Easily one of my favorite Abbott and Costello films, Who Done It? finds the boys working behind the lunch counter at a radio station hoping to eventually work their way up to becoming writers for the station. When the President of the station is murdered during a live broadcast, the boys step up to solve the case assuming that if they do they can get the job of their dreams. Of course, they get into more trouble than ever and hilarity ensues with some great bits (including the improvised Watts-Volts bit that gets self-referential by mentioning a line from Who's On First?), some great supporting characters (like Mary Wickes) and no musical numbers (a first for an Abbott and Costello movie) as the boys try to solve the case and evade the police and others. The film is flat out funny from start to finish.
The boys are in top form here and this is easily one of their best films. Sure there are recycled plot points, gags, jokes and set pieces but they are all done perfectly and feel as if they had never been done before (right down to the murder mystery in a radio station plot which still is a great concept even if it's been done to death). There is nothing extraneous here (although the Costello & Mary Wickes romance doesn't get as developed as much as one would like) and the film moves at a frantic pace. If you had to pick one Abbott and Costello movie to see if you've never seen one, this would be a good one to start with (there are others that fall into this category as well).
Who Done It? has been released on VHS, LaserDisc (in the Abbott and Costello Comedy Collection Box Set) and twice on DVD; first in The Best of Abbott & Costello Volume One and then as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection. The DVDs feature the trailer and an entertaining/informative audio commentary from Frank Conniff (yes...TV's Frank from Mystery Science Theater 3000).
Next Up: It Ain't Hay.
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