JohnHowardReid Associate producers: Lolly Cristillo, Shirley Feld. Producer: Charles Barton. Executive producers: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello. Copyright 4 March 1948 by Pathé Industries, Inc. Presented by Eagle Lion Films. New York opening at Loew's State: 28 May 1948. U.S. release: 17 April 1948. U.K. release through Universal- International/General Film Distributors: 6 December 1948. Australian release through British Empire Films: 1 December 1949 (sic). 7,139 feet. 79 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Lou manages to lose $50,000. The money belongs to a bookie (Calleia) who needs it to pay off a winning wager from a gambler named McBride (Errol).NOTES: A new contract signed by Abbott and Costello with Universal- International, allowed the team to make one independent movie a year. This was the first.COMMENT: This mild Abbott and Costello entry will delight their rabid fans but leave others feeling short-changed. The initial plot gimmick of running down 800 names would seem to offer some promise for amusing comic variations, but this issue is speedily resolved. Instead, the writers offer six or seven wheezy old vaudeville routines, including Try To Get Thrown into Jail, Dress/Undress, Fodder/Mudder, I Don't Like Mustard, Who's on the Phone and Someplace Else. Oddly, Abbott doesn't partner Costello in all these variations. Leon Errol plays straight man for Lou in Fodder/Mudder (and also teams with Lou for an hilarious game of billiards), whilst Abbott works Mike Mazurki for the first part of Someplace Else and then Costello, would you believe, takes over as straight man? But he doesn't stop at Someplace Else. He also usurps Abbott from Who's on the Phone in which Joseph Calleia (of all people) plays the victim. Both Errol and Costello do extremely well. Abbott, on the other hand, is so nastily aggressive in the long-winded Mustard routine, he loses all audience sympathy. In fact, in this instance he consistently displays a mean, persuasively spiteful streak that goes well beyond the customary cowardly bullying of the team's usual routines. Fortunately, as said, Leon Errol picks up a lot of the slack, whilst Cathy Downs makes an attractive heroine. Direction and other credits are competent but nothing special.A SECOND VIEW: Aside from the opening sequences with the sore tooth chase through various back yards, the foot in the bucket on the window ledge and the follow-up scene in the dentist's office, the humor is mainly verbal with the comedians (counting Mike Mazurki and Joseph Calleia, there are five of them) exhausting some elaborate routines based on the weakest of puns (often in extremely long takes). Although he figures in the action a great deal, Leon Errol, for once, is charmingly restrained. Perhaps, like us, he was unsure of the character's motivation (is he just lucky or is he really a plain nut?) and wisely decided to play it safe. The support cast is studded with favorite faces, almost all of them not credited, except for Fritz Feld. whose part is one of the smallest.

SimonJack "The Noose Hangs High" is one of the better of the Abbott and Costello films. The plot isn't particularly original, but the screenplay has a number of diversions. These provide opportunities for the boys to do some of their vaudeville skits. And, another player acts as a shill for some of Lou's jokes. The script is peppered with occasional extra funny lines, outside of routines. All of that adds up to more laughs and a more entertaining film. The supporting cast in this film all are very good. Cathy Downs does a nice job in the female lead as Carol Blair. Leon Errol is a hoot as J.C. (and Julius Caesar) McBride. Mike Mazurki is Chuck. He is one of the best actors at playing a doofus thug.An early window-washing scene is reminiscent of the Hollywood comedy of the silent film era. Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton did some daredevil stuff on the heights of buildings. Bud and Lou and company will have one laughing a lot in this funny flick.

boscopa-1 Having recently watched "The Noose Hangs High" for the first time in probably 25 years I was delighted to find it extremely funny. Having grown up watching Abbott & Costello on Sunday mornings I have subliminally memorized many of their movies in the deep recesses of my brain. While the gags from this movie kept coming back to me seconds before they actually happened I found myself laughing out loud and enjoying this film thoroughly. "Noose" is essentially a series of gags held together by the flimsiest of plots. The boys run afoul of gangster Nick Craig and must return the $50,000 Lou has misplaced or else. In the midst of this A&C manage to shoehorn in many of their most famous routines; all of which are well-known to their fans but within this film they are done with such gusto that one overlooks their familiarity. The film also dispenses with the insufferable romantic subplots that derail many of their films and the annoying musical numbers that further slow down the story. Cathy Downs, who portrayed the title character in John Ford's "My Darling Clementine," adds a touch of feminine interest but doesn't bog the proceedings down. Two standout sequences for me were the dentist scene and the scene where Lou gets attacked by an automobile. At the beginning of the film Lou has a toothache and finds himself in the chair of nearsighted dentist Murray Leonard, who portrayed the wacky prisoner tormenting Costello with the "Slowly I Turned . . ." bit in "Lost In a Harem." The scene is so fresh and spontaneous I defy anyone not to laugh. And watching Costello tangle with the unruly car nearly had me in stitches. Besides A&C, who are superb, the supporting cast is very strong. Joseph Calleia as Craig is both menacing and hilarious minus his trademark mustache. Leon Errol, whom I find annoying in almost everything, is actual entertaining as a goofy gambler that never loses. And Mike Mazurki is really hilarious in a scene where he gets scammed out of $10 first by Bud and then Lou. He stumbles over some words in his exchanges with the fast- talking Costello but this only adds to the humor. A pleasant surprise, "The Noose Hangs High" is a delightful film that is superior to anything the boys did after 1946 with the possible exception of their classic rumble with the Universal monsters in "Meet Frankenstein."

jotix100 Tommy is having a painful toothache. When we first meet him, he is trying to use an unorthodox method to get rid of the pain he is feeling, but alas, it is not meant to be. The following day, the pain is no better. Perched on a window of a skyscraper, Tommy and his pal Ted are cleaning windows. Ted decides to bring his friend to a dentist in the building. The dentist proves to be the wrong man to deal with the problem at hand and Tommy has his own way solving his own problem.The duo is confused with men from a security service by Nick Craig's henchmen. He must make a payment of money J.C. McBride won on a bet he placed with Nick, who gives the money to Ted and Tommy to take it to the winner, but he does not intend to do so. He gets his guys to rob the naive would be messengers. The window washers manage to elude the criminals by entering a mail order firm where the money goes the wrong way, beginning a series of adventures for Ted and Tommy.Directed by Charles Barton, a veteran of Hollywood comedies and closely associated with some of the best pictures for the hilarious Lou Costello and Bud Abbott. This 1948 production recently showed in DVD format. The transfer is excellent. This seldom seen movie will delight fans of Abbott and Costello's fans. They were at the height of their popularity. The comedy has the comedians go from one routine to the other with such ease, the fun never stops.The cast includes Joseph Calleia, who is seen as the heavy Nick Craig. Leon Errol plays the lucky gambler at the center of the plot and whose identity is never revealed until the end of the story. Cathy Downs appears as Carol, the lucky recipient of the missing money. Mike Mazurski, who made a career playing tough men is at hand to liven things up.