December 5th, 2019 by Brandon Peters
One of Shout! Factory’s more impressive releases this holiday season is definitely the Abbott & Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection. This truly is an all-timer set, collecting 28 of the legendary comedy duos’ films. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello did 36 feature films altogether, so you’re getting pretty much everything here. Yes, that does mean if you’re a Classic Monsters fan, you’re getting Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein for the bazillionth time (As well as the other monster films for the ga-jillionth time). Given the enormity of this box set and the fact that we do things right over here at Why So Blu, it took a little while to plow through these 28 films and accompanying bonus material spread out over 15 discs. This review began by taking a disc-by-disc approach (2 Films each disc, Disc 15 is all bonus material). This final or “general” version of the review is here to collect links to all of the reviews for the 15 discs to have them in one place for easier navigation. If you enjoyed these reviews and are interested in picking up this set, please think about using our paid Amazon link below. Any time you do, it is very much appreciated.
Films
Here is a complete list of films featured in this set.
Complete List of Films
· Abbott and Costello Go to Mars
· Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion
· Abbott and Costello Lost in Alaska
· Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
· Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
· Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops
· Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff
· Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy
· Buck Privates
· Buck Privates Come Home
· Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man
· Comin’ Round the Mountain
· Here Come the Co-Eds
· Hit the Ice
· Hold that Ghost
· In Society
· In the Navy
· It Ain’t Hay
· Keep ‘Em Flying
· Little Giant
· Mexican Hayride
· One Night in the Tropics
· Pardon My Sarong
· Ride ‘Em Cowboy
· The Naughty Nineties
· The Time of Their Lives
· The Wistful Widow
· Who Done It?
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Video/Audio
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This time around, my film reviews were rather on the brief end, due to the enormity of the set. But the following are links to all of the reviews for the films/discs and their performances.
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Extras 
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Each disc contains at the very least an image gallery and production notes for each movie. There are many trailers and commentaries scatter throughout as well. As for the meatier, featurette based extras as well as packaging extras, they are found on disc 15 and covered in this review.
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Summary
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Shout! Factory’s Abbott and Costello set is an enormous bundle and impossible not to recommend to a hardcore fan. It doesn’t feature the world’s greatest batch of fresh new transfers, but most of these do more than get the job done. You gotta face it that they are very old films and the work to be done on them to full restore probably doesn’t warrant the cost for what the return sales would be. Regardless, the bonus disc impresses as well, making up where archival material there is not. Overall, if you’re wanting to spend the money on the set, you’re pretty much getting your money’s worth. And if you break the cost down by movie, you’re definitely getting it there.
Brandon is the host, producer, writer and editor of The Brandon Peters Show (thebrandonpetersshow.com). He is also the Moderator/MC of the Live Podcast Stage and on the Podcast Awards Committee for PopCon (popcon.us). In the past 10 years at Why So Blu, Brandon has amassed over 1,500 reviews of 4K, Blu-ray and DVD titles.
