Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Africa Screams Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 30, 2020

Abbott and Costello entered the annals of all time great comedy duos at least in part for their now iconic “Who’s on first?” routine, but circa 1948-49, they might have more saliently questioned “Who’s on third?”, since according to some online data, the pair was the third most popular boxoffice attraction at the movies during those years, after having claimed the vaunted Number One position in 1942. The two comedians had in fact fell somewhat in popularity rankings in the interim, but as commentator Ron Palumbo gets into in one of the supplements on this disc, they started enjoying a career renaissance of sorts after the perhaps unexpected success of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (the link points to a now pretty pricey edition I reviewed years ago, but there’s also this release which is considerably less expensive). Part of that success may be indicated by the fact that their home studio, Universal, gave them the ability to make one independent feature a year as part of a renegotiated contract, which led first to The Noose Hangs High and then this particular film. Africa Screams is probably more consistently funny than The Noose Hangs High, but it does contain some questionable representations that may raise a few hackles in some viewers, specifically with regard to a cannibal tribe the two encounter when they trek to an obviously backlot “Dark Continent”.

Lou portrays a timid book salesman improbably named Stanley Livington, who works at Klopper’s department store along with his scheming friend Buzz Johnson (Bud Abbott, of course). The two are independently approached by different people seeking a book entitled Dark Safari, which supposedly contains a map that will lead these people to something of value in Africa (suffice it to say the "goal" is not initially disclosed by the people). It just so happens that Stanley insists he has not only read the book (which is no longer carried by the store), but that he’s memorized large swaths of it, including the sought after map. That makes him a person of interest to the seekers of the map which include Diana Emerson (Hillary Brooke), and her two pugilistic henchmen, Grappler McCoy and Boots Wilson (portrayed by real life boxing brothers Max Baer and Buddy Baer).

Suffice it to say that scheming abounds in this film, not necessarily limited to Bud’s typically machinating character, although in that regard it’s Buzz who figures out that Diana and her goons are not after a giant ape, per their original indications, but a valuable cache of priceless diamonds. Buzz of course arranges for himself and Stanley to accompany Diana’s safari to Africa, and it’s there that a series of comic misadventures befall the duo, including that aforementioned tribe of cannibals.

There are all sorts of subplots running through this enterprise, including Stanley attracting the attention of a friendly gorilla who ends up helping him at various junctures (perhaps hilariously, as the commentary gets into, the gorilla was originally slated to be a female, but censors thought that the animal's interest in Stanley might be mistaken for hints of "bestiality", and so the creature's gender was changed to male, as if that made things better). But it's in some of its "meta" aspects that Africa Screams may appeal to some film fans, or at least trivia aficionados. The film has two "real life" supporting players, animal trainer Clyde Beatty and famed explorer Frank Buck, but it also offers the only on screen pairing of Shemp Howard and Joe Besser (Besser replaced Howard in The Three Stooges after Howard's death in 1955. Besser, along with Hillary Brooke, would later become part of the ensemble on Abbott and Costello's television variety show.

Africa Screams Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Africa Screams is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix and 3-D Archive with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.36:1. As regular visitors to our forum may already know, 3-D Archive's Bob Furmanek posted a thread here some time ago announcing a Kickstarter campaign to help save Africa Screams, and from the looks of some of the responses, several of our members contributed to the effort. My hunch is those who helped ClassicFlix and 3-D Archive preserve and restore this title will be well pleased with their "investment". Aside from just a very few little specks that only a curmudgeon would mention (hey, it's in my job description to be a curmudgeon), this is pretty gorgeously damage free, with really solid blacks and well modulated gray scale. There are occasional signs of very softness, often toward the sides of the frame for what that's worth, but as can hopefully be seen pretty easily in many of the screenshots accompanying this review, this is a generally very sharp and well detailed looking presentation. There's a healthy and organic looking grain field throughout this presentation.

Note: A propos of nothing other than a personal observation/experience, while the 3D content played perfectly on my 3D TV and standalone player, I didn't get an independent "alert" that 3D content was available. When I put this disc into my PC drive with the ever unpredictable PowerDVD, I got a pop up warning me that I didn't have a 3D monitor.

Africa Screams Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Africa Screams features a spry sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono mix. Some of the "jungle" sound effects, which I assume were ported in from some library back in the day, can sound a little boxy or thin on occasion, as do a few of the music cues (as in the kind of hilariously grandiose Nassour Films masthead accompaniment), but on the whole the track sounds full bodied without any major damage. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and I noticed no issues with dropouts or distortion.

Africa Screams Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

ClassicFlix hasn't always offered a ton of supplements on their releases, but Africa Screams has some interesting and maybe even quirky bonus features:

• Commentary by author and Abbott and Costello historian Ron Palumbo


• Audio & Video Extras

  The Rubdown Sketch (restored Abbott and Costello comedy sketch from live TV in 1953) (1080i; 10:07)

  
  

  Abbott and Costello Radio Show with Bela Lugosi features the original un-edited recording and then the final broadcast version, both playing under explanatory text and stills:

  Original un-edited show as recorded on February 23, 1948 (1080p; 40:44)

  
  

  Final broadcast master of May 5, 1948 (1080p; 29:48)

  Lou Costello filmed interview with Max Baer and Joe Louis on July 2, 1940 following Baer's fight with Tony "Two Ton" Galento in Jersey City (1080p; 1:54)

  
  

  Clyde Beatty's Animal Thrills - A short film released by Catle Films in November 1943 (1080p; 9:48)

  
  

  Selected outtakes/bloopers taken on set during production (1080p; 7:31)

• 3-D Comic Book (1080p; 6:05) offers either a Red/cyan anaglyphic 3-D option (with glasses kindly provided in the keepcase) or a Discrete polarized 3-D for viewers with 3-D display capability option (which is what I used). This is probably one of the qualifiers for that "quirky" descriptor above, but it's a lot of fun. The depth on these panels is kind of awe inspiring at times, and the image is sharp as a tack. This is authored so that each page advances after 5 seconds, so have the Pause button on your remote handy.


• Image Galleries

  Behind the scenes photos taken during production (1080p; 7:12)

  
  

  Promotion, publicity and ballyhoo (1080p; 13:46) allows for Manual advance, but is authored to advance automatically at a pretty brisk clip.

Additionally, Trailers for two CineColor features, El Paso and Jack and the Beanstalk are authored together (1080p; 7:26) with some prefatory text. There are also Trailers for other ClassicFlix Blu-ray releases.

Africa Screams Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While I'm giving Africa Screams the same overall 3.5 rating I gave to Abbott and Costello's previous independent film (also released by ClassicFlix), The Noose Hangs High, I personally think the comedy in this film is more consistent and laugh out loud worthy, though I'm certainly not immune to what are some antiquated depictions in this story. There's quite a bit of schtick laden physical comedy in this film, which tends to highlight Lou more than Bud, and the kind of wacky and wonderful supporting cast is a lot of fun. ClassicFlix and 3-D Archive have done a commendable job restoring this title, offering secure technical merits, and the supplemental package is also very enjoyable. Recommended.