Africa Screams [VHS]

Africa Screams [VHS]
by Charles Barton

Africa Screams [VHS]

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Category: VHS Video
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Product details

Actor: Bud Abbott, Clyde Beatty, Frank Buck, Lou Costello, Max Baer
Director: Charles Barton
Cinematographer: Charles Van Enger
Editor: Frank Gross
Producer: Donald Crisp
Writer: Earl Baldwin
Writer: Martin Ragaway
Writer: Leonard Stern
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, EP, NTSC, Original recording reissued
Running Time: 79 minutes
Release Date: 2001-11-27
Publisher: United Artists
Studio: United Artists

VHS Movie Reviews of Africa Screams [VHS]

Movie Review: Africa Screams
Summary: 4 Stars

Good colorization,not one of their best films but nice to see in color,also B/W option, best quality print of this film I've seen.

Movie Review: Not one of their best
Summary: 2 Stars

The basic plot of the film has Hillary Brooke looking for a book about an African safari containing a map leading to a fortune in diamonds. Department store employees Bud Abbott and Lou Costello bluff their way into her confidence and then travel to Africa, along with her team of explorers, including Joe Besser, Max and Buddy Baer, Shemp Howard, Frank Buck and Clyde Beatty, eventually running into a tribe of cannibals. The film is not any where near the best work that Abbott & Costello have done; in fact, to call it one of their `lesser' efforts is an overstatement. It is a one-joke film with Abbott & Costello doing their usual, yet funny, shtick. Hillary Brooke and Shemp Howard are wasted in minor roles, as is Joe Besser, although both he and Howard are funny as always in the brief time they have on screen. The Baer brothers, Frank Buck and Clyde Beatty are there simply to show off the talents of each of them and do not add much of anything to the film, which, incidentally, feels less like a movie and more like an extended television episode for their future television show. Only for die-hard, nothing-they-do-is-bad fans.

Movie Review: BEST VERSION OUT THERE
Summary: 5 Stars

AFRICA SCREAMS has been in the public domain for years. This dusted-off version looks and sounds the best of a-n-y version I've seen. This is the first version I've seen with the Nassour Studios logo opening the film and it has closed-captioning, as well. I skip the colorized version, as I oppose that sort of thing. However, Legend Films has made this one worth the wait. The scene where the tribal chief is scared white by the giant gorilla is here intact, as well, whereas I've often seen it where his face has been blurred over with darkness. I've found this to be a fine film of the team's, as opposed to, say, MEXICAN HAYRIDE or LITTLE GIANT. If you're still hunting a fine print of AFRICA SCREAMS for your A & C collection ... well, here it is.

Movie Review: Foreign Adventure
Summary: 3 Stars

The film starts with a comic scene in a bookstore. Two men offer $1,000 for a map in the book "Dark Safari". A woman offers $2,500 for the same map. Stanley Livington remembers that detail very well (too good to be true?). [The story and its subject are certainly dated.] Clyde Beatty plays himself. Shemp Howard plays another near-sighted character (like his role in a "Blondie" movie). There are plenty of gags to amuse the viewers. Buzz overhears Diana talking about the real purpose of the expedition - its not for a giant orangutan. Frank Buck plays himself. There are comic situations, most are still funny. There is a very comic scene with a lion skin and a real lion. Clyde Beatty does his lion taming act.

After this the boys find diamonds just laying on the ground. They follow the trail to where it leads. The natives have them over for dinner. A secret friend unties them. There is more intrigue and comic chases. More fun results from a failure to communicate. The natives are appalled by a giant gorilla, and flee. Buzz takes off down the river on a raft. What will happen to poor Stanley now?

Back in Manhattan Stanley is living large in a big building with his name on it. Then we see his partner and the cause of his wealth. [Is there a moral here?] This film is not as funny as earlier films.

Movie Review: The Image Entertainment/Hal Roach DVD is the BEST version of this title!
Summary: 5 Stars

Many cheapie companies offer this title at a lower price. Pass up those horrible copies and buy this excellent IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT / HAL ROACH STUDIOS DVD mastered from the original 35mm NITRATE NEGATIVE!

This is the same excellent master film used by Image for their Laserdisc release. The only thing missing here is the Bloopers & Out-takes that were on the Laserdisc.

This movie is the best of the five independent films that Abbott & Costello made in my opinion. And it stands up better than most of their 1950's Universal films. Where else will you see Bud & Lou teamed up with some of the THREE STOOGES? Shemp Howerd and Joe Besser join Abbott & Costello's safari to add to the laughs!
Besser would later join Bud & Lou for their 1950's TV show as "Stinky" before becoming a Stooge!

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