Perfect cast and a good story

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

With its 5 hillbilly songs sung by Dorothy Shay, this is definitely a musical comedy in the mold of "Buck Privates", rather than a straight comedy. Dorothy made an early career out of singing hillbilly songs in urban settings. This was her only movie, where she held her own as an actress. True, about every stereotypical aspect of Appalachian mountain folk is played up. I think that's good for a comedy about these people. In contrast to most reviewers, I found this adequately humorous for a A&C comedy, especially for kids, as usual. I do agree that about 3 songs, rather than 5, would have been better. I did find the lyrics unusually good.The boys begin as an inept magic show, following Dorothy's singing. Dorothy was raised as a backwoods McCoy, and figures out that Lou's grandfather was 'Squeeze-box' McCoy, who left a fortune in gold in a secret place. She suggests she accompany A&C to their community and try to find out more information about where this treasure might be found. Lou puts on his skunkskin cap and the 3 arrive at the family settlement. Turns out the McCoys sometimes have arguments or physical contests with the neighbor Winfields.At the carnival, Lou gets a facefull of blackberry pie, then a facefull of mustard that squirted out of a hotdog bun. He finds out that Matt, a 14y.o. girl, often treated like a boy, has a crush on him.The crazy McCoys choose Lou to represent them at the annual turkey shoot, Lou never having fired a gun. Matt fires from behind a tree next to Lou at the same time he fires. Her multiple shots hit the target, severing the tree and causing it to catch fire. Lou's declared the winner: the first time in 30 years a McCoy has outshot a Winfield. Granny doesn't take kindly to people referring to her as 'an old lady'. She takes out her revolver and shoots the pipe out of their mouth or whatever. This becomes a running gag.Granny says it's time for Lou to marry. He chooses Dorothy, but she prefers Clark Winfield. Besides, Granny says he doesn't get to choose a wife. The family as a whole chooses one for him. They chose Matt, who is agreeable. But Lou doesn't think she is appropriate. The boys do their routine where Abbott supposes there is a 40y.o. man in love with a 10y.o. girl, Should he wait until she's 30 and he's 60 before marrying her? He'd only be twice her age then, etc.. This routine was previously done in "Buck Privates". Granny suggests Lou go to see reclusive Aunt Huddy(Margaret Hamilton) about making up a love potion to give to Dorothy to make her change her mind about Lou. Huddy looks like a witchy old hag, rather similar to Margaret's getup for "The Wizard of Oz". She makes a voodoo doll in the likeness of Lou, and he reciprocates. They stab the doll in the derriere, and feel it in their buttocks. Lou finds Huddy's magic broom, which even has a windshield wiper on it! He gets on , presses one area, and zooms out the window into a tree. Meanwhile, Huddy does make the desired potion. Lou tricks Dorothy into taking some, and she immediately gets romantic with Lou. Unfortunately, it soon wears off. Lou takes some and gets romantic with Matt, then Matt takes some and gets romantic with Abbott! Eventually, a double wedding is arranged, with Dorothy marrying Clark, and Matt marrying Lou. However, there is still some lingering uncertainty about the desired pairings. A Winfield discovers that a Winfield is about to marry a McCoy, and gets riled up. In the commotion, the buggy Dorothy and Clark are in takes off with them still unmarried. Devil Dan Winfield goes after the boys. Lou says if he kills them he will get 'the chair'. Just then, Matt hits him over the head and back with a chair. A bullet knocks a hole in the jug of potion above Devil Dan's head, and drips on his face. He tastes some of it and gets friendly with Lou. Devil Dan agrees to take them to the mine where Matt says the treasure is hidden, having overheard granny. Some other Winfields show up at the mine, so the boys get on one of the counterbalanced lifts and descend. The Winfields get on the other lift, and the boys go up while they go down. The boys put some heavy rocks on their lift, then tell the Winfields to get off their lift. As a result, they rocket down with such force that they go through the bottom of the floor, and guess what they find. I will let you see the last bit.There, doesn't it sound like much more than just the witch scene, which many reviewers overemphasized?

I almost feel ashamed of myself to admit that I liked this ultra-lowbrow comedy starring Abbott and Costello. The humor sure isn't sophisticated and the film almost made me cringe at times, but I did enjoy it. Perhaps I am losing my mind.The film begins with Dorothy Shay singing some hillbilly-type songs. What made this weird is that this was in a fancy club in the big city and her accompaniment was a normal orchestra. As for the songs, she sang way too often in this film but I was also surprised that I actually did like most of the songs, as the lyrics were very funny. But, a little sure went a long way! Shay soon learns that Lou is her long lost cousin. Lou had no idea that he was from hillbilly stock and agrees to accompany her to Kentucky to meet all the kinfolk he didn't know he had. Unfortunately, he walks into the middle of a century-old feud as well! What comes next is pretty much every stereotype of hill people you can imagine--pigs in the bedroom, marryin' 12-14 year-olds, shootin', chawin', drinkin' and whatnot. While I did laugh at some of the antics, I also realized that there are some folks out there that cringe at this sort of thing--especially people in the Appalaccian region of the United States (like my in-laws!). Funny...but also very tacky and like the worst and most stereotypical episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies".Additionally, some of these stereotypes got very, very creepy. Lou's new kin think he should be married and some of them want him to marry his cousin who is practically an old maid--"she's pert near 14!!". The idea of this middle-aged man with a young teenager is just nasty. The only things that save this is that the girl sure doesn't look like she's 13--she could pass for twice that. The other thing in its favor is that this relationship is never consummated. Ewwwww!! However, despite these shortcomings, the whole movie is goofy fun and it tries really hard to entertain. Plus, for once, it's nice to see Bud and Lou completely out of their element and doing something different. Not a great film but certainly one worth seeing--especially for the funny surprise ending.

The feud is on between the Wingfields and the McCoys when Bud Abbott discovers his clients, hopeless magician Lou Costello and the Park Avenue hillbilly Dorothy Shay are both McCoys and Costello's inherited concertina holds the secret to a treasure of hidden gold. So off they go to the Appalachins where Costello's arrival sets off the feud that had pretty much died down.Bud and Lou get themselves a good supporting cast with a group of players used to rustic roles. I'm wondering how the folks at Universal missed getting Judy Canova and Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride in this film. Lou's best scene involves him haggling with a hag played by Margaret Hamilton in her wicked witch makeup over some love potion with each making a voodoo doll of the other to poke holes in.Dorothy Shay was just about at the end of her peak of popularity which started post World War II. She was a singer with a warm contralto who decided to play up her southern roots. Dorothy made a whole lot of hillbilly ditties popular back in those days and her big hit song, Feudin' a Fussin' and a Fightin' was still selling good in 1951 when Comin' Round the Mountain came out. I have it and also a vinyl record of a Bing Crosby radio show where she sang that song as a trio number with herself, Bing, and Groucho Marx. She did what very few did in Abbott and Costello pictures, hold her own with the boys and not get lost in the supporting cast.It's not the best of their films, but still enjoyable and just wait till you see the treasure that they do find.

The Hatfield/McCoy feud is legendary in history, and films have either spoofed it or filmed it seriously. There was the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy "Kentucky Kernels" in 1934, and then the Rod Steiger/Lee Marvin film of 1974. In between was this Abbott and Costello comedy which is not as well known as some of their other vehicles, but is definately worth a look.The opening of the film shows Lou as an untalented magician trying (rather unsuccessully) to do a Houdini routine. With his manager Bud,Lou meets a distant cousin (singer Dorothy Shay) who recognizes Lou's yell as a hereditary trait of the McCoy clan. Taking Bud and Lou into the backwoods (presumably Kentucky or nearby), the trio encounters their family (lead by character actress Ida Moore). The McCoys have been feuding for years with the local Winfield family. Granny Moore wants Lou to marry Shay, who already has a beau (Kirby Grant). Bud and Lou then go to visit a local mountain witch (Margaret Hamilton, the witch from "The Wizard of Oz") who gives them a love potion after a hysterical sequence where Costello and Hamilton make clay voodoo dolls of each other, and continuously poke them with pins. Hamilton, made up to look more like a hag than a witch, is hysterical in her five minutes on screen. She shrieks and laughs, giving no doubt that underneath that ugly makeup is the wicked witch of the west. This leads to a hysterical conclusion where the potion ends up in all the wrong glasses."Comin' Round the Mountain" came towards the end of the team's successful years; they were slowly being replaced by the younger Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, but were still giving it their all. There are few of the plot-diverting routines of their earlier films, making this faster moving and more entertaining than some of their other films. As usual (with the exception of Hamilton and Ida Moore), the supporting cast is upstaged by the boys. Dorothy Shay isn't all bad, but lacks the screen presence of some of the female comics they worked with in their earlier films.Available on video (but one I have not found easily for rent), "Comin' Round the Mountain" may be pure corn, but its a great time filler for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.