Dance With Me, Henry is a fascinating artifact from the tail-end of Abbott and Costello's history. It has the ex-burlesque comics interacting with gangsters, child-welfare officials (part of the plot concerns the Costello character's serving as a foster parent for orphaned children, stray animals, etc.), and rock & roll in its early, formative stages, hence the movie's title. Parts of it are funny, and there's intrinsic humor to Costello's work when he's not being overly maudlin, but there's also a lot of sappy sentimentality here that dampens matters. Costello sincerely tries hard to make those scenes work though; he was an underrated dramatic actor, and he not only had a natural love for kids, but probably a serious emotional weak spot for them, owing to the tragic death of his first son. He's also very funny in a scene in which the cops try to sweat a confession out of him, and his behavior instead gets the detectives to crack, one by one. Abbott is the weak link comedically; once one of the top straight men in the business, his timing is shot here, and Costello is driving the act when they're together, which is another reason why this movie is so offbeat and off-putting to most longtime fans. Ironically, as his comic timing vanished, Abbott's ability to handle dramatic dialogue was enhanced, as we see in some of the serious scenes in this movie. As for the movie's connection to rock & roll, it's peripheral at best but occasionally funny, as in the opening ten minutes with a slapstick bit involving Costello and his co-star Ron Hargrave, later a minor rockabilly performer. Composer Paul Dunlap turns in an unusually lighthearted score in which he reworks the verses of the R&B standard "Dance With Me, Henry," itself a sanitized version of "Work With Me, Annie." The supporting cast includes veteran tough guys Ted De Corsia, Richard Reeves, et al, bright young players Rusty Hamer and Gigi Perreau, and '30s Broadway hands Robert Shayne and Frank Wilcox.
![The Bowery Boys, Vol. 3 [4 Discs]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0883316884614_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "The Bowery Boys, Vol. 3 [4 Discs]")
