Abbott & Costello Meet the Keystone Cops VHS

This is a rare, good, funny Abbott and Costello skit from the Colgate Comedy Hour television show. Definitely worth a couple bucks to watch. (But, not worth the price I paid, which was triple that.) The skit is only about 14 minutes long.Both the normal 2D and synthesized 3D versions are included. The DVD arrived in a paper DVD sleeve.The skit revolves around Bud and Lou going to the horror movie prop room to get props for an upcoming performance. There is no credit roll listing the actors. The skit includes appearances by the Property Man, Frankenstein's Monster, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the Invisible Man (though, his is not an 'appearance', technically).I mostly bought this for the 3D. The 3D was... ahm... interesting. It is a regular 2D TV broadcast comedy skit (which is also included). The DVD author has converted it into anaglyph 3D (red/cyan 3D glasses style - red on the right, I think). This does show some depth. The good news is that it looks like an earnest attempt at 3D, not just a simple frame offset trick.The bad news is that the anaglyph 3D ghosts too badly to work. Very little was staged at the screen plane. Most things were either well behind or well in front of the screen, which is why the 3D fails (this amplifies the ghosting). Not much continuous depth within any objects. (For example the prop room tabletop appears to be all at the same depth, instead of continuously varying through depth.) Often, the right eye's image was vertically higher than the matching left eye's image, so the 3D was straining to watch. All in all, the 3D was partially successful, but not enough to be worth the price by itself.Very bad move not to have included a Field Sequential 3-D version, which is what all the 3-D film lovers watch, because it has much less ghosting. Anaglyph looks like bad 3-D on all TVs, while Field Sequential looks great, but only works some TVs. It's only a 14 minute sketch, plenty of room left over on the DVD -- including both 3D formats would've sold better.If you collect Abbott and Costello, then this is a good purchase. If you collect 3D, then this probably isn't what you want.

A & C near the end of their film career (and certanly near the end of their performing career), deliver a pretty solid comedy, emphasizing good ol' slapstick comedy. There's plenty of frenetic action for the aging actors, and the use of stand-ins/stunt men is obvious."Stunt Man", ironically, was an early job title for Lou Costello, and so this picture is semi-biographical - the boys even take a pie from Mack Sennett himself, in a brief cameo. This must have been highly nostalgic for Lou, especially as he is known for taking a small part in the Laurel and Hardy silent, "Battle Of The Century", involving the biggest public pie battle on film to date - 1928.In addition to Sennett, we are pleased to see original Keystone Cops in a great chase scene.Excellent casting also makes this one a notch above, with Fred Clark, in the guise of a European art film Director, whose main talent is for staying just one step ahead of the law and people he has swindled. B-movie star Lynn Bari does a great job as his long-suffering diva-esque accomplice. We also are treated to some craziness with "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom.Some classic A & C dialogue bits would have been nice, as they excelled at the straight man working the second banana who usually ends up working the straight man-thing - and this would have given the audience a chance to exhale, but altogether we find a very satisfying, professionally executed film, unlike a number of “B”s that the team produced.It's a little more for the kids, with all the fight scenes, costume changes, daredevil stunts...if you're gonna have "Keystone Cops" in the title, might as well keep it lively.

They were the greatest comedy. Nobody and I mean nobody could ever come up to their standard. Any movie they made were always number one; including this one. I have watched this latest one six times and it is just like watching it the first time. Can you tell I loved it?

I rate this film among the best of A&C, along with Hold That Ghost, In the Navy, Naughty Nineties, and my all-time favorite of theirs, The Time of Their Lives. This film is a tribute to the silent film era. It has a lot of creative set-ups, sight gags, slapstick bits, and the wild chase at the end with the real Kops riding the police wagon, jumping up and down, falling off, in their inimitable way. King of Comedy Mack Sennett even throws a pie! Fred Clark is excellent as con man Gorman pretending to be the fi-ay-mus Uropean direc-tor (his phony pronunciation) Sergei Toumanoff. The scene where the boys enter his house to get evidence that he is a swindler is an absolute, laugh-out-loud treasure of timing with A&C and their doubles as cop and burglar increasingly incense the harried Toumanoff. The opening melodrama on screen is from the 1927 film Uncle Tom's Cabin. Lots of trains for the railfan, count six or seven scenes, with a genuine steam locomotive, Southern Pacific 8052, pulling the consist. Some thrilling on-site shots look like they caught the train at real locations, but the studio must have arranged this with SP. The pacing of the film is non-stop and the exciting musical score has you on the edge of your seat! Kids love it and adults do too. When I first saw this film in the 1960s, I thought it was somewhat biographical of the duo and it actually is. Great tribute to a great comedy team, the best in their later years. Must see whether you are a fan of the boys or not! Highest praise!

Classic comedy from the boys. A must see. Highly recommended.