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Movie Review: Mexican Hayride (1948) Universal

  • P: Robert Arthur D: Charles Barton S: Oscar Brodney/ John Grant Sunday morning the '70's there wasn't anything on TV besides preachers other than Abbott and Costello. My grandparents had cable and I would constantly be over at their house because they got WGN out of Chicago and WOR out of Secaucus, NJ. I never missed any of the Abbott and Costello monster movies nor the '50's TV show, but this one I never saw as a kid. If it was on I would have never watched it anyway. The reason I borrowed this from the library was the presence of Pedro de Cordoba who has a bit part as a spectator in a bullfight. He's kinda like a Hispanic John Carradine and also a distant relative by marriage. I thought this one was pretty funny. It's mostly Lou in a sombrero surrounded by hot babes including one named Dagmar (Luba Melina) whose accent switches from Spanish to Russian whenever she feels like it. Virginia Grey (House of Horrors is his jilted ex (the Jennifer Anniston of her day (?)) who causes Lou to be the special US ambassador to Mexico while on the run from a pair of feds, one of which talks just like William Burroughs (!), and the other is played by Lou's older brother Pat Costello. The whole thing ends with a hilarious bullfight that may have inspired the Bugs Bunny cartoon. Bud doesn't have a whole lot to do in this and Lou doesn't seem to take as much crap as he usually does. With Fritz Feld as a snooty speech therapist. Based on a Broadway musical.