- Dance with Me Henry
Infobox Film
name = Dance with Me, Henry
caption = "Dance With Me, Henry" Theatrical Poster
director =Charles Barton
producer = Bob Goldstein
writer = Devery Freeman
starring =Bud Abbott Lou Costello Gigi Perreau Rusty Hamer Mary Wickes
music = Paul Dunlap
editing = Robert Golden
distributor =United Artists
released =December 14 , 1956 (U.S. release)
runtime = 80 min.
language = English
budget = $450,000
preceded_by = "Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy " (1955)
followed_by = "The World of Abbott and Costello " (1965)
imdb_id = 0049120"Dance with Me, Henry" is a 1956 film starring the comedy team of
Abbott and Costello . It is the final film that they would star in together, although Costello would go on to star in one more film before his death, "The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock ".Plot
Lou Henry (
Lou Costello ) is the owner of Kiddyland, an amusement park, and Bud Flick (Bud Abbott ) is his friend and partner. Together they share a home with two orphan children, Duffer (Rusty Hamer ) and Shelly (Gigi Perreau ). Welfare worker Miss Mayberry (Mary Wickes } does not think that their home is a suitable environment for the children and attempts to remove them. One of the reasons is that Bud is a gambler and owes $10,000 to Big Frank (Ted DeCorsia) who offers to forget the debt if Bud agrees to help launder $200,000 that Big Frank took from a Chicago bank. Bud agrees to meet Big Frank's man, Mushie (Richard Reeves ), at Kiddyland to pick up the money and a plane ticket. Lou, however, informs District Attorney Proctor (Robert Shayne ) of the plan and he shows up at Kiddyland during Bud and Mushie's meeting. Mushie sees the DA and hides the money just before he murders Proctor and frames Lou for it. Miss Mayberry uses Lou's arrest to take the children from his home.Bud informs Mushie that he knows that he really killed Proctor, and Mushie threatens to kill him. However Big Frank and Dutch (Paul Sorensen) kill Mushie. They kidnap Bud and demand that he tell them where the money is hidden. Meanwhile Lou is released by the police, with the intent that he will lead them to Bud. Dutch then kidnaps Lou and takes him to their hideout, where Bud is also being held. Bud lies and tells Big Frank that he knows where they money is and they all head to Kiddyland, with the police following them every step of the way. Bud then tricks Big Frank into confessing to everything while they are inside the park's recording booth, then Lou grabs the recording and escapes into the park. Bootsy and Duffer have also escaped from Miss Mayberry and are now inside the park playing when they see Lou being chased. They return to the orphanage to get help from the other children, and they all head back to Kiddyland. The children then wreak havoc in the park, foiling the gangsters at every turn. The police capture them, and the reward money that Bud and Lou receive is donated to the orphanage. Miss Mayberry, seeing what a good role model Lou really is, returns custody of the orphans to him.
Production
"Dance with Me Henry" was filmed from
May 23 throughJune 22 ,1956 and is the thirty-sixth, and last, film that Abbott and Costello made together as a team, as they ended their partnership in July, 1957.During filming, Abbott and Costello's routine,
Who's On First? was inducted into theNational Baseball Hall of Fame inCooperstown, NY , where a clip still runs continuously. [Furmanek, Bob and Ron Palumbo (1991). "Abbott and Costello in Hollywood". New York: Perigee Books. ISBN 0-399-51605-0]During their appearance on Ralph Edwards' "
This Is Your Life " onNBC , they mentioned the release of this film.DVD Release
References
* Stephen Cox and John Lofflin. "The Abbott and Costello Story". Cumberland House Publishing, 1997.
External links
*imdb title|id=0049120|name=Dance With Me, Henry
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
