Comedy tonight! The old comedy movies here are hit and miss, but they're all far better than the one 21st-century film in this batch.
"The Best of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Volume 3" (Universal, not rated, $26.98, two double-sided discs).
— "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948) is often cited as the best of A&C's films, and it's still awfully good, with the boys being chased by Dracula (Bela Lugosi), the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.) and, of course, Frankenstein's monster (Glenn Strange). One complaint: The bonus features on the original DVD release are not included here for some reason.
— "Mexican Hayride" (1948) gets its biggest laughs when Costello dances every time a samba is played. He's in Mexico to get back money from crooked Abbott.
— "Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer" (1949). The posters say " . . . Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff" — but he's not the killer! Good spooky fun in a hotel, with Karloff as a phony fortune-teller.
— "Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion" (1950). The title tells it all; the best sequence has the boys hallucinating in the desert.
— "Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man" (1951) is a very good A&C monster mash, with the boys trying to help a boxer who becomes invisible.
— "Comin' Round the Mountain" (1952), a disappointing hillbilly yarn, has one funny scene, as Costello and a witch (Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz") stick pins in dolls.
— "Lost in Alaska" (1952), another weak A&C effort, has them mixed up with a sad-sack prospector (Tom Ewell). (This is the first film with Abbott in his mustache.)
— "Abbott and Costello Go to Mars" (1953) is perhaps weakest of all as the boys board a spaceship and land on, not Mars, but Venus! (Look for Anita Ekberg among the beauties they encounter.)
OK, now what? Universal has only "Abbott & Costello Meet the Keystone Kops" and "Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy" left . . . unless you count "It Ain't Hay," which was not in "Volume 2" due to a dispute over music rights. "Mummy" is available on a solo disc — but what about "Kops"?
Extras: Full frame, trailers, text production notes, subtitle options (English, Spanish, French), chapters.
"If a Man Answers" (Universal, 1962, not rated, $14.98).
"That Funny Feeling" (Universal, 1965, not rated, $14.98). In the early '60s, Sandra Dee and her then-husband Bobby Darin were being groomed as a younger Doris Day/Rock Hudson team. These two films are contrived romantic comedies, but both offer some glossy fun.
"If a Man Answers" has them getting married, but Dee's French mother offers outrageous advice, urging her daughter to train her husband like a dog.
In "That Funny Feeling," Dee is Darin's maid, but they've never met. So she pretends his apartment is hers to impress him! Donald O'Connor co-stars.
Extras: Widescreen, trailer, subtitle options (English, Spanish, French), chapters.
"The Sting II" (Universal, 1983, PG, $14.98). The cast is OK, and the predictable twists aren't too bad, but this sequel — about a boxing scam — certainly pales in comparison to the original. Jackie Gleason has Paul Newman's part, Mac Davis plays Robert Redford's role, and the villain played by Robert Shaw is now Oliver Reed. Best are Teri Garr as a duplicitous grifter and Karl Malden as a mobster who's a lout.
Extras: Widescreen, subtitle options (English, Spanish, French), chapters.
"The Prince & Me" (Paramount, 2004, PG, 29.99). Julia Stiles appears to be bored stiff in this lightweight fairy tale, part frat-house farce and part "Princess Diaries." Stiles slowly falls for a conceited, spoiled fellow college student — only to discover he's a Danish prince in this flat comedy. And why is English actress Miranda Richardson, as the prince's mother, doing a Scandinavian accent when all her British co-stars are content to maintain their British accents?
Extras: Separate widescreen and full-frame editions, audio commentary (director Martha Coolidge), making-of featurettes, deleted/extended scenes, outtakes, trailer, language options (English, French), subtitle options (English, Spanish), chapters.
E-mail: hicks@desnews.com