Having just watched Stan Laurel go to a haunted house in order to get his inheritance in The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case, I then felt the need to see Lou Costello also try to get his share in Comin' Round the Mountain. Here, he finds out he's a descendant of "Squeezebox" McCoy and a cousin to singer Dorothy McCoy (Dorothy Shay). Their agent Al (Bud Abbott) agrees to go with them to Dorothy's homestead where we meet her hillbilly family. During this period, Bud & Lou's studio, Universal-International, was also making money with a series of Ma and Pa Kettle movies which also had that down home humor represented here. So, yes, we get treated to a shooting contest, a man's engagement to a young teen girl, and a family feud. As stereotypical as some of the characters are, they seem harmless enough. Among the supporting cast, Joe Sawyer-previously in The Naughty Nineties with A & C-provides some amusement, Glenn Strange-who was the Frankenstein monster in A & C Meet Frankenstein-gets some laughs every time he shouts Costello's character's name "Wilbert!", and Margaret Hamilton-best known as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz-is hilarious every time she and Lou stick pins in each other's voodoo dolls! Oh, and I also liked seeing Lou's brother-in-law Joe Kirk as a hot dog vendor at the county fair trying to sell Costello a hot dog. If you remember Bud & Lou's "Mustard" routine in One Night in the Tropics, you'll get some of Lou's reactions concerning hot dogs and mustard! This was another funny A & C flick especially the surprise ending. So that's a recommendation of Comin' Round the Mountain. So now my next review will be the silent Laurel & Hardy short From Soup to Nuts.
