AaronCapenBanner Abbott & Costello play two bumbling plumbers who are accidentally invited to a ritzy country club after being hired to do some emergency plumbing work by a wealthy man(and making a mess of things in the process). This gets them mistakenly invited to a ritzy country club, where they get into more trouble. Also there is woman taxi driver Elsie Hammerdingle(played by Marion Hutton) who begins a romance with a rich man, who doesn't know her true identity. Underrated comedy from the team has a most appealing performance from Miss Hutton, and some very funny moments: the best of which is the Bagel Street sketch, the single funniest scene I have ever seen in a film! Ending and some songs are weak, but otherwise most enjoyable.

bkoganbing Years ago Alan King had a great line about plumbers that it was indeed a noble profession and should be celebrated the way astronauts are. Without plumbers King reasoned, we'd all be astronauts. But when you hire Abbott&Costello as plumbers you'd better be checked out in a space suit.Bumbling plumbers Bud and Lou after wrecking the home of Thurston Hall and Nella Walker get invited to a big society bash when they get that instead of a threatening letter from Walker. When they went to that job they got a lift from their friend, Rosie the Riveteer cab driver Marion Hutton who was mistaken for a society girl in costume by Kirby Grant who was similarly attired. So begins Marion's Cinderella like odyssey.In fact Marion and Kirby are given a great deal more screen footage than you would normally expect in an Abbott&Costello feature. I'm guessing that Universal was trying to turn Hutton into a big film star the way Paramount was doing with her older sister Betty. Marion was a lighter and sweeter version of Betty, maybe if she had a more distinct personality of her own she might have had a film career. In any event she was more interested in singing than acting. She got a couple of really good songs to sing, No Bout Adoubt It is in the style of her sister. And one of the big song hits of 1944 was introduced by Marion with My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time. Television's future Sky King also has a fine number with What A Change In The Weather. This should prove a pleasant surprise to his fans who probably didn't know Kirby Grant started as a singer.But Bud and Lou get their innings as well here as they make an ungodly mess of Thurston Hall's lovely home. And they do one of burlesque's celebrated routines, the famous Susquehanna Hat Company on Beagle Street. Who could possibly believe that such horrific events in people's lives could have happened on that street or been connected with that hat company?The last chase sequence as society crook Thomas Gomez tries to steal a valuable painting on the fire engine is re-edited from W.C. Fields's Never Give A Sucker An Even Break. You'll recognize it of course if you are a fan of Fields, but it is certainly edited nicely into In Society. This is one of the best A&C films from their early Universal period, a must for their still growing legion of fans.

MartinHafer Although Abbott and Costello were very popular in 1944, surprisingly, Universal Pictures still insisted on placing musical numbers in their films--an odd convention of the time and something that wouldn't be abandoned for another couple years. As I said, this is odd because people came to see Abbott and Costello and comedy--not production numbers and singing. Fortunately, this one has less singing than most but it still is the same old formula.In this film, Abbott and Costello are idiot plumbers. One day, they are called to fix the plumbing at a mansion where there is a big society party. They make a mess of it but somehow are invited to the next party as guests! The two, in particular Lou, make a mess of things as they hang with the gentry. In addition to the silliness, there is a subplot involving a friend of theirs (a pretty young cab driver) who is also mistaken for a society lady, though this plot is 100% unnecessary and seems to have been added because the studio STILL couldn't trust an entire film to rest on the shoulders of Abbott and Costello--an odd thing, as they were the hottest thing in Hollywood at the time. Such romantic subplots are the norm for the early Universal films that the team made.In addition to all this, a crook tries to insinuate himself into the party. He also tries to get the boys to help him with his scheme to steal a painting, though naturally they refuse and help to thwart his wicked plan. However, the final big fight scene is exceptionally lame--the result of using an obvious rear-projected film to hide that it was all done on the set. This "clever" ruse was in fact pretty sad at times.There is also an old vaudeville skit in the film that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the film. It's about taking a load of hats to Bagel Street and the Susquehanna Hat Company. The Three Stooges later did the same routine and I suspect many have done it over the years (including Lou for the "Abbott and Costello Show" on television). This version seems to be the best and although it's pretty stupid, you can't help but laugh! Overall, it's a mixed bag--a lot of laughs AND some stupid singing and low points as well. Worth seeing for Abbott and Costello fans but skipable for most others.

Michael A&C as plumbers - cue a 100-or-so cross-talk routines, trouble with pipes and a plethora of vulgar noises, before the duo somehow becomes embroiled in a high-society art theft. Naturally they save the day, but not without ruining the substantive part of it first.This particular A&C film is often much funnier than most, but it nevertheless remains as unbearably noisy, frenetic and annoying as any similar 'Three Stooges' short spun out to feature-length would have been.Rather more insultingly, a lot of the footage is lifted from WC Fields' 'Never Give A Sucker An Even Break'.