There's a great sight gag at the beginning of this picture when the Arab is about to enter the Cafe of All Nations. There are two posters announcing the acts, with the main one showing photos of Marilyn Maxwell's character, Hazel Moon. The one off to the right, seemingly intended for a foreign audience, leaves the names of the entertainers in English, but substitutes Arabic characters for the pictures of Maxwell! A pretty clever gimmick, but you have to pay attention to catch it.
Speaking of Maxwell, I had to check something out as soon as I heard the line in her song about getting 'Frank Sinatra too'. Having just finished reading Shawn Levy's book "Rat Pack Confidential", I was struck by the number of celebrity women he bedded down, and the lineup reads like a cast of thousands. Sure enough, Marilyn Maxwell's on the list, and to save you a little time looking it up, it's page 199.
But hey, it's an Abbott and Costello picture, so I probably should mention something about them too. I was a big fan of theirs as a kid, and this one probably falls somewhere in the middle as far as entertainment value goes. I don't remember in which film I first saw the 'Slowly I Turned' schtick, but it's overdone here, with Niagara Falls replaced by Pokomoko. One thing I didn't expect was Abbott and villain Douglas Dumbrille reprising that Marx Brothers mirror gimmick from 1933's "Duck Soup". Then there's Jimmy Dorsey and his big band lending a few musical numbers to the picture. All the while I kept wondering how believable this movie might have played back in the Forties, whereas today the PC police would be all over it.
Apparently Universal Pictures liked the desert concept well enough to bring the boys back, along with Dumbrille no less, in 1950's "A&C in the Foreign Legion". Dumbrille was one of your all purpose villains, who appeared with A&C often enough (see also "Ride 'Em Cowboy), and his character here is Prince Nimativ (Vitamin backwards). Costello gets in a reference to his home town, but alas, unlike his stint in the Foreign Legion, he doesn't get to kiss any harem girls in this one.
Speaking of Maxwell, I had to check something out as soon as I heard the line in her song about getting 'Frank Sinatra too'. Having just finished reading Shawn Levy's book "Rat Pack Confidential", I was struck by the number of celebrity women he bedded down, and the lineup reads like a cast of thousands. Sure enough, Marilyn Maxwell's on the list, and to save you a little time looking it up, it's page 199.
But hey, it's an Abbott and Costello picture, so I probably should mention something about them too. I was a big fan of theirs as a kid, and this one probably falls somewhere in the middle as far as entertainment value goes. I don't remember in which film I first saw the 'Slowly I Turned' schtick, but it's overdone here, with Niagara Falls replaced by Pokomoko. One thing I didn't expect was Abbott and villain Douglas Dumbrille reprising that Marx Brothers mirror gimmick from 1933's "Duck Soup". Then there's Jimmy Dorsey and his big band lending a few musical numbers to the picture. All the while I kept wondering how believable this movie might have played back in the Forties, whereas today the PC police would be all over it.
Apparently Universal Pictures liked the desert concept well enough to bring the boys back, along with Dumbrille no less, in 1950's "A&C in the Foreign Legion". Dumbrille was one of your all purpose villains, who appeared with A&C often enough (see also "Ride 'Em Cowboy), and his character here is Prince Nimativ (Vitamin backwards). Costello gets in a reference to his home town, but alas, unlike his stint in the Foreign Legion, he doesn't get to kiss any harem girls in this one.