Pardon My Sarong (1942)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Absolutely Brilliant!

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Another wacky Abbott and Costello(A&C) musical comedy, also costarring Robert Paige as Tommy: a wealthy playboy, and Virginia Bruce, as Joan, who has an initial adversarial relationship with Tommy, which turns romantic("They hate each other enough to get married", observed Costello).Tommy has illicitly hired a Chicago city bus to take himself an a bevy of gorgeous girls to Los Angeles. Costello, and his assistant, Abbott, are the drivers. Tommy will get his yacht ready for a coming race to Hawaii. The boys have a runin with Detective Kendall(William Demarest) just after they arrive, with some comical means of attempted escape, until they are captured. They are supposed to drive the bus back to Chicago, but instead accidentally drive it off a floating pier, thereby losing Kendall. They surface and are picked up by Tommy and Joan on his yacht, and are made deckhands, in spite of their lack of experience. They pick up a seal('sharky')along the way, who pops up every now and then through the rest of the film. They barely survive a terrible storm, losing all their sails. Fortunately, they come upon a small habitable island. They soon meet some natives, which they fear, and initially try to fight them. But, soon it's plain they like Costello for some reason, and the pair are conducted to the village. Meanwhile, Tommy and Joan are exploring on their own, and come across the cabin of an eccentric geologist, so he says,: Dr. Varnoff. The natives sing and dance for them. They demand that Costello wear a necklace with a special large jewel that is supposed to protect him from danger when he visits a mysterious temple on the side of the volcano. The last 5 men to go there never returned. He goes alone, but Abbott soon starts after him, in case he needs help. There, Costello , and sometimes Abbott, are chased all over the temple and surrounding jungle by 5 incredibly stupid goons, evidently sent by Dr. Varnoff, to steal the magical jewel. After they escape from these men, Costello spots Dr. Varnoff in a speed boat with Joan. He guesses that the doctor is up to no good, and swims toward the boat at a phenomenal rate. Eventually, he reaches the boat and has an eventful tussle with the doctor, eventually besting him. After this madcap adventure, Costello returns to claim his prize: the hand of the chief's daughter: Luana(Nan Wynn). He has to make up his mind whether to stay on the island with her or return to western civilization with his friends. The musical numbers were composed by several authors, the island songs being composed by Dan Raye and Gene de Paul. The Ink Spots sang several songs in the night club where Tommy brought his bevy of babes, upon their arrival in L.A.. The acrobatic dancing team of Tip, Tap, and Toe performed their amazing skill for one of these songs, one of the film highlights for me. ...Then, when the gang was on the island, two songs were sung by the beautiful Nan Wynn, accompanied by much dancing by both men and women(separately). "Lovely Luana" is a languid Hawaiian-styled ballad, while Vingo Jingo is a jazzy number. Perhaps too much time was spent on the dancing natives, for a primarily comedic film. If you like A&C films, this is one of their better efforts, despite its insane screen play. It's available in several A&C DVD collections.

Pardon My Sarong (1942) *** (out of 4) Good Abbott and Costello film has the boys on a tropical island where a thief (Lionel Atwill) is planing to steal a priceless jewel from the locals. The nearly 200 people in the theater seemed to enjoy this one pretty well. I've always found this to be a pretty good film even with the way too many musical numbers. The boys timing is right on the mark with the highlight being the spoof of Tarzan films at the end. Plenty of laughs throughout.Available on DVD through Universal.

Probably not one of Abbott and Costello's shining moments. It's funny in spots ("Go ahead, back up"), but it lacks comic momentum. 5 musical numbers are simply too many for an 80-minute comedy. The numbers are interesting in their own right, but not well-integrated into the story, and not as catchy as some of those in another A & C film of the same period, "In The Navy". And although I have absolutely nothing against Black & White films, the tropical island setting of this one might have benefited from being shot in luscious Technicolor. On the plus side, the special effects are very impressive for their age, and as Luana, the island tribe chief's daughter, Nan Wynn is a dazzling exotic beauty - without exaggeration, one of the most beautiful women I have EVER seen. (**1/2)

One evening, I was flipping channels; bored as bored can be when a black and white film caught my eye. (It was the scene with the gas station attendant.) I watched until the scene with the dancers. Then I got bored and was flipping channels again. I went on the computer ate food ETC, when I went to watch TV again. All the sudden, four people were on some island. I was shocked, confused and mesmerized. I watch the rest of the film. At the end, I bitterly cursed myself for ever changing channels. I watched the whole movie a year later. That's when I got hooked. I now can't wait for the CBC to show a classic movie with our lovable heroes, Bud and Lou!!!