Watch Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion For Free

Did you people see the same film I saw?

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I liked it. If you never saw another A&C film, I'll bet you would like it's craziness. This was the first film the boys did after Lou's relapse of relapsing fever and gall bladder surgery. The story begins in a Brooklyn wrestling rehearsal between the giant Abdullah(Wee Willie Davis) and another. Abbott decides they should also wrestle a bit with Lou, who gets slammed around and pounced upon for an extending period. The repeated pounding of his head into the canvas was particularly brutal. Apparently, it was really Lou taking this punishment, not his brother, who was often a stunt double for him. Lou must have had a thick skull with all the head hits over the years. Abdullah is unhappy that he is scripted to lose this fight, as he has never lost a professional fight. Thus, he's going back to his tribe in Algeria, leaving the boys holding the bag for his $5000. long term contract.(Why didn't they just change the script for him to win??) A&C board a ship for Algiers, and ask around if anyone knows an Abdullah. This disturbs some of the residents, who are members of his tribe.Axmann(Walter Slezak), a traitorous Legionnaire sergeant is talking to bad man Sheik Hamud(Douglass Dumbrille) and others about a plan to kill construction workers building a railroad. Next, some menacing-looking Arabs with knives are intimidating Lou. A&C try to evade them by entering a room full of slave girls. Later, they encounter a slave girl market, where Lou unknowingly buys 6 girls for an exorbitant price. The boys skedaddle to the end of a line of marching Legionnaires, who take them to headquarters, where Sgt. Axmann tricks them into signing up for a 5 year tour of duty in the Legion. As in "Buck Privates", Lou is extremely inept in basic training, yet is not dismissed, even when he accidentally turns a non-stop machine gun on the compound, with no idea how to stop it. Some bullets knock a bunch of coconuts down which knock out a bunch of Legionaries. This whole segment is hilarious. At a desert camp, Lou's camel gets loose and runs away ,at night. Incidentally, as usual, Hollywood used 2 hump Camels, instead of the proper one hump variety appropriate for North Africa and the Middle East. Meanwhile, Sheik Hamud's Arabs attack and kill all the legionnaires, save for the absent A&C, who are starving and in serious need of water. They see several enticing mirages before finding an actual oasis, where they refresh and take a nap. Soon, a party of Arabs come along, but does not see them. One loses his false teeth when he takes a drink. They leave, and the boys decide to fish to satisfy their hunger. Abbott catches a few small ones, but when Costello washes them off, a big fish with the Arab's false teeth snaps them up, then squirts him in the face. Hilarious! This would seem an adaptation of the squirting oyster in Lou's oyster soup, in "Abbott and Costello Meet the Co-eds".The Arabs return, capture the boys and take them to the encampment of Sheik Hamud, where it's pronounced they must die. How? By being beat to death by Abdallah and another bruiser. Abdallah whispers that he won't harm them, as he needs them to get back to Brooklyn to escape having to marry the Sheik's obese daughter. During their fight, a general free-for-all erupts and the boys run out of the tent. They return in Arab garb, while 2 Arabs are wearing their clothes. Axmann has arrived in a jeep with Nicole Dupre(Patricia Medina), whom the boys have met several times as an Arab woman. Axmann says she is actually a French intelligence spy(and thus must die?). They plus Abdullah drive away in Axmann's jeep, with Arabs on horses pursuing them. They come upon a deserted Legion compound, and open the gate. The Legion arrives and fires at them, thinking they are Arabs. Then, the Arabs arrive and gallop into the compound. The boys close the gate, so they are trapped inside. I will stop here and let you see the conclusion for yourselves.

In Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion, Bud and Lou head to Algieria to find a wrestler named Abdullah who left them high and dry and owing a mobster quite a bit of money. Once there, the boys get mixed up with Sheik Hamud El Khalid (Douglas Dumbrille) and draw his ire at a slave auction. In their attempt to escape, Bud and Lou inadvertently sign-up for the French Foreign Legion. Things only get worse when they learn that their Sergeant is in cahoots with the Sheik. Now how are they going to get back to Brooklyn? As a general rule, I'm a fan of A&C. Some of their movies (like Who Done It?, Hold that Ghost, and A&C Meet Frankenstein) I consider to be true classics. Unfortunately, by the time the boys made A&C in the Foreign Legion, much of their comedy had started to get tired and old. The movie has a "been there, done that" feel to a lot of it. For example, the "Oui vs. We" bit reminds me of several of A&C's more classic routines. Or take a look at the scene with the fish and the false teeth. To me, it shows how desperate the boys were. It's completely ridiculous and not in the least bit funny. A solid cast, however, almost makes this movie worthwhile. Douglas Dumbrille and Patricia Medina are a lot of fun. However, even though I think Dumbrille makes for a perfect villain, he's about as Algerian as I am (which is none).Finally, one thing I really enjoyed about A&C in the Foreign Legion was the chance to see some classic, old-school wrestlers. Wee Willie Davis vs. Tor Johnson! How cool is that?

"Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion" never quite manages to approach the level of "brilliant", but at least it manages to stay fairly consistently on the level of "mildly funny". The best bits include the opening sequence (kind of surprising to see a 1950 movie so openly admitting that pro-wrestling is scripted), the mirages in the desert, and the "Oui" - "We" puns (the French lady: "O-U-I means Yes". Lou: "What does I-O-U mean? No?"). And, thankfully, there are no unnecessary songs to bog down the action. I would describe the film as a pleasant time-passer, but there is one troubling aspect: too many people (Legionnaires as well as Arabs) get killed - not graphically, of course, and mostly off-screen, but still....(**1/2)

Bud and Lou had previously visited the North African desert in Lost in a Harem, one of the loan out films they did for MGM in the middle 40s. I guess their home studio Universal wanted to get in the action also, so they got a second engagement in the Sahara.The boys are wrestling managers in search of their wrestler Abdullah who's taken a powder and left them holding the bag to the tune of $5000.00 to the syndicate back in Brooklyn. Of course, true to form they get themselves involved in some of the local power struggles and find themselves enlisting in the Foreign Legion.Helping them along are such performers as Walter Slezak as the Foreign Legion sergeant, Douglass Dumbrille as the villainous sheik and the lovely Patricia Medina as the spy from French Intelligence. Douglass Dumbrille was in fact their nemesis in Lost in a Harem. Dumbrille, who could be a real villain as well as a comic one, got caught up in their comedy much more in Lost in a Harem. Here, he's just a bad guy.Sharp-eared fans might recognize the voice of Universal Pictures stalwart Jeff Chandler as the narrator in the beginning.The film also borrows from the Road to Morocco quite liberally. In fact it's ground that's been covered before.I guess the creative minds at Universal were getting a bit stalled.