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Time of their Lives
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Also Known As:
The Ghost Steps Out (1946)
Directed by Charles Barton * Writers Val Burton Walter DeLeon
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The Cast:
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Bud Abbott .... Cuthbert/Dr. Greenway
Marjorie Reynolds .... Melody Allen
Lou Costello .... Horatio Prim
John Shelton (I) .... Sheldon Gage
Binnie Barnes .... Mildred Prescott
Gale Sondergaard .... Emily
Lynn Baggett .... June Prescott
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Jess Barker .... Tom Danbury
Ann Gillis (I) .... Nora Leary
Donald MacBride .... Lieutenant Mason
William Hall (I) .... Connors
Robert Barrat .... Major Putnam
Rex Lease .... Sergeant Makepeace
Kirk Alyn .... Dandy
Vernon Downing .... Leigh
Marjorie Eaton .... Bessie
Selmer Jackson .... Curator
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1780: Treachery as Victory Nears
Time of Their Lives opens in 1780 with the Rebels confidentally looking forward to ultimate success. Behind the scenes Tom Danbury (Jess Parker) the master of the manor is plotting to subvert the Revolution.
When Melody Allen (Majorie Randolph) Danbury's fiancee, the future mistress of the great estate discovers the treason, Melody enlists Horatio Prim, a faithful tinker (Lou Costello), who can gain access to George Washington. Though a letter of recommendation from Washington to the tinker been stolen by the snide Cuthbert (Bud Abbot), Melody and Horatio Prim the Tinker set off to report Master Danbury.
Accidentally, the aristocratic Melody and the commoner Horatio are cut down by friendly fire and damned to roam the grounds of the manor for eternity.
Redemption From Damnation
Their chance to escape eternal damnation comes almost 150 years later, the new master of the manor falls into a spell of melancholia and is treated by a psychiatrist Dr Greenway (Bud Abbot) a great-grandson of Cuthbert, a soft, indecisive bumbling look a like for his snide ancestor. As the haunting proceeds Dr Greenway (Bud Abbot), the descendant of Prim's rival Cuthbert, accuses the unseen ghosts of being "out to get him." Meanwhile the 18th century ghosts confronted with modernity attribute all the marvels of the Twentieth Century to the genius of Ben Franklin. After all Dr Franklin "was always
inventing things." Eventually, all of the quick accept a seance as the only cure for the strange rumblings around the manor. The letter from Geroge Washington is recovered in a hidden compartment in a clock along with Tom Danbury's 150-year-old confession.
The Silver Path to Heaven
Melody is carried to heaven on a silver ray of light, while St. Pete goes fishing and leaves the Tinker at the gate.
Cultural Impact
The film certainly is not history, even if it is unique for Abbot and Costello: no trademarked jokes, Abbot in character as Cuthbert and out of his type cast playing the namly-pam, indecisive psychiatrist Dr Greenway, and indeed little interchange between Abbot and Costello at all. Though there are funny scenes, the film is more of a fantasy or a gentle ghost story than a comedy.
As a ghost story about the Revolution it was not without literary precedent among the legends of the Hudson River Valley or the old Long Island towns. As a fantasy, it was superbly acted and staged.
The film is remarkable as part of the culture of the Revolution for its exposition of common American Beliefs and misbeliefs. The Tories were rich, smooth and treacherously duplicit. Old family lines may be founded by the cunning and the shrewd, but the blood wears thin and eventually flows into the inadequate. In the long run "Everyman" will triumph over evil even if it takes 150 years.
It is certainly a pleasant film to watch even if what followed was not pleasant for the two greats of American comedy.
Aftermath of the Film
At the time, Time of Their Lives was filmed, Abbot and Costello verged on a split up. As unpleasant as the circumstances were between the two giants as filming proceeded with Times of Their Lives, each actor might have matured into separate careers in dramatic film. Unfortunately, the tragic death of Lou Costello's infant son in a pool accident impeded the rupture. Abbot stood by his partner throughout Lou's personal crisis.
The team had a hit tv show in 1952, but in the movies, Abbot and Costello played together in B films which spoofed popular horror and monster movies. The glory days were over.
Costello took to gambling; Abbot, the bottle. The IRS took them both "to the cleaners."
After the audit wrecked the team, Costello briefly tested more dramatic roles, before his death in 1957 of heart failure. Costello who had begun in the early 1950s to dabble in Republican politics died without fulfilling his dream of scripting and playing the serious story of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, the first Italian-American mayor of a major US city.
Abbot faded into obscurity until his death in 1974 revived interest in the pair.
Some have tried to read a wider political theme into Time of Their Lives, putting away the ghosts of the past and getting on with the new modern age. However, other than the attempt to launch Lou Costello out of comedy and into more serious roles, the movie lacks a serious underlying message. Even without a serious undertone, Time of Their Lives remains a superior film.
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