One Night in the Tropics
Cast & Crew
A. Edward Sutherland
Allan Jones
Nancy Kelly
Bud Abbott
Lou Costello
Robert Cummings
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When playboy Steve Harper falls for socialite Cynthia Merrick, his best friend, insurance broker Jim Moore, writes a one million dollar "love insurance policy" insuring that the romance will culminate in matrimony. Upon learning of the policy, Roscoe, an erstwhile gangster, decides to underwrite the deal and thus become a legitimate businessman. The one person who stands to lose on the union is Mickey Fitzgerald, who loves Steve and determines to win him for herself. To avoid Mickey's interference, Jim books Steve and Cynthia passage on a steamer to South America, and Roscoe dispatches his thugs, Abbott and Costello, to waylay Mickey. Mickey outwits them, however, and causes Steve to miss the boat, and Jim, intending to romance Cynthia for Steve, takes Steve's place. While aboard ship, Jim begins to fall in love with Cynthia, but when they dock in South America, the arrival of Steve and Mickey interrupts their romance. On the verge of forfeiting the policy for love, Jim receives a wire from his father that informs him that the company will go bankrupt unless Steve marries Cynthia. To keep the company solvent, Jim pretends to be in love with Mickey, but when Mickey obtains a copy of the policy and shows it to Cynthia, the two women plot revenge. Meanwhile, Steve is beginning to realize that he really loves Mickey when Roscoe arrives and, at gunpoint, orders him to marry Cynthia. In the ensuing chaos, Mickey grabs the gun and marries Steve, Jim and Cynthia escape into the crowd, and all ends happily when Jim learns that the policy is void because Steve has married Mickey.
Director
A. Edward Sutherland
Cast
Allan Jones
Nancy Kelly
Bud Abbott
Lou Costello
Robert Cummings
Mary Boland
William Frawley
Peggy Moran
Leo Carrillo
Don Alvarado
Nina Orla
Richard Carle
Barnett Parker
Kathleen Howard
Crew
Bernard B. Brown
Milton Carruth
Larry Ceballos
Dorothy Fields
R. A. Gausman
Charles Grayson
Oscar Hammerstein Ii
Jerome Kern
Joseph Lapis
Francis Martin
Joseph A. Mcdonough
Martin Obzina
Jack Otterson
Charles Previn
Gertrude Purcell
Kathryn Scola
Frank Skinner
Leonard Spiegelgass
Joseph Valentine
Vera West
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Originally titled "Caribbean Holiday."
Abbott and Costello's first feature film. They were not the top-billed stars of the movie; this was just a routine Universal B-movie musical with contract players in the cast.
Notes
The working titles of this film were Moonlight In the Tropics and Caribbean Holiday. A news item in Hollywood Reporter notes that this picture marked Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's screen debut. The Earl Derr Biggers novel was previously filmed by Paramount in 1919 as Love Insurance, directed by Donald Crisp and starring Bryant Washburn and Lois Wilson (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20; F1.2640); and by Universal in 1924 as The Reckless Age directed by Harry Pollard and starring Reginald Denny and Ruth Dwyer (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.4476). In 1936-1937, Universal planned another version entitled Riviera, but the film was never produced.
