The Abbott & Costello vehicle Hit the Ice started life as satire of health clinics, with Lou Costello cast as a hypochondriac who used a streetcar conductor's change-purse to dispense pills to himself. By the time the film hit the screens, it was a standard A&C melange of comedy, music and fast-paced chase scenes, with nary a pill in sight. 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" chestnut. Hit the Ice was Lou Costello's last film before rheumatic fever kept him off screen for a full year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
John B. Goodman - Art Director, Sammy Lee - Choreography, Charles Lamont - Director, Frank Gross - Editor, Charles Previn - Musical Direction/Supervision, Charles Van Enger - Cinematographer, Alex Gottlieb - Producer, True Boardman, Jr. - Screen Story, John Grant - Screenwriter, Robert Lees - Screenwriter, Frederic I. Rinaldo - Screenwriter
Two sidewalk photographers, Tubby McCoy (Lou Costello) and Flash Fulton (Bud Abbott), aspire to work for the local newspaper. Their childhood friend, Dr. Bill Burns (Patric Knowles), invites them to come along on a call to a building fire. While attempting to photograph the inferno, Tubby is injured and brought to Burns' hospital. While they are there, Silky Fellowsby, a gangster who is admitted as a patient to establish an alibi for a robbery he is planning, mistake Tubby and Flash for two Detroit hitmen. He expects them to guard the bank's entrance while they rob it, while they mistakenly believe that they are hired to take photographs of the gang as they leave the bank. When the bank is robbed, Tubby and Flash are considered the prime suspects.
Fellowsby heads to a ski resort to "recuperate", hiring Burns and his nurse (Elyse Knox) to care for him. Wanting to clear their names, Tubby and Flash go to the resort, where they are hired as waiters. They attempt to retrieve the stolen cash by blackmailing the gangsters with the bank photographs, which turn out to be worthless as the robbers' faces are not shown. A fight ensues and after a climactic chase down the mountain, the gangsters are caught.
After filming ended, Abbott and Costello embarked on a two-month tour of army camps. When they returned on March 3, 1943, Costello was diagnosed with rheumatic fever and was bedridden. The team would not work again until November 4, 1943 when they returned to their NBC radio program. Tragically, on that same day, Costello's son Butch drowned in the family swimming pool. As a result, Costello had a bracelet emblazoned with the name "Butch" permanently welded around his wrist.
Rerelease
It was re-released on a double bill with another Abbott and Costello film. Hold That Ghost, in 1949.
Cultural reference
In the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the rolling boulder booby trap is very similar to the climax of this film. Costello and the bank robber roll down a snowy mountain and become enveloped in a large ball of snow, which comes very close to rolling over Abbott who is on skis moving in front of it.
DVD Release
This film has been released twice on DVD. The first time, on The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume Two, on May 4, 2004, and again on October 28, 2008 as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection.
References
^ Furmanek, Bob and Ron Palumbo (1991). Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. New York: Perigee Books. ISBN 0-399-51605-0
