Search - Africa Screams on DVD

ONE OF ABBOTT & COSTELLO'S BEST FEATURES

Paul J. Mular | 09/16/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A classic A & C film. The boys play two employees of a NY department store. Lou's claim that he can draw a map from a famous big game hunter's book, gets them involved with an unscrupoulous gang of fortune hunters who are organizing a safari to Africa, to hunt for diamonds. Two of the film's BEST highlights are the team's encounters with then famous big game hunters Clyde Beatty and Frank Buck. The film also teams them with Hillary Brook (who co-starred with them in the film "ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET CAPTAIN KIDD", and later co-starred with them in the first season of their TV series "THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO SHOW"), and Joe Besser and Shemp Howard ( of "THE THREE STOOGES". Howard co-starred with the team in their films "BUCK PRIVATES", "IN THE NAVY", and "IT AIN'T HAY". Besser co-starred with them in their TV series "THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO SHOW" playing the part of 'STINKY')."

The Image Entertainment/Hal Roach DVD is the BEST version of

Paul J. Mular | San Carlos, CA USA | 09/06/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Many cheapie companies offer this title at a lower price. Pass up those horrible copies and buy this excellent IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT / HAL ROACH STUDIOS DVD mastered from the original 35mm NITRATE NEGATIVE!



This is the same excellent master film used by Image for their Laserdisc release. The only thing missing here is the Bloopers & Out-takes that were on the Laserdisc.



This movie is the best of the five independent films that Abbott & Costello made in my opinion. And it stands up better than most of their 1950's Universal films. Where else will you see Bud & Lou teamed up with some of the THREE STOOGES? Shemp Howerd and Joe Besser join Abbott & Costello's safari to add to the laughs!

Besser would later join Bud & Lou for their 1950's TV show as "Stinky" before becoming a Stooge!"

BEST VERSION OUT THERE

David W. Wagner | 05/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"AFRICA SCREAMS has been in the public domain for years. This dusted-off version looks and sounds the best of a-n-y version I've seen. This is the first version I've seen with the Nassour Studios logo opening the film and it has closed-captioning, as well. I skip the colorized version, as I oppose that sort of thing. However, Legend Films has made this one worth the wait. The scene where the tribal chief is scared white by the giant gorilla is here intact, as well, whereas I've often seen it where his face has been blurred over with darkness. I've found this to be a fine film of the team's, as opposed to, say, MEXICAN HAYRIDE or LITTLE GIANT. If you're still hunting a fine print of AFRICA SCREAMS for your A & C collection ... well, here it is."

ONE OF THE TEAM'S BEST FILMS

BILLY ANTIMISIARIS | Karpathos, Greece | 01/04/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"AFRICA SCREAMS (1949)

Huntington Hartford Productions

Release Date: May 4, 1949 (New York City, New York)

May 27, 1949

Runtime: 79 minutes



Director:

Charles Barton



Producer:

David S. Garber

Huntington Hartford



Writing Credits:

Earl Baldwin

Martin Ragaway

Leonard B. Stern



CAST:



Bud Abbott.....Buzz Johnson

Lou Costello.....Stanley Livington

Clyde Beatty....Himself

Frank Buck....Himself

Max Baer....Grapple McCoy

Buddy Baer....Boots Wilson

Hillary Brooke....Diana Emerson

Shemp Howard....Gunner

Joe Besser....Harry

Burt Wenland....Bobo



Music by:

Walter Schumann



Cinematography by:

Charles Van Enger



Film Editing by:

Frank Gross



Art Direction:

Lewis H. Creber



Set Decoration:

Ray Robinson



Assistant Director:

Joseph E. Kenney



Special Effects:

Carl Lee



Other Crew:

Norman Abbott....dialougue director

Albert Deano....wardrobe manager

William Nassour....executive in charge



Plot Summary:



Buzz and Stanley are booksellers in a department store. Several people start asking about a map in a book about Dark Africa. Stanley claims to know the map from memory. Buzz cons a female customer, Diana Emerson, into thinking Stanley knows a great deal about the map and insists on going to Africa knowing riches await him. After encounters with lion tamers, giant apes and a wild river, Buzz returns to America. Stanley finds diamonds and buys the store they once worked for, hiring Buzz as its elevator operator.



ROUTINES & HILARIOUS MOMENTS:

Lou fears gorilla while eating

Glasses of water for tent fire

Bud in lion skin

Lou's thought dead.



Trivia (from imdb.com): There is a scene where Bud Abbott & Lou Costello are talking in their tent and Joe Besser dashes into the tent, grabs a glass of water and dashes out again. He repeats this several times until Bud Abbott stops him and asks why he's so thirsty. Joe Besser replies that he's not thirsty, it's that his tent is on fire. That was based on an incident in Lou Costello's childhood, when he accidentally set some clothes in his bedroom on fire. His father was in the living room, which was between the kitchen and Lou Costello's bedroom. Lou Costello, not wanting to let his father know that he had set his room on fire, dashed back and forth between the kitchen and his bedroom with glasses of water until his father finally asked what he was doing, whereupon Lou Costello was forced to tell what he had done."