When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

When famous criminal lawyer Amos Strickland (Nicholas Joy) turns up dead at Crandall's Lost Caverns Hotel, bumbling busboy Freddie Phillips (Lou Costello) finds himself chief suspect, having earlier threatened the victim for getting him sacked. With the help of hotel detective Casey Edwards (Bud Abbott), Freddie tries to prove his innocence, but finds himself getting even deeper in trouble, dead bodies turning up wherever he goes.Comedy duo Abbott and Costello go through their usual broad comedy routine, Bud playing straight man to foolish funny man Lou. If you like their schtick, you'll probably have a whale of a time with this caper, but I found it all a bit repetitive, much of the humour revolving around the dead bodies repeatedly turning up in unexpected places, with Costello struggling to remain calm. Amusing the first time, perhaps, but wearing extremely thin after an hour of the same thing over and over again.A change of scenery for the final act is very welcome, as Costello goes to the Lost Caverns to meet the killer (who is keen to get his hands on a vital piece of evidence), but it doesn't make up for the monotony of what has gone before. It says a lot that Universal horror star Boris Karloff, as a sinister swami, is funnier than the leading men, uttering the best line of the whole film with a marvellous deadpan delivery: "You're going to commit suicide if it's the last thing you do".

Despite the title of the movie, Boris Karloff isn't in it much. He's fun when he is, though. He was the one thing missing in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, so it's nice that the boys could finally do a movie with him. The story here finds the duo working at a hotel. Abbott's the hotel detective and Costello's a bellboy who keeps getting into trouble. Suddenly dead bodies are popping up all over the hotel and all clues point to poor dumb Lou. Very funny comedy murder mystery. Lou seems to be having a great time in this one. Nice support from Alan Mowbray, James Flavin, Roland Winters, and Lenore Aubert. More Karloff would've been nice but the movie succeeds anyway.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER (Universal-International, 1949), directed by Charles T. Barton, finds the comedy team spoofing the "film noir" genre made popular through much of the 1940s. Having already worked in a spook comedy, HOLD THAT GHOST (1941), and a non-stop murder mystery, WHO DONE IT? (1942), this edition borrows heavily on their recent comedy thriller, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948), but not to the same results. Acquiring both the same underscoring and co-star, Lenore Aubert, this time around, Boris Karloff, originator of the Frankenstein monster and its two sequels from the 1930s, becomes an added attraction among its co-stars. Even though the complete title is often labeled, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER, BORIS KARLOFF, Karloff's name, which forms together through drips of blood on the screen far beyond the title, cannot really be regarded as part of that title, at least in my point of view. Regardless of the setup, Karloff, looking more sinister than usual, does get his first of two opportunities in an Abbott and Costello comedy, where his scenes, mostly with Costello, come ever so briefly.In true horror-like fashion, the story starts off in the dark of night during a heavy thunderstorm. Amos Strickland (Nicholas Joy), a temperamental criminal lawyer with lots of enemies registers in the secluded Crandall's Lost Tavern Hotel where he is to write his memoirs. He encounters Casey Edwards (Bud Abbott), a hotel detective, and his cousin, Freddie Phillips (Lou Costello), a bumbling bellboy at the front desk. Due to Freddie's extreme carelessness in handling his baggage, Strickland orders Mr. Melton (Alan Mowbray), the hotel manager, to have him fired. Before leaving, Freddie threatens Strickland. Later that night, Freddie, hoping to get his job back by apologizing, enters Strickland's room to find he's been murdered. Although innocent, all the evidence points to Freddie. Inspector Wellman (James Flavin) and Sergeant Stone (Mikel Conrad) are called to the case. Also registered in the hotel are an assortment mysterious types: Swani Talpur (Boris Karloff), a hypnotist; Angela Gordon (Lenore Aubert), T. Hanley Brooks (Roland Winters), Mrs. Hargreave (Victoria Horne), Mike Relia (Vincent Renno), Mrs. Grimsby (Claire DuBrey) and Lawrence Crandall (Harry Hayden), all former clients of Strickland. With Casey and Freddie tangling an assortment of dead bodies individually placed and displaced in their room, one of them being Milford (Morgan Farley), Strickland's secretary, Freddie also finds his life being threatened by a mysterious figure who'd go through great lengths to retrieve that once piece of evidence, a blood-stained handkerchief Freddie found near Strickland's body. Also in the cast are Gar Moore as Jeff Wilson, the desk clerk; and Donna Martell as Betty, Lawrence Crandall's niece. Their roles are limited and of minor importance. With such an interesting premise, and perfect casting of Abbott as the cigar smoking detective and Costello the accident prone bellboy, this should have developed into a great comedy mystery. Somewhere along the way, it misses the mark. Moments of "black comedy" may have had something to do with it. Two disturbing sequences could be the other, the first having Freddie coming to the boiling point while locked inside the steam cabinet; the other where a masked figure lures Freddie into an underground cavern where he ends up stuck from his waist in a hole a few feet below leveled ground and the bottomless pit below as gushes of water rushes over his head ("a fine way to end up, a drain plug," he quips). Of these two, the steam room sequence was one that seldom made it to commercial television prior to the cable TV era of the 1980s. Not so much for its intensity but mainly to fit in more commercial breaks in a 90 minute time slot for this 84 minute film. The tavern cave sequence, lasting 12 minutes, is creepy and well done. A true departure from the usual Abbott and Costello climaxes where suspense overrules comedy. Further moments of "black humor" occur as Karloff's turban wearing Swami attempting to have Freddie commit suicide through hypnotism; and Aubert's Angela, a reputed husband killer, tricking Freddie into signing a murderous confession by getting him drunk on what might possibly be poisoned cocktail.While the first portion of the film has its share of laugh-out-loud scenes, the second half disappoints as Costello's character becomes sillier, straining for laughs. While there's limited Abbott and Costello exchanges, a great many of them involving Costello fall onto others instead. One funny line, "We don't permit murders in this hotel!" sounds more like Abbott but goes to Alan Mowbray. The "culprit is the murderer" routine comes between Costello and Lenore Aubert. Though Abbott doesn't participate in any of the hair raising scenes, he does take part in Costello's case of the missing and reappearing corpses. The set up booby traps and Costello disguised as a chambermaid and being flirted by character-type Abernathy (Percy Helton) are amusing enough for an honorable mention here.As with all Abbott and Costello comedies, MEET THE KILLER has become available on both video and DVD. Cable television broadcasts have been limited, ranging from the Comedy Channel (late 1980s) and American Movie Classics (2001-02). Whether Karloff plays the killer or not is not so much the issue here, but how the killer's identity remains a well keep secret throughout is. (** daggers)

When people stop breathing all over a resort hotel managed by Alan Mowbray, the place could get a bad reputation. As if its reputation wasn't bad enough with the help they hire there, mainly Abbott&Costello.Bud's the house detective and Lou's a bellboy. When he breaks incoming guest Nicholas Joy's glasses and generally makes a mess of things, Joy vows to get him fired. People are always doing that to Costello, but later Joy is the first one who winds up dead.Joy was a high powered criminal defense attorney and as it happens in all these murder mysteries there's a hotel full of suspects who might have a better motive and more upstairs to plan things better than the hapless Lou. But Lou being the patsy he always is gets the attention of police detective James Flavin. Costello being the klutz he is and getting Flavin's hair, Flavin might just want to arrest him on general principles.One of those suspects is Boris Karloff. He plays a Middle Eastern hypnotist and swami from Brooklyn and the one bad thing in the story is how he tries to frame Lou and have him commit suicide as well. If he's not the guilty party which he isn't, than why do it?I really did like the cavern set where Lou has an extended scene with the masked murderer who is trying to get a tell tale clue from Costello. There's even a red herring sent up that Abbott might be the murderer, but who in the world would believe that?A lot of this ground is covered before and better in their film Who Done It where the boys are also amateur sleuths and interfering in the police investigation. Still Abbott and Costello Meet The Killer, Boris Karloff is not a bad one for the guys.