The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947)

The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap: Directed by Charles Barton. With Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marjorie Main, Audrey Young. Chester Wooley (Lou Costello) and Duke Egan (Bud Abbott) are traveling salesmen who make a stopover in Wagon Gap, Montana en route to California. During the stopover, notorious criminal Fred Hawkins is murdered and the two are charged with the crime. They are quickly tried, convicted, and sentenced to die by hanging. The head of the local citizens’ committee, Jim Simpson (William Ching), recalls a law whereby the survivor of a gun duel must take responsibility for the deceased’s debts and family. The law spares the two from execution, but Chester is now responsible for the widow Hawkins (Marjorie Main) and her seven children. They go to her farm, where she works Chester from dawn to dusk, and at night he must work at the saloon to repay Hawkins’ debt to its owner, Jake Frame (Gordon Jones). Her plan is to wear Chester down until he agrees to marry her. Chester quickly learns that no one will harm him, for fear that they will need to support Mrs. Hawkins and her family. Simpson makes Chester the sheriff hoping that fear of him will help clean up the lawless town. For protection, Chester carries around a photograph of Mrs. Hawkins and her kids. The approach works for a while, and Chester is heralded as a hero. Meanwhile, Duke still plans to go to California and tries to get Judge Benbow (George Cleveland) to marry Mrs. Hawkins to free him and Chester from their obligations. He starts a rumor that Mrs. Hawkins is about to become rich once the railroad buys her land to lay tracks. The rumor spreads quickly, and everyone tries to kill Chester hoping to marry Mrs. Hawkins(and share, or manage, her expected fortune). Frame eventually confesses to Hawkins’ murder; Duke and Chester are cleared and allowed to leave town, but not before they admit that they fabricated the railroad rumor. Benbow still wants to marry Mrs. Hawkins, and she agrees. She then announces that the railroad actually did offer her substantial money, and she is now wealthy.

“When travelling salesmen Duke and Chester are found guilty of a murder they did not commit, they face a choice between hanging or being responsible for picking up all the dead manu0026#39;s debts and responsibilities. Of course they pick the latter but they didnu0026#39;t reckon for the size of the dead manu0026#39;s family or the veracity of his widow. This is the setup for the film and, having seen a lot of u0026quot;formulau0026quot; Abbott u0026amp; Costello recently (the u0026quot;leadu0026quot; cast have a romantic plot of sorts while Au0026amp;C do the comedy parts) I was interested to see a film where they were the main players for all of it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe result was actually one of their stronger films as the comedy is well mixed with the plot (such as it is). This means we donu0026#39;t have the usual reliance on wooden actors to keep the plot moving or musical numbers to fill the time out (both normal devices in these films). The laughs come from pratfalls, double-takes and clever dialogue and I must confess I was surprised by how easy the film was to enjoy. The plot is not that great but at least it is consistently moving without the stuttering effect that the other formula would often produce (wooden scene followed by funny scene) and it has much more of a flow to it than some of their films. Both Abbott and Costello are on good form and working well together but the real bonus is the casting of Main, who, from the tagline, must have been well known at the time (I know she is Ma Kettle – I just have no idea of those films whatsoever). She is great fun and she works very well with Costello in particular. The support cast are solid as they allow the stars to play off their support and generally everyone does what one would expect from them.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor some reason I had low expectations for this film (perhaps the title and that Iu0026#39;d never heard of it) but the reality was that it was a very enjoyable film from Abbott and Costello. By having them in the front of the plot the stuttering is gone and the film flows much better than some of theirs, while the laughs are fairly frequent and come from a range of types of humour. Definitely one fans will enjoy but also good enough for the casual viewer.”