Fireman Save My Child

Originally, "Fireman Save My Child" was intended as an Abbott & Costello film. However, Lou Costello was apparently too ill to do the movie and instead Universal rewrote the film to star Buddy Hackett and Hugh O'Brian....as well as Spike Jones and his band.

The story is set around 1910 and is set at a firehouse featuring a VERY odd group of firemen. While their jobs are supposed to be all about putting out fires, they seem to spend most of their time playing goofy music. Into this bizarro firehouse come Smitty and Smokey (O'Brian and Hackett). Smokey wants to be a fireman to test out his latest fire prevention invention but he's so darn dumb and clumsy, the invention seems to have been forgotten for most of the movie. Can Smitty keep Smokey out of trouble and make a real fire fighter out of him?

Compared to other Abbott & Costello films, this one far more slapsticky...with more pratfalls, goofy action scenes and the like. I personally think a few LESS would have helped the story as they were pretty cheap laughs and we often used instead of plot. The same could be said of Spike Jones and his City Slickers. While their songs were weird fun, they also seemed to take the place of plot. As an adult, I sure noticed this. If I'd seen it as a kid...well, I probably would have loved it! As an adult, I really found it tough to enjoy...though occasionally a real laugh snuck into the film.

By the way, if you watch the movie, pay attention in some of the shots. A few were actually filmed with Lou Costello and a few times it actually is him in distant shots instead of Hackett.