Film Noir Review: Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949)

“Things have been awfully dead around here.”

I am forever indebted to Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. The duo were my entry point into classic film as a kid, and many of their comedies (Buck Privates, Rio Rita, Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man) still rank among my all-time favorites. Their timing was immaculate, their wordplay was first rate, and their nonstop energy made other comedy acts look stale by comparison. With these attributes in mind, I thought it would be interesting to look at a rarely discussed aspect of Abbott and Costello’s career: their ties to film noir.

The lifespan of the comedy duo and classical film noir parallel each other rather neatly. Like noir, Abbott and Costello were at their commercial peak in the 1940s. They too struggled to adjust come the following decade, and by the late 1950s, they fizzled out. They also played opposite actors like Dick Powell, Thomas Gomez, William Bendix and Marie Windsor, each of whom found concurrent success in film noir. Despite these similarities, however, the wholesome appeal of Abbott and Costello rarely overlapped with a gritty crime aesthetic. In truth, the only film that qualifies as legitimate noir is the 1949 oddity Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff.

The film’s original poster

I use the word “oddity” because the film is the rare Abbott and Costello vehicle that fully commits to its genre. Where previous films such as Who Done It? (1942) or The Noose Hangs High (1948) flirted with noir, … Meet the Killer is a full bore parody, with moody visuals and dead bodies scattered throughout. Abbott plays Casey Edwards, a hotel detective, and Costello plays Freddie Phillips, a bumbling bellhop. Freddie gets into a quarrel with one of the hotel guests (Nicholas Joy), but things sour when the guest turns up dead, and he’s made a prime suspect. Casey agrees to help Freddie clear his name, only to find that they’re both in over their head.

To compliment Abbott and Costello on their chemistry would be like praising Olivier for his reading of Hamlet. Certain things go without saying. The duo are sharp as ever here, playing off each other and improvising funny bits of action as only seasoned veterans can. I especially like the scene where Casey tries to console Freddie in his hotel room. He assures him that the police would need a murder weapon and DNA to link him to the scene of the crime. All the while, Freddie realizes that someone snuck a blood-soaked handkerchief into his pocket and a warm pistol under his sheets. It’s a clever little bit that shows off the duo’s combined physical and verbal talents.

Freddie has a hypnotic standoff with the Swami.

Boris Karloff is not the killer, despite the blatantly suggestive title. He’s merely a red herring for the duo to investigate. He is, however, responsible for one of the best scenes in the film. As a former client of the murder victim, Karloff’s Swami attempts to hypnotize Freddie into committing suicide. He orders the hapless bellhop to hang himself, but each time out, he’s foiled by Freddie’s inability to follow directions. Karloff doesn’t have as much screen time as one might expert, but he is superb here, ramping up the character’s frustration in ways that are increasingly funny to watch. He delivers the single best line in the film: “You’re going to commit suicide if it’s the last thing you do!”

… Meet the Killer also benefits from its textured visuals. Most Abbott and Costello comedies rely on standard, high-key lighting, but cinematographer Charles Van Enger takes advantage of the film noir aesthetic here, and the results are surprisingly moody. The black humor of the Karloff scene is punctuated by chiaroscuro lighting that casts ominous shadows on the wall. A later scene, where Casey and Freddie disguise two (!) dead bodies by sitting them up and staging a poker game, is heightened by stark, single source lighting. It’s little touches like these that sell the parody, and allow the world to feel as dangerous as the eponymous killer.

Freddie ventures into the chilling cavern.

In yet another departure from standard comedy formula, … Meet the Killer features a suspenseful climax. Freddie is lured into a bottomless cavern to confront the killer, where he nearly falls to his death. The cavern set is beautifully designed, and director Charles Barton makes us feel the dizzying heights from which Freddie is dangling. Barton made some of the duo’s sharpest comedies, including Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) and the underrated Time of Their Lives (1946), but his talent for staging and pacing is best exemplified here. I won’t disclose the identity of the real killer, or how Freddie escapes the cavern, in the interest of preserving the film’s knotted mystery.

I concede that …Meet the Killer is a minor Abbott and Costello film. It lacks the airtight humor of their best work, or the memorable routines that boosted their lesser films. What it does have, however, is style, a sustained tone, and the appeal of seeing two comedy powerhouses fumble through a murder case. You won’t see … Meet the Killer on any noir lists, but I maintain that anyone with a penchant for classic noir, and a passing knowledge of Abbott and Costello, is in for a treat. B

TRIVIA: Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff is the only Hollywood film in history with three of the actors’ names in the title.

…..

–Danilo Castro for Classic Movie Hub

Danilo Castro is a film noir aficionado and Contributing Writer for Classic Movie Hub. You can read more of Danilo’s articles and reviews at the Film Noir Archive, or you can follow Danilo on Twitter @DaniloSCastro.

This entry was posted in Film Noir Review, Posts by Danilo Castro and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to Film Noir Review: Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949)

  1. Mark Brown says:

    Abbott and Costello are my favorite comedy team and I loved their films! The Noose Hangs High is my favorite, but this one is on my top 5 as well!

    I didn’t know that trivia about this being the only film with three actors’ names in the title! Fascinating!

  2. Arye Michael Bender says:

    Your premise is a good one, and goes to the core of why I didn’t much care for the team. And it is for the same reason I still don’t like The Three Stooges. I saw a meanness, mostly coming from Bud Abbott’s characters in almost all their work. Lou Costello often seemed like a not very happy kid who found himself in an adult body. Abbott’s role was almost always like an angry, frustrated parent from a dysfunctional that needed to teach by attack. They well could have trapped inside a Noir world, as you suggest. I hadn’t made the connection until I read the above. And of course, I am in a tiny minority on the subject. A & C were wildly successful and are loved today almost as much as they were in their time.

  3. Stuart Cook says:

    Bud and Lou worked well in mystery settings. WHO DONE IT sure got them going, then 6 years later, ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN came along as perhaps their best-remembered scare/monster classic. In the case of “..MEET THE KILLER, BORIS KARLOFF”), it didn’t hurt using Karloff’s name in the title of this one (Universal’s Frankenstein monster of 1931) to get audiences into the movie houses. The movie still plays very well today.

  4. Sara Stewart says:

    Abbott and Costello are my favourites, along with Hope and Crosby. I saw comments about Abbott being mean-spirited, that’s the way comedy teams worked. The straight man who was the “adult” and the comedic “dupe” who was often portrayed as childlike. They may not have gotten along in real life, many professionals who work together are not friends, but by all accounts, they were professional on set. They both had tragedies/demons in their lives but still made us laugh. One of my favourite movies is The Time of Their Lives.

  5. Destiny L Drake says:

    I haven’t seen this one yet, but I already know there will be alot of comedy.

  6. Brad Harju says:

    I want to watch this movie. I’ve seen many of Abbots and costello’s movies. I think Boris Karloff is a great actor.

Leave a Reply to Brad Harju Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.