the elevator operator. Stanley's partner is the gorilla who had recovered the diamonds. Cast Bud Abbott as Buzz Johnson Lou Costello as Stanley Livington Clyde Beatty as himself Frank Buck as himself Max Baer as Grappler McCoy Buddy Baer as Boots Wilson Hillary Brooke as Diana Emerson Shemp Howard as Gunner Joe Besser as Harry Burton Wenland as Bobo Charles Gemora as The Ape Production and history Africa Screams was filmed from November 10 through December 22, 1948 at the Nassour Studios in Los Angeles. The film was produced by Edward Nassour and A&P heir Huntington Hartford. It was the second of Abbott and Costello's independently financed productions while they were under contract to Universal. It was released by United Artists. Abbott and Costello surrounded themselves with family and friends, and the picture ran over budget. Nassour was so distressed that a running joke on the set was that the film should be retitled "Nassour Screams". Clyde Beatty provided his own animals for the film. The affectionate gorilla pursuing Costello was originally scripted as a female. However, the Breen Office censors who enforced the Motion Picture Production Code demanded that the gorilla's gender be changed to avoid suggestions of bestiality. Africa Screams was Abbott and Costello's first production with Hillary Brooke and Joe Besser, both of whom would later become part of the ensemble cast of the television series The Abbott and Costello Show. The film also marked the only time that Besser and Shemp Howard appeared together in a film; Besser would replace Howard as one of the Three Stooges following Howard's death in 1955. The film was purchased in 1953 by Robert Haggiag, an independent distributor in New York. Haggiag failed to renew the copyright because he had lost interest in the film, and it fell into the public domain in 1977. Author and film historian Bob Furmanek contacted Haggiag in the late 1980s and obtained the original nitrate stock. Most of the original camera negative had decomposed, but the nitrate fine grain was still serviceable and Furmanek transferred it to 35mm for preservation. Home media This film is in the public domain and has been released multiple times on VHS and DVD by several companies. Bob Furmanek launched a Kickstarter project to raise funds to restore the film on Blu-ray on December 1, 2019 and reached his original $7,500 goal in about 29 hours. The Blu-ray version