{"id":32076,"date":"2019-10-11T08:51:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T12:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=32076"},"modified":"2019-11-03T17:34:12","modified_gmt":"2019-11-03T22:34:12","slug":"the-bootleg-files-abbott-and-costello-meet-superman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/11\/the-bootleg-files-abbott-and-costello-meet-superman\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Abbott & Costello Meet Superman"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 704:<\/strong> \u201cAbbott & Costello Meet Superman\u201d (2015 fan film).<\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: <\/strong>None.
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\nREASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> It\u2019s kind of obvious what is going on here.
\n
\nCHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> They\u2019re lucky that Mike the Cop doesn\u2019t arrest them.<\/p>\n

Fan films often represent a victory of enthusiasm over talent, with aspiring Spielbergs getting carried away with their mania over popular film franchises. For the most part, these films can be accepted as charming \u2013 a few are actually quite polished thanks to an intelligent use of digital effects.
\n<\/p>\n

But every now and then, a fan film comes along that is so much fun that it deserves to be called out. Such is the case of something called \u201cAbbott and Costello Meet Superman,\u201d which combines two very different film franchises into one brilliantly ridiculous experience.<\/p>\n

Shot in wonderful black-and-white, \u201cAbbott and Costello Meet Superman\u201d opens with a series of anime-style drawings with the eponymous characters getting acquainted. In these drawings, Superman is upset to find Costello wearing his celebrated costume while Abbott tries to fast-talk an explanation for the duo\u2019s antics. The opening credits give proper attribution to Superman\u2019s creators and Abbott and Costello\u2019s material, but it also borrows drawings from the Fleischer Superman cartoons and the Abbott and Costello animated series that television in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

We are then presented with a view of what appears to be an abandoned factory along a river, but a caption appears informing us that it is actually \u201cMetropolis State Prison.\u201d An escaped convict disguising himself in a trench coat walks out from under a bridge by the river, only to be confronted by someone identifying himself as a \u201cdown on his luck dentist.\u201d The dentist tries to snag an unpeeled avocado that the convict is about to eat and offers to trade the fruit for a comic book. The convict takes the comic book and shoves the dentist away. But when the convict starts to read the comic book, he realizes it features Superman. Angry to be reminded of the Man of Steel, he drops the comic book and crushes it under foot.<\/p>\n

The viewer is then taken to an office building. Inside a conspicuously empty suite, Daily Planet editor Perry White is assaulted by would-be reporters Abbott and Costello seeking employment. This version of Abbott and Costello are played by young men who wear suits, oversized hats (a fedora for Abbott and a derby for Costello) and fall into the familiar pattern of an overbearing Bud and a frustrated Lou. But White in unimpressed and barks, \u201cGet out my office! You\u2019re not reporters, you\u2019re con artists!\u201d<\/p>\n

We then get treated to some Abbott and Costello wordplay around the word \u201cvolts.\u201d Costello first mistakes \u201cvolts\u201d for \u201cvotes\u201d until Abbott informs him that \u201cvolts\u201d are \u201cwatts.\u201d Costello\u2019s bewilderment over \u201cwatts\u201d reminds us that I Don\u2019t Know is playing third base. White insists that Abbott and Costello find a Superman story, and Abbott promises an interview with Superman.<\/p>\n

Outside of the House of Frankenstein Wax Museum, Abbott cons Costello into playing Superman for a fraud designed to get the duo jobs as reporters. The pair hold a press conference in an empty ballroom and who should show up but Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen \u2013 Clark has slicked back hair and dark rimmed glasses and Jimmy has an ill-fitting suit and cap. Then, the escaped convict (remember him?) shows up dressed like he walked out of an RKO film noir. The press conference begins and Lou comes out with his zaftig body shoehorned into a Superman costume. Abbott interviews the fake Superman but keeps interrupting him in a manner reminiscent of the fabled comics\u2019 \u201cJonah and the Whale\u201d routine.<\/p>\n

Clark Kent has enough of this nonsense and disappears, only to reappear as Superman \u2013 or a rather skinny and muscle-free facsimile. The convict then pulls out a gun to recount how the superhero sent him to prison, and then he pulls out a chunk of Kryptonite that disables the superhero. Abbott and Costello knock the kryptonite out of the villain\u2019s grip and after a bit of knockabout the day is saved. Superman is not angry with Bud and Lou \u2013 he shakes hands with them as the evildoer is vanquished. Alas, Abbott and Costello don\u2019t get jobs at the Daily Planet, but Jimmy Olsen clues them to a job in Gotham City.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbbott and Costello Meet Superman\u201d was written and directed by Aaron Lambert, who also played Abbott opposite Jake Navatka\u2019s Costello. Their imitations are very amusing \u2013 Lambert approximates Abbott\u2019s growl and Navatka gets Costello\u2019s gestures down perfect. Billy Tom Myott played Clark Kent\/Superman \u2013 and while physically wrong, he gets the character\u2019s personality down without problem. From what I can gather via the Internet Movie Database, the film and its creators are based in upstate New York and have worked in that region\u2019s indie film scene. This short was created under the banner of SpaceCat Entertainment and appears to be its only release.<\/p>\n

Is \u201cAbbott and Costello Meet Superman\u201d great filmmaking? Well, not really \u2013 the production is obviously threadbare and the story\u2019s ending feels rushed. But the young cast is clearly enjoying themselves and their invigorating energy compensates for whatever wobbles that turn up on screen. In watching this, one has to rue the fact that Universal Pictures didn\u2019t consider this for the real Bud and Lou \u2013 the idea of Abbott and Costello joining forces with the 1950s-era George Reeves\u2019 Superman would have been priceless. Pity that Aaron Lambert wasn\u2019t around back in the day to make this really happen.<\/p>\n

This film\u2019s creators include closing credit acknowledgment that the film was created for \u201centertainment purposes only\u201d and was not designed to generate profit or spirit away licensing from established entities \u2013 a nice touch. \u201cAbbott and Costello Meet Superman\u201d is on YouTube<\/a>, and it deserves to be seen because it is a cute little film that will entertain viewers who grew up on these franchises.<\/p>\n

IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.<\/em>
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\nListen to \u201cThe Online Movie Show with Phil Hall\u201d<\/a> on SoundCloud, now in its fourth season.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 704: \u201cAbbott & Costello Meet Superman\u201d (2015 fan film). LAST SEEN: On YouTube. AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None. REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It\u2019s kind of obvious what is going on here. CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: They\u2019re lucky that Mike the Cop doesn\u2019t arrest them. Fan films often represent a victory of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":32077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1513],"tags":[2332,54,219,345,938,1007],"class_list":["post-32076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bootleg-files","tag-aaron-lambert","tag-abbott-and-costello","tag-comedy","tag-fan-film","tag-short-film","tag-superman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32076"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32222,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32076\/revisions\/32222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}