After more than 20 years together, during which time they had become tremendous stage, film, radio and television successes, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello dissolved their comedy partnership not long after their last movie, Dance with Me, Henry (1956). Straight man Abbott virtually called it quits after the split, making only a couple brief TV appearances and in 1966 providing his own voice in an animated series based on the team. Lou Costello, however, had big plans for the future. His ex-partner's junior by 11 years, Lou was looking forward to a number of potential projects: emcee of a new comedy quiz show on TV, Las Vegas nightclub appearances, and his greatest dream, a movie based on the life of beloved New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Although he made several television appearances and broke attendance records with his Vegas show at the Dunes Hotel, his other plans never materialized. Ill with the rheumatic fever he had contracted in the early 1940s, he died three days short of his 53rd birthday and just a few months before the release of his final film, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959). At the premiere of the movie, his widow expressed her disappointment in the picture's quality with a line worthy of one of Abbott and Costello's routines: "It would have killed him."

Costello plays Artie Pinsetter, a junkman and part-time inventor whose latest contraption expands his lovely young girlfriend to the incredible size of the title. Reporting the mishap, Artie's flustered news that she's "gotten big" is taken by her despotic businessman father to mean "pregnant," and he arranges a shotgun wedding for the two. The rest of the picture follows the couple's efforts to achieve some sort of domestic normality while Artie seeks a way to return her to normal size.

While the reviews were as unenthusiastic as the public's response, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock did exude a certain juvenile appeal, thanks in some measure to director Sidney Miller. His early stint as a child star included appearances with old pal Mickey Rooney in Boys Town (1938), Babes on Broadway (1941) and five other pictures between 1939 and 1941. He gave up performing in the mid-50s to try his hand at directing, immediately landing work as the director of The Mickey Mouse Club TV series. Thanks to his own experiences as an underage actor, Miller saw to it that the kid stars of the show were treated with no-nonsense professionalism and dignity, and he eliminated interference from overbearing stage parents by having them banned from the set. Miller later took the helm of several other popular shows, including Get Smart, My Favorite Martian and The Monkees. He returned to performing in the 1960s with small roles in dozens of movies and TV shows.

After landing the title role in her film debut, The Bonnie Parker Story (1958), co-star Dorothy Provine enjoyed success into the 1960s on many TV shows and a handful of movies, including It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), as the put-upon wife of Milton Berle, and Good Neighbor Sam (1964), as the put-upon wife of Jack Lemmon. After marrying director Robert Day in 1969, she retired from the business, except for the occasional appearance. Gale Gordon, who plays her mean-spirited father in this picture, had a long and busy stage, radio and film career but is probably best-known as the flustered nemesis/victim of wacky Lucy in several of Lucille Ball's TV incarnations.

A mixture of slapstick farce, domestic comedy and sci-fi parody (obviously influenced by Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958), which was released the previous year), The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock featured scenes in which the oversized bride wears a tunic based on a parachute and her hapless husband's invention transforms from time machine to rocket ship. Only one thing could have made this movie more bizarre; according to Costello's friend and stunt double, Vic Parks, Liberace was to have played a role in the movie but for whatever reason, it never happened.

Director: Sidney Miller
Producer: Edward Sherman, Lewis J. Rachmil
Screenplay: Rowland Barber, Arthur A. Ross
Cinematography: Frank G. Carson
Editing: Al Clark
Art Direction: William Flannery
Original Music: Raoul Kraushaar, Rudy Schrager
Special Visual Effects: Irving Block, Louis DeWitt, Jack Rabin
Cast: Lou Costello (Artie Pinsetter), Dorothy Provine (Emmy Lou Raven), Gale Gordon (Raven), Jimmy Conlin (Magruder), Charles Lane (Standard Bates).
BW-75m.

by Rob Nixon