This was the first film to premiere Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, and they're dynamite in it, very vital and hungry in some of their sharpest routines. It's recommended viewing just to catch their young, fresh, fine-tuned antics as they go through several of their best gags (including an abbreviated version of "Who's On First?", "Jonah and the Whale", "Mustard", and other classics). However, the problem is that they're not the prominent stars of this show; the main story centers on the concept of "love insurance," as Allan Jones and Robert Cummings keep juggling a couple of women between them. One of the gals is feisty Peggy Moran from THE MUMMY'S HAND, who is very much fun to watch, though we can't help but wait to savor the infrequent Bud and Lou segments that are sprinkled about, and which are well worth waiting for. William Frawley (Fred Mertz of I LOVE LUCY) even plays one of their mentors during a comical skit concerning "Give Me Two Tens for a Five". For newbies who might be unfamiliar with the comedy hijinks of Abbott and Costello, I'd unethically break my own golden rule for movies and suggest forwarding ahead to the A&C routines; if you find you don't care for the comical duo here, then it's hard to imagine your liking them anywhere else. They've seldom been this strong. **1/2 out of ****
Review of One Night in the Tropics
