Buck Privates Come Home

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Moviecut—Buck Privates Come Home

Buck Privates Come Home

Abbott & Costello return as Slicker Smith & Herbie Brown, who are being discharged and sent home after WWII ends. They have become attached to a little French orphan girl named Evie(played by Beverly Simmons) whom they found in the aftermath of liberating France. They smuggle her back home, where they struggle to get her legally adopted. Meanwhile, they also need help finding jobs, so use the G.I. Bill as help, with comedic consequences. A midget-car racer also becomes involved, as does Sgt. Collins(returning Nat Pendleton). Good sequel with a fine premise(a sort of comedic version of "The Best Years Of Our lives") is quite funny and appealing, with an exciting climatic chase sequence. Pity it was their only sequel though(would have liked to have seen one for "Hold That Ghost"! Oh well...)

This movie just seems to cash in on the original film which was a big hit back in 1941 but the past couple of movies from Abbott and Costello were flops and this movie does seem to be just thrown together. I don't know if this movie was a hit or not but their careers didn't do that well until they started making their monster movies like Frankenstein and The Mummy. I can't believe Leonard Maltin actually gave this three stars and said it was better then the original. This movie stars right after the war in which they are going home but it turns out Costello brought a kid back on the boat and the kid is a foreign citizen and Costello tries to hide the kid, so she can't be deported. She is found out but escapes and winds up hiding out with Abbott and Costello and Nat Pendleton who was their captain in the army and now a cop is looking for the kid. The movie just doesn't work and does seem thrown together.

This happens extremely rarely but yes, this sequel to the original "Buck Privates" is better. Why? There's more of A&C in this one actually as opposed to the original which has more musical numbers in it and more of a romance subplot. In "Buck Privates Come Home" there's more typical A&C burlesque routines that made them famous in the first place. I'm speaking primarily of the 'ol "Floogle Street Sketch" and the story about Floogle Street and the Susquehannah Hat Company. Either the street name or the name of the hat company sets everyone off whenever Lou mentions them to passing pedestrians. It is pure classic comedy, of which apparently writers forgot how to do nowadays. I highly recommend this flick!

Not sure why others who have commented on this film seem so lukewarm about it. I think this is a really underrated Abbott and Costello comedy and the script (contrary to what others have said) is actually quite good. It is more subtle than some of their earlier films and actually has a lot of pathos in addition to the comedy. It also has an amazing chase sequence for a finale. Also-- this film does not contain the Susquehanna Hat sequence or the chase footage from "Never Give A Sucker An Even Break" (as is stated in two previous comments). The film they are confusing this with is another Abbott and Costello movie, "In Society."