Abbott & Costello play Flash Fulton & Tubby McCoy, two newspaper photographers who are mistaken for hit men by a trio of gangsters(played by Sheldon Leonard, Marc Lawrence, & Joe Sawyer) who plan to rob a bank while have an alibi of being in the hospital. The boys become prime suspects for the crime, so flee to a ski lodge where they meet old friend Johnny Long and his orchestra, along with singer Ginny Simms, who get them jobs, while they dodge the gangsters and clear their names. Patrick Knowles & Elyse Knox play the doctor and nurse fooled into helping the "sick" gang leader. Very funny comedy with pleasant setting, good cast and songs. Quite underrated comedy with the team.

Photographers Flash and Tubby believe they have land a paying job when they agree to cover a group of men coming out of a bank. Little do they know that the men are bank robbers who have mistaken the two for hired guns, booked to cover the entrance during the job. They discovery this too late and suddenly find themselves suspected of the robbery themselves. With only the photographs they took as leverage, the two follow the crooks to a mountain ski resort where they plan to expose them and clear their own names.Abbott & Costello are always a duo I come back to but yet they are also a duo that tend to deliver solid amusement rather than great films. Hit the Ice is another one of those because it is roundly "ok" even if it does have some bits that capture why people love these two. The plot is a simple affair with the usual misunderstandings and scrapes along the way but it does work, providing the love interest for Costello to flirt with and also the tough guys for him to face off against. There are a few routines that are good fun like the "teller" one or the bit where Costello packs and unpacks repeatedly, while the pratfalls and chases are amusing and are done with energy. It doesn't have enough to be considered a great film or anything but it is amusing enough to please fans and also children.The film is padded far too much with musical numbers. You expect one or maybe two but there are loads of them here and they never feel like anything other than filler. Abbott and Costello are both on pretty good form here, they feel like they are working well off one another – with Costello in particular putting effort into his falls and double-takes. Simms' songs perhaps don't appeal but she certainly does – stunningly beautiful and she has an easy screen presence that helps as well – I feel for Knox who has to compete but doesn't really. Leonard is fun as the main villain while Knowles is about as vanilla and dull as he could have been.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 musical numbers are overused and slow the film down but at least you get to look at Simms while they are on (well, mostly). Solid but unremarkable.

...but dangerously close.However, there is still enough here to keep the grin on the face and there is still a high production value within the structure, if only the same could be said of the writing! I tend to feel with Abbott & Costello movies it pays to take a break for a few months and then go back to further viewings refreshed and not feeling a sense of seen this before repetitiveness.This one sees the boys as photographers who unwittingly get mixed up in a bank robbery and have to flee to a ski resort to hopefully prove their innocence. The usual pratfalls are abound as Tubby constantly loses his pants, gets his bum set on fire, skis with a grizzly bear, and of course he tries to woo the pretty lady by bluffing he can play the piano. Music comes courtesy of Ginny Simms and the Johnny Long Orchestra, with stoic supporting acting duties falling to Patric Knowles, Elyse Knox and the always great Sheldon Leonard as the chief villain.Not close to being in the top five outings from the guys, but certainly an above average offering showing glimpses of just why they really were a special talent back in the day. 6/10

In this film, the boys are photographers who are mistaken for hired killers by bank robbers. A&C provide some funny moments, including the "All right" piano bit and the "Pack, Unpack" routine.Despite giving their best efforts, this film ranks as their weakest starring vehicle among their films from 1941 to 1943. There are two main reasons: first, the story and situations are contrived to the point of annoyance; the plotline relies on people constantly bumping into old friends. In the film, A&C meet up with Patrick Knowles whom they haven't seen in years, then they bump into old friend Johnny Long; Ginny Simms conveniently knows gangster Sheldon Leonard...and so on. Second, the musical numbers are back. One would think that Universal learned their lesson with the success of "Who Done It?" by having no numbers, but they are here, and there are plenty of them. Ginny Simms is a lovely lady with a great voice, but the movie boggs down by the sheer number of songs. (It doesn't help that she's no actress.)The supporting cast is fine, and A&C truly give the material their best. But it's not enough to save the film, considering the contrived situations and musical numbers. 4 out of 10.