A Major Disappointment

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Abbott & Costello play two bumbling window washers who are mistakenly given $50,000 by a bookie to pay off a customer. When they realize the mistake, the boys quickly mail it back to the bookie to avoid rival gangsters, but a mix-up in the mail results in it being sent to an attractive young woman(played by Cathy Downs) who spent all but $2,000 of it, forcing them to bet the rest on a horse race, while the bookie and his gang wait impatiently to be paid back... Limp comedy rehashes all their old gags to little effect, further hampered by an incredibly contrived and absurd plot. This was made as an independent feature for the team, and is an unfortunate bust.

High rise window washers Bud Abbott and Lou Costello (as Ted Higgins and Homer Hinchcliffe) are mistaken for a speedy messenger service guys. After Mr. Costello's toothache spells trouble for his stunt double, he helps a dentist receive his diploma. Then, he and Mr. Abbott are asked to transport $50,000 for gangster Joseph Calleia (as Nick Craig). Of course, they lose the money, and are ordered to retrieve the cash, or else… Like recent efforts, this film seems a little routine (cough, cough) - but the dip in the past year's box office receipts was immediately alleviated with "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948).**** The Noose Hangs High (4/5/48) Charles Barton ~ Lou Costello, Bud Abbott, Cathy Downs, Joseph Calleia

I love Bud and Lou but I hate their feature films - except this one! All the stuff they did for Universal had them playing 2nd banana to some two-bit love situation. Donald Curtis, Dick Foran - who cares! I watched A&C for THEM! - not some grade Z romantic comedy with them occasionally stepping in for comic relief! "Noose" is obviously what their TV series pulled from. The boys doing all their shticks from their vaudeville days - and it works...BOY does it work! I loved their TV series because it was just THEM and they were unencumbered by the external plot devices! "Noose" is, in my humble opinion, their best film.

The Noose Hangs High marks Abbott&Costello's only film for the short lived Eagle-Lion Productions. This was an effort by J. Arthur Rank over across the pond to break into the American film market with his own production and distribution company.Bud&Lou are a pair of window washers who are mistaken for messengers that are employed by bookie Joseph Calleia. It seems as though he's been taken to the cleaners by one of his bettors and though it hurts he has to pay off. The messengers are to get the money from Ben Welden and deliver it to Calleia.Of course Welden has ideas of having the boys held up and stealing the money for himself. Costello actually eludes the crooks, but sends the money to Cathy Downs by mistake. Now he and Bud have 48 hours to come up with the money or ELSE.Leon Errol is along for the ride as his usual drunken playboy and he subs for Abbott as Lou's straight-man a couple of times. Though in those routines I can't tell who's the one really getting the laughs.What always gets me about The Noose Hangs High is Calleia and how he could be that dumb to mistake these two for good help. What's that say about him. Proof of that is a routine where both Abbott and Costello make a monkey out of big dumb leg breaker Mike Mazurki. The Noose Hangs High is a remake of the Universal film For Love Or Money. I haven't seen the original, but the material was definitely rewritten to suit Bud&Lou. It becomes nothing more than a vehicle for the boys to do several of their burlesque routines. Which for their fans is more than enough.