November 6th 1942

Dir: Erle C. Kenton Bud: Chick Larkin Lou: Mervyn Milgrim

One of Abbott and Costello's most well known films among fans. It is a favourite among them and used to be my favourite too once upon a time. Now that honour is reserved for 'Hold that Ghost'. This is a prop comedy. The only thing which I don't like about this film is that the plot wasn't explored and the killer could of been anyone and there was no way of guessing who he is. As it is their shortest film at only 76 minutes, they could of shot some extra footage of what happens when the staff are held by the police, they could have at least try and make us guess who actually did it.

I guess the public at the time weren't really interested in a murder mystery plot when they paid good money to see Abbott and Costello. After this film was released, the boys found themselves the highest box office attraction in the whole world. Not bad considering they had only teamed up just 6 years previously. They were a phenomenon. They were bigger than Clark Gable and all the other stars at MGM. The public just couldn't get enough of the boys at this point They were at the zenith of their careers.

This is a great mystery comedy. The direction and camera work helps convey a great dark atmosphere. The fact that no musical numbers were shot (even though there was plenty of opportunity to being set at a radio station - like in Rio Rita) helps add to that atmosphere. The opening credits set the tone of the film. Sillouhettes of the boys witness a murder and run (the background is just a revolving stage, you can tell cos they pass the GBS building a couple of times and they look as if they are running on the spot) it goes on while the credits appear. The music is suitably appropriate.

Colonel JR Andrews, president of the GBS radio network is told by his doctor he has a weak heart. An announcement is heard by his station. 'Odd facts of commerce'. A line about coffee beans can be heard but the reaction and dialogue between the Colonel and his Doctor make you realise that there is more to the announcement that what meets the eye (or the ear). He has his secretary bring in his producer and a writer for one of his most popular shows, 'murder at midnight'. He reassigns the writer to a soap opera. The writer defending his weak storylines tells the Colonel that he could devise a murder that could baffle even Sherlock Holmes. The Doctor walks out of the room looking concerned.

Andrews buzzes his secretary, Miss Collins, and asks her to ask the young man waiting outside to come in. The old writer walks out as the new opne is about to enter. The first one wishes the new one (who has just got the job of writing murder at midnight) all the best. In walks the new man, Jimmy Turner, and he recognises the producer, Jane Little. He used to be her old college professor and though he spent the best years of his life advising her against a career he winds up by working for her. Why would he spend so much time advising her not to get a career? She is obviously talented. Jimmy Turner's attitude towards women is bad. Infact he thinks she got him in and rather than take out a hand out from a woman, he actually quits! He decides to go back to his old job. He tells the Colonel he won't find him to exercise his contract. He walks out and she wants him to come back! She tells the colonel he is lovable!

Cut to the radio drugstore. Chick is working behind the counter and a man asks for a limburger cheese sandwhich. He calls out to Mervyn to go and make one. The boys do some funny routines in this lengthy scene. The limburger routine is great, Lou gets conned by a kid, they get introduced to Miss Collins and Chick tells Mervyn he has to make a play for her so they can get into radio. They even wrote a radio script and promptly read it out. Jimmy Turner is there too. He tells them he has just tossed the job of writing Murder at midnight away and they ask to put in a good word for them as it would be their dream job.

Back at the studio that evening, the broadcast of murder at midnight is about to be aired. The audience are entering the studio. Jimmy gives the boys 2 tickets for the show. He goes up behind the stage to see Jane who is pleased he changed his mind and came back. He tells her he missed his train. Mervyn gets conned out their tickets by the same kid who conned him earlier in the drug store. Mervyn sees Miss Collins, only Chick has just found out here name is Juliet. He prompts Mervyn to flirt with her. She says he can buy her an ice cream soda after the show (how times have changed!!) The boys sneak in a back way, right to where Jimmy is.

The Colonel arrives a little late and apologises. He said he was detained on government business. There are a few little details to look out for after repeated viewing such as a worker, Harry, (Joe kirk) fiddling with the microphone but still, there is no way of telling who the murderer is. Anyway, the show starts and after the introduction. The Colonel comes on to read a speech. He grabs his microphone and is electrocuted. There is chaos. The audience are escorted to another studio while the Doctor examines him. He blames his heart. Jimmy looks at the cable leading from the microphone and pronounces 'this is murder'. Everyone gets scared and the boys run out. They head into the coridoor and after falling over, Mervyn heads into Andrews' office. (Shouldn't it of been locked?)

He tries to use the phone but Chick comes in and snatches it from him. He decides they should solve the murder themselves. It may lead them to get their own radio program he figures. They head back to the studio and pretend to be cops. Mervyn's incompetence doesn't exactly help reinforce their image as the law. It's a funny scene. They bump into Jimmy who plays along with them. Here they all learn how the Colonel was murdered. After learning he was electrocuted, ( a circuit from the main power source to his chair to the micrphone - when the mic was turned on, he got 10,000 volts!). Harry, is actaully grasping the microphone in this scene! What about the risk of an electric shock??

The boys do a word play, not to dissimiliar from 'Who's on first' called 'watts and volts'. Infact the ending has a reference to who's on first. Abbott tries to say 'Oh, don't start that' but Lou is being so noisy, that he says it twice but you still can't hear him properly. Lou definately overacts in some of these scenes. Some of the staff bicker a little. The boys walk off with a clue, the rubber glove the murderer used.

They walk out and Mervyn gets conned by some money from the same kid. After he walks off, a knife is thrown at him and just misses. Though funny and a good nod to 'Ride em cowboy', the murderer is actaully inside the room at this point, so it makes no sense. Real police arrive and the kid tells them about the boys pretending to be cops.

The boys do a routine with a water fountain. It seems to have a mind of it's own when Lou takes a drink. It doesn't really make alot of sense but it's good to watch. Chick gets annoyed when Mervyn presses down and squirts him and tells him to sit down while he finds Juliet to question her. She wasn't in the room with the other staff. Chick finds her as she is about to make a phone call. The coroner arrives and finds a very bored Mervyn sitting on a bin. Thinking he is dead, he and his team pick him. Life suddently comes to Mervyn and he does an energetic run on the spot to proove he is alive before dashing off. From the coroner's point of view, this scene is hilarious!

He runs off to find Chick and helps to question Juliet. This is another hilarious scene and watch actress Mary Wickes trying not to laugh when Mervyn pulls out a book from her purse. '57 convenient ways to kill a man'.

Meanwhile the cops are interogating the staff. Jimmy and the original writer are now arguing. The older one is trying to put the blame on Jimmy. The suspicion falls on the Doctor as he said Andrews died of a heart attack. we realise that the Inspector's assistant, Brannigan, is as useless as Lou.

Meanwhile, as the boys walk in the coridoor, they spot a sillouhete from Andrews' office door. They gamble to see who goes in (guess what number I am thinking off). Chick tells Mervyn he lost and Mervyn is very reluctant to go in. Strangely, As Mervyn opens the door, Chick takes over and tells the inspector (thinking he's the murderer) that the game's up. As Mervyn searches him, he comes across his detective badge. Realising what is happening he is about to run off when he impersonates a ringing telephone. As the cops pick up the phones they run away. They hide in a room full of record players. They hear them cops saying they will catch them dead or alive. Shouldn't they be more interested in finding the murderer? They probably think they are the murderers but that is never properly said in the film. They are more interested in the crime of finding 2 guys who are impersonating cops than finding a murderer.

In the record room. Chick explains that the cops are after them because they think they did it (how did he come to that conclusion?) and the murderer is after them cos they have evidence - the rubber glove. Though again, how does Chick know for sure the murderer knows they have the glove? Chick leaves him to see if the coast is clear. Mervyn walks past a record player and accidently turns it on. A voice is heard saying he has lived too long. As Mervyn walks past several of the players, he turns them all on and he thinks he is being murdered. I liked this scene better when I was much younger.

Chick walks in to see Mervyn begging for mercy and thinking he has been shot, stabbed and his legs have been chopped off! Chick explains they are only transcriptions. He says (about the murder) that he thinks the doctor did it (Mervyn disagrees), the doctor actually walks in the room in a sinister fashion...only to be followed himself by a sillouhette. The lights go off and a moaning is heard. When Chick turns the lights on and finds Mervyn, Mervyn hides in closet, he sees the Doctor is in in there too - with a knife in his chest! When Mervyn realises what's happened he runs off. He runs through many glass partitions leaving justan outline of his body - like you see in cartoons. To get through, Chick kicks out the glass under Mervy's imprint, whrere his legs went through. A thump is heard and Mervyn is stuck trying to run through a wall! The cops arrive. The boys take the cops to the body. As they walk in the room, the partition is as it was before Chick kicked out more glass - a glaring editing mistake.

The body of the doctor has disapeared. Juliet is standing there. Mervyn sees the knife on the floor and gives it to them, wiping off his finger prints. Chick turns off the lights and they make a run for it. Brannigan gets locked in the closet.

In Colonel Andrews' office, Jane and Jimmy are searching for clues. What excuse did they make to leave the other staff? They turn off the lights as they see the murderer come in. The murderer spots Jimmy and there is a scuffle. Jimmy gets knocked out and the murderer runs out. They realise there is something in the office the murderer wants. They decide to look for it. Meanwhile the boys and Juliet are back in the record room. Chick and Juliet check a transcription file while Mervyn keeps a look out. The murderer rises and orders him to give him the rubber glove. Thinking it's another transcription he turns round and sees the murderer. He doesn't realise for a second what's going on. When he twigs he tries to shout for help but the murderer is strangling him.. Juliet is about to smash records on his head when they switch places and Mervyn gets knocked out. The murderer escapes again.

He awakes in the inspector's arms, but the boys run off again. They are captured immediately this time in the sound effects room. As they walk back through the record room, Juliet puts on a record which makes the officers think they are in danger, as they raise their hands, the boys run off. This time they head for the elevator. They do a good routine here and get off at ground level. There is an acrobatic performance on stage, the flying Bordellos. The cops arrive and the boys decide to change clothes and be part of the act. This goes on a bit and is really good. Finally, they escape in the back of a truck.

Meanwhile Jimmy and Jane have stumbled across a secret panel in the wall. It has peices from the 'odd facts of commerce' program and realise it is code. The Colonel was an expert at code and caught a lot of spies in the last war. Jimmy now knows what to do, he gets Jane to type something out but we don't know what is on his mind...

The boys are in the truck. It's really funny how fast Mervyn gets changed back to his proper clothes in this scene. About 5 seconds. The wheel of fortune program is playing and they realise Mervyn has won. He has to phone up the radio station or arrive personally to collect his prize. They seem to be in the truck for a couple of minutes but end up just across the road from the radio station. Inside, they do the telephone routine. A great solo performance from Costello. It's a really enjoyable bit and a highlight of the film. The line is constantly busy for him to call from across the street but anytime someone wants to make a long distance call, they are put through immediately. All the time, the clock is ticking which adds to the urgency of the routine.

In the end, Chick decides they should go over in person as time is running out. They walk in the building backwards and fool the cops. They make it to the stage just in time. The audience shot here is identical to the audience shot from the acrobatic scene. They collect the $10,000 prize and also they are presented with a 'play it anywhere' radio (though Mervyn later has to plug it in to play it). He turns it on and we can hear them doing 'Who's on first?'. It's a superb inside joke. I think the track was taken from 'One night in the tropics'. The cops arrive to finally arrest them. Mervyn asks if he can say just one word over the radio, they agree and he shouts: "HHEEEEELLLPPP!!". It's hilarious! Watch out for the man on the left in the background. He can't keep a straight face. The microphone used in the sequence was infact the microphone they had used in their first radio broadcast from The Kate Smith program four years previously. They had asked to keep it.

The officers take the boys to the office where Jane and Jimmy have set up their plan. The 2 cops for some reason have decided to take them ALL downtown. Jane doesn't seem to bothered for some reason. Jimmy reckons if he puts on the air, a broadcast they have just written in front of all the staff then it will flush out thereal murderer. Unsuprisingly, the inspector disbelieves them. Who can blame him?? They all leave the room. Mervyn and Brannigan are left. Brannigan explains he will use his handcuffs on Mervyn. Mervyn then tricks Brannigan into handcuffing himself. it's a great performance. Mervyn walks out gun in hand and lets Jimmy lock up the inspector so they can go ahead with their broadcast. Juliet comes though the back way and frees Brannigan as long as he leaves Mervyn alone. Jimmy decides to let out the inspector, he reckons the inspector will be embarrased if it got out that he got locked in a closet and got Brannigan cuffed with his own cuffs so they decide to use that as leverage.

In the other room, the now free Brannigan is sitting where Mervyn left him. Mervyn acts all tough infront of Chick. It's a hilarious scene - especially when Chick realises he is free. This is a much better scene than the rendition used in Abbott and Costello meet Captain Kidd. As Mervyn realises Brannigan is free, he runs out the room - straight in the arms of the inspector. Of course, he is ready to take them all downtown but Mervyn insists if he does that then he will tell all the cops of this embarrasing episode. Reluctantly, the inspector agrees to let them broadcast.

The broadcast is on, all the staff are there. It's now midnight - five hours since the murder. The play is on and the murderer is revealed to the viewer as he is getting very nervous and is starting to sweat. Mervyn tries to listen to the broadcast on his new radio but can't tune it in. Chick tells him to plug it in first. At the vital moment in the script, Mervyn turns on the radio, a spark ignites and the murderer jumps up protesting his innocence. Realising he has exposed himself, he runs off, turning off the lights behind him.

The boys run up to the roof, assuming the murderer has run to the cellar. They lock themselves up there. They are not alone, unfortunately, as the murderer is up there too. Here is the great rooftop climax. Very funny, great atmosphere with Lou nearly falling from the top of the building, Bud throwing light bulbs to scare the murderer. Mervyn even falls from the top and lands on a flag pole - hanging there about a 2000 feet from the ground. As well as funny, this sequence is quite exciting. It was Don Porter who played the murderer who actually shot the bulb from Bud's hand. He was a crack shot in real life. Though you don't see him do it on screen which was a bit of a waste. There is a large flashing sign - written with individual light bulbs flashing 'Vote for Townsend Phelps". Mervyn smashes all the bulbs using the rubber glove as a catapult except the ones reading 'Send help". Lou ends up on hire wires to escape the murderer - as a transmission just starts - Lou gets 30,000 volts through his body but it doesn't kill him. He just smells something burning. The background is a great picture of New York and from the top of this sky scraper, it's a great view and really adds to the atmosphere. The music is great too - borrowed from their previous film 'Pardon my sarong'.

Lou falls off the wires on top of the murderer as the police crash the door down. The inspector congratulates the boys. Melvyn picks up a light bulb and it lights so Chick holds it and as he shakes Mervyns hand the bulb lights again. Chick really panics (a bit over the top really), slaps Mervyn and throws it against the Send Help sign, which magically turns all the bulbs off except the ones reading END.

It is no suprise how popular this film is among fans. It has many highlights and memorable sequences while the boys themselves look great. Good performances all round from the supporting cast. The music, often in an Abbott and Costello really adds to the tone of the film.