Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953), dir. Charles Lamont, Universal-International
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The 50s wouldn't be very kind to the Universal Monsters. We've seen Abbott and Costello meeting the rest of the Universal monsters, but 1948 was a while ago. After teaming them up with a few more characters, the boys went into outright science fiction.
Orvile (Lou Costello) lives at the Hideaway Orphans Home, as he was never adopted. This might be explained as his deciding to hide in a passing truck as a good idea. The truck takes him to a top secret base, where for some reason he is placed in the care of Lester (Bud Abbott), maybe as a joke?
Many shenanigans ensure, the biggest one being Orville accidently ignites the rocket with him and Lester inside. They end up crash landing outside New Orleans. The pair assume, given that it's Mardi Gras, that they must have landed on Mars.
Two convicts, Harry (Jack Kruschen) and Mugsy (Horace McMahon), find the ship and with some extra space suits on hand, figure to rob some banks. As Orville and Lester explore (and somehow never picking up they are in New Orleans), they get confused for the two cons and flee back to the ship, where the cons are; the foursome blast off again and this time end up on Venus.
For real this time. Queen Allura (Mari Blanchard), who banished all men from her planet, feels her decision was right, especially after meeting the four Earthmen. For some reason, she changes her mind about Orville.
Will Orville be made king? Will Lester actually do anything relevant to the plot?
Yeah, the Abbott and Costello magic was wearing very thin by this point. A fine thirty minutes of plot stretched out to 90, with Orville mugging his way through the film. Of course Universal would make another stab at making an actual horror film a year later.
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