Rating: 
Summary: The very best!!
Review: After having DISASTEROUS luck with volume one (I hit many defective copies) I lucked out with a perfect copy of three and what a great set. I grew up watching these great and super funny films as a kid on Sunday mornings and they still are wonderful. A&B were the best. Some people have grumbled about this selection and I completely disagree. This set offers my all time fav's "Legion, Frankenstein, Invisible, Killer" were A&B's finest stuff and the other four films have their moments too. An excellent place to start and a super deal with eight on one CD- enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Mine's defected, too... (sigh)
Review: Count me in on the "defected club", since mine freezes on "Mexican Hayride", as well. The reviewer who suggests that the defect claimers are wrong has obviously tested all of these defected copies</sarcasm>. I tried mine on two different DVD players and I can see embedded 'rings' on the surface of the disc just like another reviewer stated (thanks for that tip, btw). Now, I guess I have to go through the inconvenience of returning and trying out each one until I get one that works. That drives up the cost of this collection when you factor in the gas, time, etc., so it's only a bargain if you don't get the chamber with a bullet in it.
Universal should farm out their releases to another publisher, since they clearly don't care about quality control. They're in the same league as the public domain crowd, IMHO. My only re-course is to stop buying Universal product entirely (like I had to do with Disney). This is what happens when corporations get so big swallowing up the smaller fish that they lose sight of their customers. In this case, former customer.
Rating:
Summary: 5 for the presentation-4 for the movies
Review: I am very pleased that Universal has presented their A&C archives in such an appealing and affordable manner. These films kept Universal in the black for several years through release and rerelease and look very good on DVD. Many have argued that these are generally the weaker of the A&C comedies. This is true. The comedies in vol. 3 were made during the years when A&C had exhausted their burlesque routines after years of movies, TV, and radio. Some have said their relationship was deteriorating. I believe the men were overworked. During the early 50's they were doing their own TV show, plus the Colgate Comedy Hour, plus movies and radio. Don't forget all the personal appearances. A&C were under tremendous pressure to pay back taxes after being sued by the US government and they were getting older.
The later movies are loaded with slapstick and mostly for the kiddies. I have shown all of these to my kids and they think even the weaker ones like "Coming Round the Mountain" are funny. It all seems fresh to them despite the black and white. Probably because there aren't any great comedy teams around these days. Are there any good ones? Certainly, Abbott and Costello were a great team and these later films, while not their best, are still very entertaining and sometimes hilarious.
Rating:
Summary: Best Set Yet!
Review: I bought Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein a little over a year ago at the same price this set is selling for! Man, do I, now, feel like I threw $20 down the drain! But in all honesty, sadly this set was not out last year when I bought that solo DVD. If it was, I would not have bought the one DVD.
But this set is my favorite out of the three. I absolutely love the Abbott and Costello films where they meet some of Universal's monsters or any other ghastly goul or creature. The other films are funny in their own right, but singing occurs in some of these films and it kind of turns me off sometimes. Otherwise, they are great films that deserve to be treasured!
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Collection of the Bunch
Review: I have all three Franchise Collections and consider Volume Three to be the best of the best. I owned many of these as a kid on 8mm reels and definitely notice the (much improved) clarity of the DVD versions.
Even though the Production Notes are short for each movie, they are very informative and paint a visual image of the course this team would make from the 40's to 50's (Example: Lou getting Rhumatic fever and going on hiatus for a year during this series of movies).
Have always enjoyed A&C meet Frankenstein but it gets reviewed constantly as their #1. I consider the boxing scene in A&C Meet the Invisible Man funnier than anything in Frankenstein (except maybe Lou's look of fear). And although I enjoy them all, I was a little surprised at just how little Boris Karloff stars in Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff. For a 75 minute movie he probably gets 5 minutes of screen time max.
Foreign Legion was another one of my collectibles as a kid and still rates highly on my list (I'm also a "Road to" fan of Bing & Bob). The mirage scenes are some of their best.
Out of all 24 movies in the Franchise Collection (sets 1-3) my only "glitch" movie was Mexican Hayride, which wouldn't play scene 1 at all (froze the screen). But by forwarding to scene 2 the rest of the movie is viewable. That leaves about a 4-5 minute gap from the beginning of the movie which is a shame.
A&C goes to Mars was another of one of my all time favorites.
I even remember owning a version of that spaceship as a kid although I have no clue where it ended up (probably worth a fortune now).
Just curious to see if any more collections will be released. For the money these are timeless classics and shouldn't be missed.
Rating: 
Summary: The best of Abbott & Costello Vol. 1
Review: I have waited so long and now to have them released is fantastic. These are true comedy and can now be shown to my grandkids to experience a good laugh without swearing. Kudos to Universal for releasing these gems and hopefully more soon.
Rating:
Summary: Worthy of More Than 5 Stars...
Review: I just can't get enough of Abbott and Costello!I waited for quite a few years for ANY Abbott and Costello movies to hit DVD. There were very few in print. It was frustrating. Well, the wait paid off big time. The first two sets were incredible. Universal has gone the extra mile and these sets are winners on so many levels. Each set thus far includes 8 HIGH QUALITY films for under $20! When I say HIGH QUALITY, I'm not just talking about the quality of the prints, which is very high, but the movies themselves are not lost turkeys. These are the truly all classics, and this set includes some of the great Universal Monster tie-ins, which were previously sold individually for more than the price of this set of 8! Based upon the track record for classic movies going out of print, I suggest you buy them while they are still in this format.
Rating:
Summary: This DVD collection is a must - for any A&C Fans
Review: I remember growing up watching old Abbott and Costello movies on Sunday afternoons with my Dad (along with the classic monster movies and the old Blondie shows). Buying these DVD's is like reliving great memories from my youth. The picture quality on these DVD's is outstanding - they are very well done. This third volume in this series is going to be the best of them all - this DVD will have some of my all time favorite A&C movies. I have watched the first two volumes numerous times since purchasing them and look forward to this next volume with great anticipation.
Rating:
Summary: Storys are timelessly funny slapstick, DVD quality poor
Review: like so many others who purchased these DVD sets, I purchased Vol 1 , 2, and 3.
I love them and so do my kids, its great clean fun.
However I had to return the original copies I purchased, just as others have mentioned, because the disc froze. The 2nd set seems to be fine, so far.
Its too bad because these are great comedy films that give hours of fun intertainment to myself and a new generation of viewers like my kids. Thank you Bud and Lou.
Rating:
Summary: Universal Have Come Up Trumps - Again
Review: Once again, Universal have done true justice to their former stars of formular comedy / slapstick. No point in going into the movies themselves with the exception of A & C Meet Frankenstein; by far their best. This one was helped by having Bela Lugosi,Lon Chaney Jnr and Glenn Strange as co-stars; they played their monster roles straight instead of "camp". As the original stars (Logosi & Chaney) of the Dracula & Wolfman movies they added the right atmosphere which greatly assisted with the fun. (Glenn Strange had also played the monster in "House of Frankenstein"; not the same as Boris Karloff's chilling portrayal, but, never the less, very very good. I purchased this movie on its own and paid around $1.25 more than I had paid for all eight.
Once again, on the production side, the QUALITY of these eight movies can only be described as excellent. I might add that I have experienced none of the freeze up problems that other reviewers have mentioned. Neither has my son to whom I have lent all three of these collections to. Universal must have taken them from the original Masters, they are too sharp and clear to have been restored. Universal proberly don't have any Masters for the trailers, these have been reproduced with all the scratches and wear and tear that one expects to see after fifty plus years of use.
All of these movies are very enjoyable and are shown uncut. Buy this set and Vols 1 & 2 also; same quality and you can't go wrong. The one and only fault that I can find is that Universal have put all eight on two discs instead of four. This format plays just fine but there is always a high risk of damage to at least one side of the two sided discs, you just might lose two movies. Of course if you are that unlucky, then you could always purchase a second set, at this price you can afford to.
Please Note: To save time I have copied, pasted and then edited my earlier review on Best of A & C Vol 1 as most of this review is appropiate to all three.
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