THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES is generally described as the Abbott & Costello movie for people who don’t like Abbott & Costello. A&C made 36 movies together from 1941-1956. There are only four films where they don’t act together as a team but as separate characters. Two of them are LITTLE GIANT and this one which were both made in 1946. That factor, combined with its supernatural fantasy elements, keeps it from being dated as have most of their 1940s movies. LIVES is even funnier today than it was in 1946 and has developed a cult following outside of the regular A&C fanbase. I loved it when I was kid (I still do and I’m in my 70s), my kids loved it when they were kids, and it remains one of the highest rated A&C comedies on IMDB.
The first third of the film takes place in 1780 near the end of the Revolutionary War. Tinker Horatio Prim (Lou Costello) is in love with housemaid Nora O’Leary (Ann Gillis) who is coveted by butler Cuthbert Greenway (Bud Abbott). Mistress Melody Allen (Marjorie Reynolds) discovers that her fiance’ is a British sympathizer and enlists Horatio’s aid in alerting the Colonial troops. However they are mistaken for traitors, shot, and their bodies dumped in a well. They are then cursed to remain as spirits unless proof of their innocence is established. The remaining 2/3 takes place in 1946 (the date of the movie) where the ghosts haunt the new inhabitants of the old estate in the hopes of discovering where a letter from George Washington is that will prove that they weren’t traitors.
A friend of the new owners is New York psychiatrist Dr Ralph Greenway (also Bud Abbott) whose ancestor helped to get Horatio and Melody killed. He then becomes the primary target of their supernatural hijink as well as the anti-psychiatry jokes that were so popular in the 1940s. Finally a seance is held that leads to the information the ghosts require. Unfortunately the letter they need is in a clock in a museum in New York City which is inaccessible. In a madcap finale, the clock is obtained with the help of the psychiatrist, the letter retrieved, and the curse lifted so that Horatio and Melody can finally go to heaven where their loved ones await them. Unfortunately for Horatio, there is a snag and he will have to wait a little longer.
In addition to the slapstick typical of A&C comedies, there are several clever lines and exchanges between the other characters most notably Binnie Barnes as a wisecracking friend and Gale Sondergaard as a spooky housekeeper. Costello and Marjorie Reynolds have great chemistry together and Abbott makes the most of his double role. The special effects, though modest , are still very effective and are cleverly worked into the supernatural proceedings adding to the humor and at 82 minutes, the length of the movie is just right. Advertised as “Something New From Bud & Lou”, THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES (a play on the Oscar winning THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES) was not a success so A&C went back to their tried and true formula as a team.
The Capsule Critic 