Abbott and Costello were known as comics. Their movies were supposed to be nothing more than vehicles for their comedy routines. The plots were thin, or non existent. It didn't matter. They were funny enough that they could get away with just throwing a bunch of routines together and call it a movie. But something very strange happened with the making of "The Time Of Their Lives" from 1946. The film was directed by Charles Barton and written by Val Burton and Walter DeLeon. The thing about the film that was so strange was that it wasn't really all that funny. It was just a very good movie. And by the time it was over, there wasn't a dry eye in the theater. What the heck happened?

What happened was that Abbott and Costello made what was arguably their best movie ever. Was it a fluke? Did it just happen? Did they look for better material? Did better material just land in their laps? Nobody will ever know the answers to these questions, but one thing is for certain. A better Abbott and Costello film you will never see.

The story is fairly simple. A tinker (Costello) is given a letter from General George Washington during the American Revolution that he must deliver. Something, however, goes terribly wrong (thanks to Abbott) and the tinker and his female companion, played by Marjorie Reynolds, are shot as traitors. A curse is then put on them to be confined to Danbury acres until the crack of doom or until their innocence could be proven.

Move ahead a couple of hundred years. The tinker, who's name was Horatio Prim and the poor girl, who's name was Melody Allen, were still stuck on Danbury acres, still searching for proof of their innocence. At this point, they had just about given up. But then they overhear one of Abbott's ancestors, Dr. Ralph Greenway, discussing the legend of the traitors. Ultimately this leads them to believe that the proof, the letter from George Washington, was somewhere on the grounds. This leads to the search.

The location of the letter is finally revealed through a sance where the ghost of Melody's boyfriend, Tom Danbury, gives them clues to where the letter was hidden. Of course, it's not that easy as it turns out that the letter is in a clock that was donated to a museum. Thus begins the mad dash to retrieve the clock and prove their innocence.

After the doctor steals the clock, since it was revealed that his ancestor set up the tinker, a mad chase begins involving the police. The police may have won this chase but thanks to Prim's quick thinking and the fact that he was a ghost and invisible, he is able to keep them busy long enough for Greenway and the others to open the clock and retrieve the letter. Once it was read, their innocence was proven and their souls were set free.

Yeah, not your typical Abbott and Costello movie.