Mexican Hayride

This article is about the 1948 film. For the 1944 musical play, see Mexican Hayride (musical).
Mexican Hayride

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Charles Barton
Produced by Robert Arthur
Written by John Grant
Oscar Brodney
Starring Bud Abbott
Lou Costello
Virginia Grey
John Hubbard
Music by Walter Scharf
Edited by Frank Gross
Distributed by Universal-International
Release dates
  • December 27, 1948 (1948-12-27)
Running time
 77 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1,032,218[1]
Box office $2.2 million[2]

Mexican Hayride is a 1948 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. The film is based on Cole Porter's Broadway musical Mexican Hayride starring Bobby Clark. No songs from the stage musical were used in the film.

Plot

Joe Bascomb (Lou Costello) chases con man Harry Lambert (Bud Abbott) to Mexico City, after Harry apparently swindled him (and some friends) in an oil stock scam back in the United States. Joe's ex-girlfriend, Mary (Virginia Grey) has hired Harry as her agent, and is going by the name 'Montana', passing herself off as a toreador. When Joe encounters Harry at a bullring arena, he also sees Mary, who is in the ring. As part of 'Amigo Americana Week', she is about to toss her hat into the crowd where the lucky recipient will be proclaimed 'goodwill ambassador'. Mary is supposed to toss the hat to Gus Adamson (Frank Fenton), another con man whom Harry has arranged to be chosen, but Mary instead throws the hat in anger at Joe. It turns out that Joe, now the 'goodwill ambassador', is also being pursued by American authorities for partaking in the oil stock scam; he uses an alias, 'Humphrey Fish', while in Mexico.

Joe is persuaded to participate in Harry's, Dagmar's (Luba Malina) and Mary's plan to sell fake silver mine stock. While giving tours of the bogus mine, Joe extols its beauty and sells stock to anyone he can. Eventually the authorities track down and incarcerate Joe, along with Harry; Joe manages to escape and, disguised as an old Mexican woman, helps Harry escape. They return to the bullring in search of Dagmar and the stock money. Joe enters the ring, only to be chased by an irate bull. Dagmar, who has the money concealed in her hat, tosses it to him. Harry enters the ring to retrieve the hat from Joe, who is still being pursued by the bull. Eventually, the money is recovered and returned to the authorities. The gang is cleared of wrongdoing involving the silver mine, but are not yet cleared in their oil stock scam back in the States. Dagmar makes reparations for those charges as well, and they are free to return home.

Production

Mexican Hayride was filmed from June 11 through August 12, 1948. Early plans for production called for the film to be made in Technicolor.

Both Costello and Abbott objected to the making of this film. Costello wanted a different cast, including Carmen Miranda and Lucille Ball, while Abbott simply hated the script. They were both suspended for a week, and filming began only 2 days behind schedule.[3]

Costello's brother Pat plays one of the detectives on his trail.

The Cole Porter song "I Love You" sung by Virginia Grey and John Hubbard was filmed but cut from the released movie.

Routines

DVD release

This film has been released twice on DVD. The first time, on The Best of Abbott and Costello Volume Three, on August 3, 2004, and again on October 28, 2008 as part of Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection.

References

  1. ↑ Furmanek p 181
  2. ↑ Furmanel p 181
  3. ↑ Furmanek, Bob and Ron Palumbo (1991). Abbott and Costello in Hollywood. New York: Perigee Books. ISBN 0-399-51605-0
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