Best movie of this year hands down!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

An absolute waste of money

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Copyright 8 September 1949 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. New York opening at the Globe: 18 September 1949. U.S. release: August 1949. U.K. release: 23 January 1950. Australian release: 23 March 1950. 7,644 feet. 85 minutes. A Universal-International Picture.SYNOPSIS: A dim-witted bellboy at a resort hotel finds himself suspect number one in a murder investigation.COMMENT: The alternative title (widely used in America and England, but not in the censored-to-6,865-feet version released in Australia) pans out as a bit of a misnomer. It's established at quite an early stage of the proceedings that Karloff is no killer. What's even worse, his role occupies a pitifully meager amount of screen time. He's actually allowed only one full scene in which to exercise his histrionic skill. One of the best scenes in the whole movie, admittedly, but hardly a justification for the excessive billing he receives in the title and advertising copy. Fortunately, the film presents plenty of other diversions, including some delightful slapstick by-play and a bit of hilariously quick-footed body-switching. We are also treated to some thrillingly atmospheric moments when photographer Charles Van Enger is allowed to run riot: the opening shot, for example, the dumping of the bodies into the basement, and, of course, the marvelous climactic chase and bizarre confrontation in the caverns. Mention should also be made of the fine sets created by Bernard Herzbrun and Richard H. Riedel. At the same time, we can all tingle to that wonderfully vintage Universal music score, so effective it was constantly used by the studio in movie after movie after movie (despite which of the studio's in-house composers received the actual credit). However, I do make one note of caution for non-Abbott and Costello fans. You may find that the constant verbal battles between the two comics, plus Lou's stupidly incessant interruptions to the deliberations of the other characters, do make the unfolding of the plot somewhat heavy going.

This comedic horror film is among my least favorite A&C films, with "Lost in Alaska" still my least favorite. For one thing, Costello does too much mugging, whimpering, and being scared speechless for my liking. There are too many totally illogical setups and happenings. One expects some of such in an A&C film, but too many reduces one's respect for the film. I'm sure most children are more forgiving of this fault.The title clearly indicates that Boris Karloff is the murderer, which is not the case. If so, it wouldn't be a murder mystery! In fact, it's a multiple murder mystery, with A&C supplying most of the comedic content.It begins with a nocturnal thunderstorm to set the mood. The hotel staff await the arrival of Amos Strickland: a prominent criminal attorney, who has come to investigate blackmailing of the hotel owner: Mr. Crandall. Lou (Freddie), as the bell boy, angers Mr. Strickland with his clumsy handing of his baggage. As a result, Lou is fired, but he threatens Strickland in the process. Later, Lou goes to Strickland's room to apologize. After apologizing, it dawns on Lou that Strickland appears to be dead. He absentmindedly picks up a handkerchief with blood stains on it and pockets it. When he returns to his room, he finds a gun under his bedsheets. Then, he finds another body hanging in his closet, and runs to tell Abbott: the house detective. But, the body keeps disappearing and reappearing in another location. Lou finds another body in another closet. He and Abbott hide the bodies in a laundry cart, with Lou masquerading as a maid. Then, they play a card game with them, later dumping them on the elevator.For some reason(?), all the former clients of Mr. Strickland who have gathered at the hotel(why?)want Lou dead, even though none of them is the murderer. Perhaps they blame Lou for the murder of one of them, he also being the chief suspect in the murder of Mr. Strickland. Boris Karloff, as Swami, tries to hypnotize a sleeping Costello into killing himself, first by hanging, then by a gun, next by jumping out a window, and lastly by knife. But Lou either fails at these attempts or refuses to carry them out. "You're going to commit suicide if it's the last thing you do" growls Karloff. Later, Lou takes a steam bath, and someone turns the steam pressure way up and keeps him locked in the enclosure. He yells, and Abbott comes to the rescue.Lou has quite an adventure in the Lost Cavern, nearly being blown up by a stick of dynamite he mistakes for a candle, then nearly falling into a bubbling 'bottomless pit'. He's nearly saved by a mysterious masked man who requests the bloodstained handkerchief. When Lou tells him he doesn't have this, the masked man leaves him to drown, as he functions as the plug in a sink. Fortunately, others rescue him in time.I leave the resolution of the murders for you to see. It happens all too quickly for me.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER (Universal-International, 1949), directed by Charles T. Barton, finds the comedy team spoofing the "film noir" genre made popular through much of the 1940s. Having already worked in a spook comedy, HOLD THAT GHOST (1941), and a non-stop murder mystery, WHO DONE IT? (1942), this edition borrows heavily on their recent comedy thriller, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948), but not to the same results. Acquiring both the same underscoring and co-star, Lenore Aubert, this time around, Boris Karloff, originator of the Frankenstein monster and its two sequels from the 1930s, becomes an added attraction among its co-stars. Even though the complete title is often labeled, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER, BORIS KARLOFF, Karloff's name, which forms together through drips of blood on the screen far beyond the title, cannot really be regarded as part of that title, at least in my point of view. Regardless of the setup, Karloff, looking more sinister than usual, does get his first of two opportunities in an Abbott and Costello comedy, where his scenes, mostly with Costello, come ever so briefly.In true horror-like fashion, the story starts off in the dark of night during a heavy thunderstorm. Amos Strickland (Nicholas Joy), a temperamental criminal lawyer with lots of enemies registers in the secluded Crandall's Lost Tavern Hotel where he is to write his memoirs. He encounters Casey Edwards (Bud Abbott), a hotel detective, and his cousin, Freddie Phillips (Lou Costello), a bumbling bellboy at the front desk. Due to Freddie's extreme carelessness in handling his baggage, Strickland orders Mr. Melton (Alan Mowbray), the hotel manager, to have him fired. Before leaving, Freddie threatens Strickland. Later that night, Freddie, hoping to get his job back by apologizing, enters Strickland's room to find he's been murdered. Although innocent, all the evidence points to Freddie. Inspector Wellman (James Flavin) and Sergeant Stone (Mikel Conrad) are called to the case. Also registered in the hotel are an assortment mysterious types: Swani Talpur (Boris Karloff), a hypnotist; Angela Gordon (Lenore Aubert), T. Hanley Brooks (Roland Winters), Mrs. Hargreave (Victoria Horne), Mike Relia (Vincent Renno), Mrs. Grimsby (Claire DuBrey) and Lawrence Crandall (Harry Hayden), all former clients of Strickland. With Casey and Freddie tangling an assortment of dead bodies individually placed and displaced in their room, one of them being Milford (Morgan Farley), Strickland's secretary, Freddie also finds his life being threatened by a mysterious figure who'd go through great lengths to retrieve that once piece of evidence, a blood-stained handkerchief Freddie found near Strickland's body. Also in the cast are Gar Moore as Jeff Wilson, the desk clerk; and Donna Martell as Betty, Lawrence Crandall's niece. Their roles are limited and of minor importance. With such an interesting premise, and perfect casting of Abbott as the cigar smoking detective and Costello the accident prone bellboy, this should have developed into a great comedy mystery. Somewhere along the way, it misses the mark. Moments of "black comedy" may have had something to do with it. Two disturbing sequences could be the other, the first having Freddie coming to the boiling point while locked inside the steam cabinet; the other where a masked figure lures Freddie into an underground cavern where he ends up stuck from his waist in a hole a few feet below leveled ground and the bottomless pit below as gushes of water rushes over his head ("a fine way to end up, a drain plug," he quips). Of these two, the steam room sequence was one that seldom made it to commercial television prior to the cable TV era of the 1980s. Not so much for its intensity but mainly to fit in more commercial breaks in a 90 minute time slot for this 84 minute film. The tavern cave sequence, lasting 12 minutes, is creepy and well done. A true departure from the usual Abbott and Costello climaxes where suspense overrules comedy. Further moments of "black humor" occur as Karloff's turban wearing Swami attempting to have Freddie commit suicide through hypnotism; and Aubert's Angela, a reputed husband killer, tricking Freddie into signing a murderous confession by getting him drunk on what might possibly be poisoned cocktail.While the first portion of the film has its share of laugh-out-loud scenes, the second half disappoints as Costello's character becomes sillier, straining for laughs. While there's limited Abbott and Costello exchanges, a great many of them involving Costello fall onto others instead. One funny line, "We don't permit murders in this hotel!" sounds more like Abbott but goes to Alan Mowbray. The "culprit is the murderer" routine comes between Costello and Lenore Aubert. Though Abbott doesn't participate in any of the hair raising scenes, he does take part in Costello's case of the missing and reappearing corpses. The set up booby traps and Costello disguised as a chambermaid and being flirted by character-type Abernathy (Percy Helton) are amusing enough for an honorable mention here.As with all Abbott and Costello comedies, MEET THE KILLER has become available on both video and DVD. Cable television broadcasts have been limited, ranging from the Comedy Channel (late 1980s) and American Movie Classics (2001-02). Whether Karloff plays the killer or not is not so much the issue here, but how the killer's identity remains a well keep secret throughout is. (** daggers)

Fans of ABBOTT and COSTELLO should enjoy this entry, even if the title is a bit misleading--and even if BORIS KARLOFF doesn't get to be quite as menacing as you might want him to be. He does look distinguished in that turban as a Swami who tries to put Costello into a trance so he'll believe that he's the murderer, with negative results.Most of the action takes place at a secluded hotel where a well-known lawyer has been found murdered. Suspicion points to bellboy COSTELLO, and in a script that has ABBOTT as a house detective, you can see that poor Lou is gonna have a hard time proving his innocence...especially when dead bodies keep popping up everywhere wherever he goes.It's not as funny as WHO DONE IT? or HOLD THAT GHOST, but considerably better than some of the later stuff they did toward the end of their career.Enjoyable enough nonsense for their fans.