Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-05-16


Lou has become the fumbling little
downtrodden man against the
world, In the manner if not the
style Of Chaplin. This, of course, is
not to be construed as a comparison
OF Costello with Chaplin, but the
fumbler Lou plays in Little Giant,
which opened yesterday at Keiths
is much solder comedy character
than that old burlesque buffoon
even If the buffoon did earn a lot
OF money for the Costello Abbott
team.
The comic has not gone COM
pletely out of character in this new
film, Of course. There are several
scenes that involve the Abbott Co.'S
tello banter that was familiar a
dozen years ago to patrons of the
Gayety Theater. There Is, for ex-
ample, the interlude during which
Lou undertakes to prove con-
clusively that Z times l3 equals
% and and does it, by addition,
multiplication and division. There
are moments Of pure slapstick, too,
but for the most part the athletic
comedy style has been kept at a
minimum and the humor stems
from character and the story.
X X X X
This, to be sure, is something for
which credit must be given to Paul
Jerrico and Richard Collins, who
wrote the original story, and Walter
De Leon, who constructed the
screen play from it. They have
written nothing of great import
here and they have not been
ashamed to resort to an elderly gag
on many an occasion, but they have
given Costello a character to ex-
pand rather than a vehicle where
comedy skits can be inserted at in
tervals.
The character is a young farm
boy named Benny Miller, definitely
backward type, who probably is the
dumbest graduate ever of the cor
respondence school which under
takes to teach him craftsmanship
by way of recordings. The school,
incidentally, provides a moment of
rare satirical comedy by dispatch
ing a recorded graduation address
along with Benny's diploma. The
sight Of Benny, his mother and his
girl friend standing solemn and
awed before portable photograph
listening to the commencement ex-
ercises is something, we want you
to know.
Principally this adventure is con-
cerned with Benny's affairs after
graduation, however, when he leaves
the farm and descends upon Los
Angeles to make $4,000. The Her
cules Vacuum Cleaner Co. becomes
tho principal victim of the mis-
fortunes visited by fate upon its
new salesman, with two executives
of the firm played by Bud Abbott
to assure old followers of the
Abbott Costello duel their fun. We
are afraid, however, that Lou has
managed to prove in Little Giant
that he is comedian who does not
need the same straight-man for
every laugh, that he can be funny
without being a punching-bag for
Bud Abbott.
One Of his funnier moments, as a
matter of fact, is performed mostly
In solo, recording the difficulties en-
countered by a country boy who hac
never seen one before, attempting
to undress in an upper berth.
X X
The comic has been given, at one
point, an old Groucho Marx foil
Margaret Dumont, who manages tt
be appropriately stuffy about il
when Costello sprays her living
room with SCOT while demonstrating
q vacuum cleaner. Among the
others, Abbott plays Bud Abbott
enthusiastically, under two diff
ferent hair-dos; George Cleveland
has himself quite a time as the
uncle whose greatest misfortune is
that his sister had a son named
BENNY Miller. Jacoueline de Wit is