Starring Lou Costello, Bud Abbott, Ginny Simms, and Patric Knowels
Directed by Charles Lamont
Music by Harry Revel; Lyrics by Paul Francis Webster
Our last winter musical of the month does have some skating and skiing, but really focuses more on comedy. Abbott and Costello were the top draws at Universal by the early 40's, over even their horror and action films. Their comedies raked in the cash during the darkest days of World War II and directly afterwards, when all people wanted was a good laugh. How does their comedy work in the story of two photographers who get mixed up with bank robbers, a doctor, and a nurse at a ski resort? Let's head to a hospital in LA, where Dr. Bill Barnes (Knowels) is tending to his latest patient, and find out...
The Story: Photographers Tubby McCoy (Costello) and Flash Fulton (Abbott) are friends with Barnes. Barnes knows they're trying to work for the local newspaper and call them on a building fire. When Tubby gets injured, they end up in the hospital where he works. Gangster Silky Fellowsby (Sheldon Leonard) mistakes them for two hit men from Detroit who are supposed to be helping him with a bank robbery he's planning. He's in the hospital to give him an alibi, but his nurse Peggy Osbourne (Elyse Knox) is suspicious. Fellowsby hires Peggy and Barnes to be his nurse and doctor while he "recuperates" at Sun Valley, Idaho. Tubby and Flash flee there too after they're accused of the crime.
Barnes gets the duo jobs as waiters in the resort. They claim to the gangsters that they'll trade photos of the crime for the stolen loot. Fellowsby first sends his ex-girlfriend, singer Marcia Manning (Simms), to seduce Tubby into giving up the photos. When that doesn't work, they kidnap Peggy and lure the guys to a remote cabin. Turns out Flash and Tubby are better at bluffing than they think...
The Song and Dance: Not much song or dance here. The accent is purely on comedy, and Abbott and especially Costello run with it. The first half kicks off with some nice gags involving the duo trying to get photos of that burning building, including how Tubby gets his injury. Things really pick up when they all get to Sun Valley. Tubby thinks Marcia wants to marry him; she's really interested in bandleader Johnny Long (himself). Watching Marcia try to get the photos from him is hysterical, especially since neither really wants to do it. There's also the adorable routine with Costello's attempt to skate with a little girl (Cordelia Campbell), but she's doing rings around him.
Favorite Number: We don't get our first number until nearly a half-hour into the movie, but it's the jaunty "I'm Like a Fish Out of Water," performed by Long, his orchestra, Simms, and the vocal group the Four Teens...which is a perfect description of how Tubby and Flash feel when they get to Sun Valley. "I'd Like to Set You to Music" is the Orchestra's number by the pool. Tubby claims he can play the piano for Marcia, but his attempts to get his pal to make it look like he's playing only ends with Marcia figuring out the deception. "The Slap Polka" is the big chorus routine, with everyone skating and slapping as the Orchestra performs the lively tune. The movie ends with the entire cast in two sleds, on their way to get married, because it's "Happiness Ahead."
What I Don't Like: This is barely a musical, or an ice skating film, either. The songs and the Sun Valley setting are shoehorned in awkwardly. The gangsters could have kept their loot at any remote location, or even in the city. Though the gangsters do come off as fairly menacing, the doctor is a bore (and how he became friends with these two idiots is beyond me). Knox doesn't do much more than be suspicious. Simms comes off a little bit better as the sharp singer.
The Big Finale: Mainly for huge fans of Abbott and Costello. For anyone else, it's a harmless hour and a half's worth of amusement if you run into it on DVD or on TCM.
Home Media: Can be found on two Abbott and Costello collections (one of which is on Blu-Ray).
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