Two newspaper photographers get mixed up with gangsters at a ski resort.
Hit the Ice is a 1943 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello and directed by Charles Lamont, who took over after the original director, Erle C. Kenton, was fired.
Bud and Lou are cast as would-be photojournalists Flash and Tubby, who
inadvertently snap a picture of two bank robbers leaving the scene of
the crime.
Accused of knocking over
the bank themselves, our heroes find it expedient to hide out at a Sun
Valley ski resort. Here they tie up with Silky Fellowsby (Sheldon
Leonard), the mastermind of the bank heist, who is led to believe that
Flash and Tubby are a couple of Detroit "hit men". In the course of
events, Tubby falls in love with Silky's girl Marcia Manning (Ginny
Simms), romancing her by pretending (with Flash's dubious assistance) to
be an accomplished concert pianist. The final confrontation with the
crooks leads to an elaborate chase on skis, with all manner of hilarious
(and wildly impossible) sight gags. The barely necessary romantic
subplot involves doctor Bill Elliot (Patric Knowles) and nurse Peggy
Osborne (played by Elyse Knox, the mother of actor Mark Harmon). Best
bits: the classic "packing-unpacking routine, a zany skating sequence,
and the old "I'll bet I can stand next to you and you can't touch me" gag. Hit the Ice was Lou Costello's last film before rheumatic
fever kept him off screen for a full year.
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| Oatmeal, oatmeal! Cornmeal!... Mush! |
'Hit The Ice'
isn't as well-known as the earlier 'Buck Privates' or the later
classic, 'Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein,' it shows the duo still
at a peak of humor and popularity, operating like a well-oiled machine,
turning out hit comedy after hit comedy. The one problem with the film is all the damn singing. The big band singer Ginny
Simms has way too much screen time, singing five songs which is all the more unforgivable as
none of them are memorable and a couple are stupid beyond belief. The big finale is a super gay song with the band and singer cruising in a sled.
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| Left foot, right foot, left foot, everybody's doing it. |
Overall this is an OK piece of comedy that fans will like as well as
kids. There are a couple of funny routines and, although it has too
much of it, the pratfall-style comedy is OK too. The ice skating scene is a Lou Costello highlight, as is the
ski scene. This film also features the best version of "Pack/Unpack".
Look also for a small bit by Mantan Moreland. He's best known for the Charlie Chan movies but he's a funny dude.
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| Costello might get some Poo Poo La La |
Trivia:
Lou Costello always suspected that Universal wasn't giving him and Bud Abbott
the agreed-upon share of the profits the studio made from their films
(a suspicion later proven, as a result of legal action they took against
Universal, to be true). Therefore, he developed a habit of picking out
furniture he liked from the sets of their films and taking it home,
considering it payback for what he believed to be Universal's cheating.
One day director Charles Lamont
showed up on the set to shoot a scene at the ice skating rink only to
discover that all the wrought-iron patio furniture that had been there
the previous day had disappeared. Costello denied any knowledge of it,
and Lamont said he would shoot no more scenes until the furniture was
returned. A compromise was finally reached whereby Costello would bring
back the furniture, the scene would be shot, and then he would be
allowed to bring all of the furniture back home.
After completing production, Lou Costello was stricken with rheumatic fever. This would be the last new Abbott and Costello film for more than a year.
This film was broadcast on cable network AMC on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 about 2 hours before the terrorist attacks.
The film was started by director Erle C. Kenton. However, he and Lou Costello clashed on several occasions, and Kenton was fired and replaced by Charles Lamont.
