Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion is a 1950 film by Abbott and Costello, and their sixth under Universal Studios after its reorganization into Universal-International.
Bud Jones (Abbott) and Lou Hotchkiss (Costello) are wrestling promoters in Brooklyn. They get in trouble when their star performer decides to abandon the ring and return to his homeland in Algeria, and are forced to follow him back in the hopes of persuading him to return. While there, they unwittingly attract the attention of Abdullah's cousin, Sheik Hamud El Khalid, who is working with a crooked member of the French Foreign Legion in order to extort money from a local railroad company, and end up accidentally enlisting in the French Foreign Legion while trying to avoid some of his men. Antics ensue as they continue trying to find Abdullah and end up taking down the Sheik's plot.
This film contains examples of:
- Accidental Bid: Lou accidentally wins a slave girl auction by repeatedly waving to a girl when he was just being friendly, not knowing that the auctioneer is misinterpreting him as bidding. When Bud and Lou try to get out of it, the auctioneer won't hear of it, noting that Lou's win is a good buy. To that, Lou responds "Good buy? Goodbye!" as he makes a break for it.
- Brick Joke: Early on, Lou ends up winning an auction of six women. At the very end, it turns out he somehow went back to collect them after the defeat of the Al-minyas, and he's taking them home.
- Dem Bones: Lou hallucinates a talking skeleton while in the desert.
- Dungeon Bypass: Out of sheer ignorance, Lou ends up walking around a barbed wire obstacle course at the Foreign Legion camp instead of going under it like he was supposed to.
- False Teeth Tomfoolery: One of the Al-minyas accidentally loses his false teeth in the oasis, and a big fish ends up with them in its mouth, resulting in hilarity when Bud and Lou try to catch some other fish and the big one keeps interfering.
- Gonk: After Bud and Lou have been captured by the Sheik's men and sentenced to death, Abdullah agrees to help escape and go back with them — if he stays, he has to marry another Sheik's ugly gonk of a daughter, the sight of whom makes Lou cringe.
- Hollywood Mirage: Lou sees several, including a talking skeleton. Another is even a milkshake bar in the middle of the desert! When the boys ultimately stumble across an oasis ( Lou having previously seen a similar one earlier), Lou take several minutes to accept that it's real.
- Improvised Weapon: While trying to escape the Al-minya tribe, Lou snatches a couple of baskets and throws them as a distraction.
- Kayfabe: Discussed In-Universe — the film starts with Bud and Lou operating a wrestling ring and Bud getting annoyed at the wrestlers for not following their scripts. Furthermore, Abdullah doesn't like the script, since it calls for him to lose, and decides to quit. Later on, while being held by the Al-minya tribe, Abdullah invokes the trope, unbeknownst to the people watching, when he fakes beating up Bud and Lou as a ploy to help them escape.
- Legion of Lost Souls: Bud and Lou get tricked into enlisting with the Legion in Algiers. They proceed to save the day by accident, and are rewarded with medals and honorable discharges.
- Mouse Trap: While looking in Axmann's bureau for evidence, Lou ends up finding a couple of mouse traps in his drawers and getting his fingers caught in them.
- Not Now, We're Too Busy Crying Over You: When Bud thinks Lou has been blown up with Fort Apar, he begins mourning and wishing he'd been nicer to Lou, only for Lou to show up and commiserate with him. Once Bud finally realizes that it's Lou crying on his shoulder, he immediately reverts back to his old self and slaps Lou.
- Reckless Gun Usage: After being told to assemble a mounted gun, Lou ends up accidentally triggering it and causing a lot of damage at the Legion's camp.
- Self-Offense: While trying to avoid the crooked MPs working for Sergeant Axmann, Lou is told to hit the guy they're being pursued by if he sees him. Unfortunately, Bud had gone the other way around the building, and Lou hits him by mistake. The next time they try to go after the guy, Bud accidentally hits Lou.
- Slave Market: While in Algiers, Bud and Lou stumble upon a slave auction, where Lou ends up accidentally winning a group of six girls, though he runs off without paying or collecting his purchases... at least, until the film's climax.
- Spanner in the Works: When Lou accidentally buys a lot of six slave girls, the lead girl — actually a French spy — is not amused, since Lou accidentally bid against the man she wanted to win so she could infiltrate his house.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The climax involves Bud accidentally blowing up Fort Apar (which had been rigged to blow by the Al-minyas), with several of the Al-minya tribe and the treacherous Sergeant Axmann inside.
- Tricked into Signing: After entering the Foreign Legion's main office, Bud and Lou end up signing what they think is a guestbook. It's actually the papers to join the Foreign Legion.
- Unishment: Zig-zagged — after accidentally shooting up the camp, Bud and Lou are given a pass to town, on the request of one of the higher-ups so she can meet with them. However, Sergeant Axmann, who's a traitor in the camp, gives them the wrong address as a way to get them killed by his Al-minya allies (fortunately, they avoid it).
- Weaponized Stench: Accidentally — Lou manages to knock out some of the Al-minya men with just his bad breath after unwittingly eating an onion.
