Who Done It? (1942)

From 1940 to 1956, the comedy team of Abbott and Costello made 36 movies together. In that sixteen year span they made one genuine classic (Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein), some very good comedies (Hold That Ghost, Pardon My Sarong,The Time of Their Lives, Who Done It?, Buck Privates), and a few forgettable movies (Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Mexican Hayride, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff). However, it says a lot about their appeal that even their lesser movies are constantly amusing, if not particularly funny (I have a soft spot for Abbott & Costello Go to Mars). 

Who Done It? was the fourth (and last) movie Abbott and Costello made in 1942 and it is easily one of their better movies. It benefits greatly from a fine supporting cast (particularly William Bendix as a dimwitted detective and Mary Wickes as a lanky secretary) and some top notch direction by Erle C. Kenton – a gifted studio director whose best known for the horror classic Island of Lost Souls. Kenton keeps things moving at a swift pace and effectively builds tension by clouding the frame in shadows - the killer lurks about in the dark and there's always a sense that he could strike at any minute. 

I think one of the main reasons Abbott and Costello connected with World War II audiences was that they exemplified the every man; neither of them were particularly glamorous and they often began their movies working at a rather thankless job – in Who Done It?  they are a pair of soda jerks, Chick and Mervin, who work next in a drug store inside the local radio station; their true aspiration in life is to write radio mysteries.  When they learn that one of their customers, Juliet, is the secretary of Colonel Andrews, the executive director of the General Broadcasting System, Chick urges Mervin to put the moves on her in the hopes that it will lead to work. Mervin, however, proves to be no Romeo, but, thankfully, they manage to befriend Jimmy, an aspiring writer who also happens to be romantically linked to “Murder at Midnight” producer, Jane Little.  Jimmy gives them tickets to the “Murder at Midnight” broadcast, and everything seems to be looking up until Col. Andrews is murdered.  Chick and Mervin decide to solve the mysteries themselves, rather than call the police, and are confident that it will give them the national exposure that they truly deserve. When the real police show up, they naturally become the top suspects in the murder investigation.  Fortunately, Lt. Moran and his sidekick, Detective Brannigan, are dumber than Chick and Mervin – in one of the movie’s funniest moments Mervin manages to trick Brannigan into handcuffing himself.

Abbott and Costello were often paired with fairly likable juvenile leads: Richard Carlson and Evelyn Ankers in Hold That Ghost; Robert Paige and Virginia Bruce in Pardon My Sarong; and Patrick Knowles and Louise Allbritton in Who Done It?  The romantic leads tended to be stumbling blocks in the movies of other comedians; most notably, Bonnie Scotland, starring Laurel and Hardy. In that movie, not only are two romantic leads, Alan and Lorna, superfluous to the actual story, but the leading actress, June Lang, never actually meets the boys. Hell, the movie doesn’t even bother to resolve the Alan/Lorna story line.  Who Done It? is a rare instance where I wish the two juveniles would have been given more screen time.  Patric Knowles was, essentially, the poor man’s Errol Flynn, but he had a likable, easy going charm about him. Louise Allbritton was not your typical 1940s leading lady - her characters were fairly strong willed and  often carried themselves in a professional manner. In Who Done It?, Jane, rather than being a helpless damsel in distress, is rather proactive in solving the murder mystery.  It’s also refreshing that she is never put in the position of having to choose between Jimmy and her career in radio. 

Yet, despite the title and the synopsis I have laid out, the mystery is secondary to the comedy and is even forgotten about at times; there is a long stretch devoted to Mervin trying to contact the radio station after learning he has won $10,000 dollars on the radio program “Wheel of Fortune.” Every time he dials the number to the station, the operator keeps telling him, “The line is busy.”  This leads to a rather cartoonish gag in which he sprays a bottle of seltzer water in the payphone mouthpiece and it comes spurting out of the mouth piece on the other end, squirting the poor woman in the face.  If your main focus is on the murder mystery, then this scene will absolutely frustrate you – it goes on for nearly five minutes. 

Abbott and Costello were extremely popular on the radio (and later television), so it's not surprising that many of the laughs come from the dialogue. Here are some of my favorite bits: 

Detective Brannigan: (talking to a boy usher) Don’t you know it’s against the law to impersonate an officer?
Usher:  Then how do you get away with it?

Chick: (while pretending to be a detective) You know if we find the hand that fits the glove, we find the murderer.
Mervin:  (trying on the glove) And it fits me perfect.

Chick: (while Mervin is trying to contact station to claim his $10,000 prize) I’m going over here to figure out how to spend your money.

Credits
Cast:  Bud Abbott (Chick), Lou Costello (Mervin), Patric Knowles (Jimmy), Louise Allbritton (Jane), William Gargan (Lt. Lou Moran), William Bendix (Detective Brannigan), Thomas Gomez (Col. J.R. Andrews), Mary Wickes (Juliet), Don Porter (Art), Jerome Cowan (Marco).

Director: Erle C. Kenton
Screenplay: Stanley Roberts, Edmund Joseph, John Grant.
Running Time:  77 min.