Watch Comin' Round the Mountain For Free

Crappy film

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I almost feel ashamed of myself to admit that I liked this ultra-lowbrow comedy starring Abbott and Costello. The humor sure isn't sophisticated and the film almost made me cringe at times, but I did enjoy it. Perhaps I am losing my mind.The film begins with Dorothy Shay singing some hillbilly-type songs. What made this weird is that this was in a fancy club in the big city and her accompaniment was a normal orchestra. As for the songs, she sang way too often in this film but I was also surprised that I actually did like most of the songs, as the lyrics were very funny. But, a little sure went a long way! Shay soon learns that Lou is her long lost cousin. Lou had no idea that he was from hillbilly stock and agrees to accompany her to Kentucky to meet all the kinfolk he didn't know he had. Unfortunately, he walks into the middle of a century-old feud as well! What comes next is pretty much every stereotype of hill people you can imagine--pigs in the bedroom, marryin' 12-14 year-olds, shootin', chawin', drinkin' and whatnot. While I did laugh at some of the antics, I also realized that there are some folks out there that cringe at this sort of thing--especially people in the Appalaccian region of the United States (like my in-laws!). Funny...but also very tacky and like the worst and most stereotypical episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies".Additionally, some of these stereotypes got very, very creepy. Lou's new kin think he should be married and some of them want him to marry his cousin who is practically an old maid--"she's pert near 14!!". The idea of this middle-aged man with a young teenager is just nasty. The only things that save this is that the girl sure doesn't look like she's 13--she could pass for twice that. The other thing in its favor is that this relationship is never consummated. Ewwwww!! However, despite these shortcomings, the whole movie is goofy fun and it tries really hard to entertain. Plus, for once, it's nice to see Bud and Lou completely out of their element and doing something different. Not a great film but certainly one worth seeing--especially for the funny surprise ending.

In "Comin' Round the Mountain" a 14-year-old girl (actually the actress who plays her looks about 25, but that's beside the point) has the hots for Lou Costello, and after they both drink a love potion Lou falls in love with her and she gets the hots for Bud Abbott! At another point Lou says "You can't marry a 10-year-old girl...unless you come from these hills". And I thought these films were supposed to be clean, wholesome entertainment!The comedy never gets beyond the mildly amusing, the portrayal of the "country hicks" is totally stereotypical, and although Dorothy Shay is quite beautiful, her singing takes up too much screen time. The ending (which I won't spoil here) is by far the cleverest part - it has the kind of absurdist inspiration that the film needed more of. (**)

The feud is on between the Wingfields and the McCoys when Bud Abbott discovers his clients, hopeless magician Lou Costello and the Park Avenue hillbilly Dorothy Shay are both McCoys and Costello's inherited concertina holds the secret to a treasure of hidden gold. So off they go to the Appalachins where Costello's arrival sets off the feud that had pretty much died down.Bud and Lou get themselves a good supporting cast with a group of players used to rustic roles. I'm wondering how the folks at Universal missed getting Judy Canova and Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride in this film. Lou's best scene involves him haggling with a hag played by Margaret Hamilton in her wicked witch makeup over some love potion with each making a voodoo doll of the other to poke holes in.Dorothy Shay was just about at the end of her peak of popularity which started post World War II. She was a singer with a warm contralto who decided to play up her southern roots. Dorothy made a whole lot of hillbilly ditties popular back in those days and her big hit song, Feudin' a Fussin' and a Fightin' was still selling good in 1951 when Comin' Round the Mountain came out. I have it and also a vinyl record of a Bing Crosby radio show where she sang that song as a trio number with herself, Bing, and Groucho Marx. She did what very few did in Abbott and Costello pictures, hold her own with the boys and not get lost in the supporting cast.It's not the best of their films, but still enjoyable and just wait till you see the treasure that they do find.

In my rewatching of the Abbott and Costello series that I loved in my youth, this is by far the worst of the series that I have rewatched. The problem is not in the subject material. The problem is in the script, the execution and the performances. Abbott and Costello have never been more bland and the songs from the Manhatten Hillbilly take up seemingly half of the movie's length. The song about a half an hour in goes on forever. The old granny is fun but isn't allowed to do enough. The "courtship" between Costello and the 14 year old hillbilly girl is ghoulish. Bud Abbott is non-existent and the hillbilly clans do nothing whatsoever. There are a few chuckles and nothing more. The opener and the conclusion are awful. On the bright side, Glenn Strange is great here and Costello's duel with the witch is funny. Costello's "christening" is a gut buster. But that's it. Has a little of the same flavor as The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap but isn't in the same league, much less the same ballpark.