Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd, the film

Charles Laughton teams up with Abbott and Costello in “Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd”, a slapstick musical comedy about pirates.

Abbot, a.k.a. Rocky Stonebridge, and Costello, a.k.a. Oliver Johnson, are waiters in a Tavern and are forced to serve the notorious and mean, Captain Kidd. While serving Captain Kidd, Johnson accidentally obtains the Captain’s map to a very big treasure.

With the treasure map in hand, they devise a plan to get Captain Kidd to take them to the treasure where they plan to abduct the treasure for themselves.

As I watched this film, I really wanted to give it a rave review. But this just isn’t the duos best film. Instead of appearing to be one of their later films, it looks like a low-budget version of one of their earlier films with no new material to speak of.

If you can look past the fact that the storyline makes absolutely no sense, you just might be able to enjoy the slapstick comedic antics for what they were... simple moments delivered to make you laugh.

Still, I have to ask… what is with Charles Laughton as Captain Kidd?

While I enjoyed Laughton’s performance immensely, he was not convincing as a mean, ogre of a pirate. Instead, he appeared to be a demanding, drunken pirate… or what some have affectionately deemed a buffoon.

If you collect Abbott and Costello movies, like my husband and daughter, you’ll definitely want to pick up a copy of “Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd”.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for another good film by the duo, you just might want to pass this one up. And definitely don’t buy it for the extras because there aren’t any. They didn’t even re-master the film.

Disclosure: The reviewer received a complimentary copy of this DVD to review.