- It Ain't Hay
Infobox Film | name = It Ain't Hay
caption = "It Ain't Hay" Theatrical Poster
director =Erle C. Kenton
producer =Alex Gottlieb
writer =Damon Runyon Allen Boretz
John Grant
starring =Bud Abbott Lou Costello Grace McDonald Shemp Howard Cecil Kellaway
music =Harry Revel
cinematography =
editing =Frank Gross
distributor =Universal Pictures
released =March 10 , 1943 (U.S. release)
runtime = 80 min
language = English
budget =
imdb_id = 0036047
preceded_by = Who Done It? (1942)
followed_by = Hit The Ice (1943)"It Ain't Hay" is a 1943 film starring the comedy team of
Abbott and Costello .Plot
Wilbur Hoolihan (
Lou Costello ) accidentally kills a hack horse owned by King O'Hara (Cecil Kellaway ) and his daughter, Princess (Patsy O'Connor) by feeding it candy. In the hopes of raising enough money to replace it, he and his friend Grover Mockridge (Bud Abbott ) visit a gambling establishment. They are successful in raising the money, but before they can purchase a new horse, a con man swindles them out of it.They are informed by some unsavory fellows that a horse is available at one of the tracks. They visit the track and mistakenly take the wrong horse, a champion by the name of "Tea Biscuit". They take the horse to O'Hara and present it to him as a replacement for his deceased horse.
The horse's real owner, Colonel Brainard (
Samuel Hinds ) offers a reward for "Tea Biscuit". By this time O'Hara has taken a fare up to Saratoga and Wilbur and Grover, realizing that they took the wrong horse, follow him there. Three gangsters trail them hoping to capture the horse and collect the reward. Wilbur and Grover manage to recover the horse and hide him for a while in their hotel room. Once discovered, they head to the race track in time for a big race. Wilbur, riding "Tea Biscuit" winds up winning the race. They try to return the horse for the reward, but the Colonel decides that he never really was missing and skips out on paying them. In the end it doesn't matter because Grover was the only winning ticket holder and they use their winnings to buy O'Hara a real replacement horse.Production
"It Ain't Hay" is based upon the
Damon Runyon story, "Princess O'Hara", which Universal first made into a film in 1935 withChester Morris .Filming of this picture began on
September 28 , 1942, and lasted untilNovember 11 . Lou's brother Pat was used as his stunt-double in the 'headless horseman' sequence.It was during production, on
November 8 , that Lou's wife, Anne, gave birth to their son, Lou 'Butch' Costello, Jr.Rerelease
It was re-released in
1949 .Legal Issues
Due to legal issues with the estate of the writer, Damon Runyon, this is the only Abbott and Costello film released by
Universal Pictures that has not been issued on DVD. [Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036047/trivia] UPDATE: A new premium boxed set of all 28 Abbott and Costello films produced at Universal will be released on October 28, 2008 including for the first time on home video or DVD, is the 1943 film "It Ain't Hay," which had been out of circulation due to copyright issues. Unlike the "Best of Abbott and Costello" collection, which packed four movies on a double-sided DVD, the new Complete Universal Pictures Collection has two films per DVD recorded only on one side.References
External links
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