Lost in Alaska
Encyclopedia
Plot
The time is the 1890s, and the place is San Francisco. George Ball (Lou CostelloLou Costello
Louis Francis "Lou" Costello was an American actor and comedian best known as half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott...
) and Tom Watson (Bud Abbott
Bud Abbott
William Alexander "Bud" Abbott was an American actor, producer and comedian. He is best remembered as the straight man of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Lou Costello.-Early life:...
) are firemen who rescue 'Nugget' Joe McDermott (Tom Ewell
Tom Ewell
Tom Ewell was an American actor.-Early life and career:Born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Owensboro, Kentucky, where his family expected him to follow in their footsteps as lawyers or whiskey and tobacco dealers....
) from committing suicide by drowning. Joe wants to die because his girlfriend, Rosette (Mitzi Green
Mitzi Green
Mitzi Green was an American child actress for Paramount and RKO, in the early talkie era...
) no longer loves him. He tells George and Tom about his fortune in gold that he has stashed in Alaska, and they decide to keep an eye on him. Joe receives a letter from Rosette claiming that she still loves him. He returns to Alaska, with George and Tom in tow. Once they arrive, it is learned that many people want to kill Joe, as he was once the local sheriff who had many people hanged.
Rosette works at a casino whose owner, Jake Stillman (Bruce Cabot
Bruce Cabot
Bruce Cabot was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong . He is also known for his roles in films such as the sixth version of Last of the Mohicans, Fritz Lang's Fury and the western Dodge City.-Early life:Cabot was born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac in Carlsbad,...
), demands that she marry Joe, whom Jake plans to kill once he is married to Rosette, so that he can marry her and gain the fortune in gold.
Rosette reveals Jake's intent to George and Tom, who hide Joe and Rosette by sending them out of town. Jake is not happy about this turn of events and sends his gang to deal with George and Tom, who manage to outwit them. In the ensuing melee, the gold falls into a deep crevice in the ice, and is lost. Everyone manages to overcome their greed for the sake of friendship, and Joe and Rosette marry.
Production
Lost in Alaska was filmed from December 3 through December 31, 1951, under the working title The Sourdoughs.Legal Problems
Production on the film almost never began. One month before filming began, Abbott and Costello filed a lawsuit against UniversalUniversal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
, which was selling 16mm clips (through Castle Films
Castle Films
Castle Films was a home-movie distributor founded in California by former newsreel cameraman Eugene W. Castle in 1924. The company originally produced business and advertising films. By 1931 it had moved its principal office to New York City. In 1937, Castle branched out into 8 mm and 16 mm home...
) taken from various Abbott and Costello films. They also sued Realart Pictures for re-releasing some of the team's older films without their consent.
However, they settled for $2 million and additional profits from several of their prior films. Two weeks after the settlement, they re-signed with Universal through 1955.