One Night in the Tropics (1940)

Director: A. Edward Sutherland

Starring: Allan Jones, Robert Cummings, Nancy Kelly, Bud Abbott & Lou Costello

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Romance TO THE RHYTHM OF THE RHUMBA...in this magical musical of mirth!

Plot: Jim, a hotshot insurance salesman, sells a policy to his best pal Steve who will earn $1 million if he fails to marry his fiance Cynthia. Half of the policy is underwritten by tough gambling-house owner Roscoe, who panics when Cummings heads for a Caribbean isle in pursuit of another broad, Mickey. As for Cynthia, she wants no part of Steve once she finds out she's a pawn in his policy.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Eventually.


Plot? Who cares? It's only there to serve as a showcase for Abbott & Costello. It's their first feature together but it'll be their next film, BUCK PRIVATES (1941), before they take the lead roles. Let's cut to the chase. The romance part of the flick is fine and the comedy is pretty broad but it's A&C that we're here in the first place. They play Roscoe's flunkies who try to make sure things go Roscoe's way.



Every scene they're in is great and they've got some great bits like "Who's on first?", "Two tens for a five", "365 days - firing", "Smoking", "Mustard" and my favorite gag in the film, "Jonah and the whale." In that last one, Lou tells a joke (that he claims he made up) and just before he gets to the punchline, Bud blurts it out and hurts Lou's feelings. I laughed my ass off. The look on Lou's face is priceless.

Their timing was brilliant. If they were the main focus of this film I'd dig it a lot more but it's still worth seeing for the boys. They made 36 movies together from 1940 - 1955 and I plan to get around to all of them. I bought the A&C Univeral Pictures Collection box set and I'm going to have a blast getting through it.