I finally got to see the one appearance of Bud Abbott without Lou Costello in this GE Theater production, The Jokes On Me. Bud co-stars with Lee Marvin and Mala Powers. Lee and Mala play an obnoxious comedian and his long suffering wife who is finally divorcing him. But not after a last minute ploy where she arranges for him to adopt a war orphan in Europe, though I would think by 1961 that was getting to be old hat.
Abbott plays Marvin's manager who acts as a referee between the battling couple, but when he can't squelch the orphan adoption and the attending publicity which compromises Marvin's cynical image he gets fired. After that Marvin and Powers have to work things out if they can.
Abbott turned in a fine performance and I'm thinking it was health issues that kept him from doing more like this. Which makes it doubly sad because God knows he needed the money after the IRS went after both him and Lou. Maybe also Bud did not want to wind up simply working to pay the IRS the rest of his life.
He got deservedly good reviews and Marvin and Powers are also fine in this nice and tight show business tale.
Abbott plays Marvin's manager who acts as a referee between the battling couple, but when he can't squelch the orphan adoption and the attending publicity which compromises Marvin's cynical image he gets fired. After that Marvin and Powers have to work things out if they can.
Abbott turned in a fine performance and I'm thinking it was health issues that kept him from doing more like this. Which makes it doubly sad because God knows he needed the money after the IRS went after both him and Lou. Maybe also Bud did not want to wind up simply working to pay the IRS the rest of his life.
He got deservedly good reviews and Marvin and Powers are also fine in this nice and tight show business tale.
