Review of Here Come the Co-eds

Having watched Laurel & Hardy's A Chump at Oxford again yesterday in honor of the upcoming start of the school year (though here in Baton Rouge, it already began in mid-August), I just rewatched Abbott & Costello's Here Come the Co-eds for the same reason. It has lots of similarities to the previous pic other than that they both take place at a college like 1)Both reference Albert Einstein and Dizzy Dean-the latter's surname being mixed with that of a college dean, 2)both have a horror icon playing a character named Johnson (Peter Cushing in ACAO, Lon Chaney, Jr. here), and 3)in ACAO, Stan Laurel dons a female disguise and later gets hit in the head turning him into Lord Paddington while here, Lou Costello also dons a female disguise and at the same time gets hit in the head turning him into "Daisy Dimple"! Among the differences, 1)while ACAO takes place at an actual university of which Stan & Ollie are students, HCTC is set at a fictional girls college named Bixby with Bud & Lou hired as caretakers and 2)in this one, it's full of musical interludes while there's none in the L & H flick. Speaking of the latter, they may intrude in the plot but considering how slight it is, they fill the picture considerably with entertaining numbers by Phil Spitalny and his Hour of Charm All-Girl Orchestra with Evelyn and her Magic Violin and co-star Peggy Ryan, taking a break from her usual partner, Donald O'Connor. In fact, she and Costello make quite a cute pair though if you knew their actual ages, you might be a little creeped out. As for Abbott & Costello themselves, they're as good as you expect them to be with Chaney making a fine foil though by the time it goes to the ridiculous basketball game-what with those Amazon opponents and Costello's not-very-convincing-disguise though as a former high school player, he's still good at making shots-and that lame chase-in-the-road-on-an-attached-boat, you're just glad the picture's almost over! So on that note, Here Come the Co-eds is at least worth a look. P.S. The version I watched on YouTube had for some reason cut Peggy and Lou's number "Let's Play House" and the "Jonah and the Whale" routine though I have to admit, I only remember the latter from One Night in the Tropics since I had only watched HCTC in its entirety once before some 30 years ago...