We are at the halfway point with Bud and Lou’s feature films and just as Universal merged into Universal-International. From here on out the musical numbers and subplots get less and the involvement of Bud and Lou get to be more. On paper, the newly merged studio is playing it safe making their first Abbott and Costello a sequel to the very successful BUCK PRIVATES. Bud and Lou are also a team again after the last two films so a newly merged studio must be thrilled with the conservative approach and it all paid off, BUCK PRIVATES COME HOME was indeed a money maker. As for my opinion, I view this as a good if not great film.
Yes, the musical numbers are barely existent. Twice there is a brief bit with men singing in harmony about going home from war that is gone before the blink of an eye. That’s it. From this point forward in the Abbott and Costello filmography, any song and dance we see is the exception, not the norm. As far as the romantic couple go, they have one brief establishing scene and then are integrated into the plot (a married couple is needed for the orphan girl), so nothing distracting from Bud and Lou here. BUCK PRIVATES COME HOME does actually feel like an Abbott and Costello film, something I can get used to.
Writing wise, the first six minutes is a recap, complete with stock footage, from BUCK PRIVATES. Universal does have some precedent with stock footage intros, as the first ten minutes of THE MUMMY’S TOMB (1942) takes this idea to an even further extreme. On a personal level, I find the mood lightens much more when Bud and Lou are settled into civilian life. Those higher officers above the sergeant, you just can’t use them in a comedic sense needed for this kind of film in 1947. Chaplin had all kinds of troubles when he took a dig at the military industrial complex in MONSIEUR VERDOUX released the same year so you had to be real delicate with comedy here. Add to the fact the orphan girl was trying to avoid the officers so she could stay with Bud and Lou and not be deported and we have a bit of a downer subject for a comedy. So yeah, getting the girl away from the army and establishing the couple later on as hope for her living the life she wants really lightens things up.
Back to civilian life, this is where the best stuff is. Bud selling the ties on the street in a swindling manner while Lou plays the incompetent accomplice, not that’s the Bud and Lou I want to see! I love Bud’s attempts at hypnotizing Lou, he’s like a quasi Bela Lugosi. The hammock scene with Lou on a clothesline high on the top of a tenement is both brilliant and hysterical. A very memorable scene and my favorite bit in the movie. I also really like the way they use Nat Pendleton in this film. It’s consistent writing the way he gets caught in compromising positions from a higher ranking police officer and demoted to a worse beat each time. A nice little thread running throughout this film. What I’m not into, which should come as no surprise who reads my reviews, is again the crazy chase scene these sound comedians could rarely get right.
So BUCK PRIVATES COME HOME really is the start of a new and in my opinion, better era for Bud and Lou. The signs these films would be more Bud and Lou centric going forward start here. Unfortunately, the film itself is not one of the better examples of this era, yet like all Bud and Lou movies have moments to enjoy. Again, it amazes me how these guys never made a complete waste of time stinker.
