COMIN’ ROUND THE MOUNTAIN (1951)
Article #899 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-31-2003
Posting Date: 1-28-2004
Directed by Charles Lamont
Featuring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Dorothy Shay

An escape artist discovers he is the grandson of a hillbilly named Squeezebox McCoy, and may be the heir to a fortune.

There are a few laughs to be had in this Abbott and Costello outing, in particular during a discussion between Bud and Lou about a forty-year-old man in love with a ten-year-old girl. However, most of the movie is fairly lame hillbilly slapstick combined with Dorothy Shay’s novelty musical numbers. The part of the story that moves this one into the realms of the fantastic is when the boys encounter a witch (Margaret Hamilton—how’s that for typecasting?) to get a love potion; this is also one of the better scenes, as the witch makes a voodoo doll of Lou and Lou returns the favor. It’s also fun to see the boys team up with Glenn Strange again; here playing Devil Dan Winfield, who ends up drinking the potion at one point (and you don’t want to know with whom he falls in love). It’s not the boys’ best by a long shot, but it has its moments.