Jim "Lucky" Moore, an insurance salesman, conceives an innovative "love insurance" policy for his friend, Steve Harper, that will pay Steve $1 million if his wedding to Cynthia Merrick fails to come off. However, the nuptials are threatened by Steve's former girlfriend, Mickey Fitzgerald, and Cynthia's disapproving Aunt Kitty...and a growing attraction between Jim and Cynthia.
The policy is underwritten by a tough nightclub impresario, Roscoe, who dispatches agents Abbott and Costello to ensure that the wedding goes off as planned in San Marcos in the Caribbean.
Eventually, Jim and Cynthia unite in marriage, and Roscoe avoids paying Steve $1 million because Steve does get married — to Mickey.
One Night in the Tropics was filmed from August 26 through September 30, 1940 under the working titles Riviera, Caribbean Nights, Caribbean Holiday, and Moonlight in the Tropics.[2] With music by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, it was originally planned for production in 1936 with a different cast but temporarily shelved due to financial troubles at Universal.[2][3][4][5] It was hoped that the film would ease Universal's financial plight. It did little to help, but led to a string of Abbott and Costello films that did save Universal.[6]
Just prior to the beginning of production, on August 21, 1940, Jones and Cummings were guests on Abbott and Costello's radio show and promoted the film.[2]
This film has been released twice on DVD. The first time, on The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume One on February 10, 2004, and again on October 28, 2008, as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection.
Furmanek, Bob & Ron Palumbo (1991), Abbott and Costello in Hollywood, New York: Perigee Books, ISBN 978-0-399-51605-4