their rocket for the second time, Dr. Wilson (Robert Paige) needs only about one second on a slide rule device to determine the ship is heading to Venus - huh, how'd he do that? Then there was the comment made by Orville when confronted by a foggy landscape in an unknown world - "Being I can't see a foot in front of me, I'd say it's Los Angeles." Wow, I didn't think L.A. became known for it's smog until the Sixties!It's a shame that as time goes by, movies like "A & C Go To Mars" have less and less of an audience. It's charm lies in it's wholesome fare from a simpler time that doesn't have a message, without pretending to be anything more than fun. I think I'll get me a Venusian balloon.