Africa Screams (1949): watch the full film free, legally

A map inside Dark Safari

Africa Screams is a 1949 American adventure comedy directed by Charles Barton and starring Abbott and Costello. It parodies the safari genre, while its title plays on that of the 1930 documentary Africa Speaks! Bud Abbott plays Buzz Johnson and Lou Costello plays Stanley Livington, coworkers in the book section of Klopper's department store.

Diana Emerson comes to the store looking for Dark Safari, a book by the explorer Cuddleford. She offers Buzz $2,500 for a map inside the volume. Stanley, an armchair explorer who has read the book, says he knows the map, and Buzz takes him to Diana's home to draw it. There Buzz overhears Diana offer Clyde Beatty $20,000 to lead a safari seeking a legendary giant ape. He decides the map is worth more and negotiates for a larger payment, as well as places for himself and Stanley on the expedition.

The party travels to the Congo with Diana's explorers, including Harry “Boots” Wilson, Grappler McCoy and Gunner, a nearsighted professional hunter. Buzz learns that Diana's real objective is a fortune in diamonds rather than the ape, prompting another negotiation. The map Stanley knows turns out to be one he drew himself to chart his route to work at Klopper's, but his recollections of Dark Safari guide the group toward Diana's destination. In the region, they meet animal collector Frank Buck. A cannibal tribe lays a diamond trail to capture Buzz and Stanley, while a gorilla that Stanley had accidentally freed from one of Buck's traps becomes an unexpected ally.

Animals, censors and an over-budget shoot

Filming ran from November 10 to December 22, 1948, at Nassour Studios in Los Angeles. Edward Nassour and A&P heir Huntington Hartford produced the picture, Abbott and Costello's second independently financed production while they were under contract to Universal. United Artists released it. Abbott and Costello filled the production with family and friends, and the film went over budget. Nassour's distress led to a running joke on set that it should be called “Nassour Screams.”

Clyde Beatty supplied his own animals. The affectionate gorilla pursuing Costello had first been written as female, but the Breen Office censors enforcing the Motion Picture Production Code required the animal's sex to be changed, to avoid suggestions of bestiality. Charles Gemora plays the ape, and Burton Wenland plays Bobo.

The film was Abbott and Costello's first production with Hillary Brooke and Joe Besser. Both later joined the ensemble cast of the television series The Abbott and Costello Show. It was also the only film in which Besser and Shemp Howard appeared together. After Howard's death in 1955, Besser replaced him as one of the Three Stooges. The supporting cast also includes Max Baer as Grappler McCoy, Buddy Baer as Boots Wilson, Brooke as Diana Emerson, Howard as Gunner, and Beatty and Buck as themselves.

A New York opening and preservation

Africa Screams opened on May 4, 1949, at the Criterion Theatre in New York City. Its opening week gross was $17,500. Independent New York distributor Robert Haggiag purchased the film in 1953, but failed to renew its copyright after losing interest in it. The film entered the public domain in 1977.

Film historian and author Bob Furmanek contacted Haggiag in the late 1980s and obtained the original nitrate stock. Much of the original camera negative had decomposed, though the nitrate fine grain remained serviceable. Furmanek transferred it to 35mm for preservation. In 2019, he began a Kickstarter project seeking $7,500 for a Blu-ray restoration; the goal was reached in about 29 hours, and the Blu-ray version was released in June 2020.

Film details from the Wikipedia article “Africa Screams”. Text adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0.