Zwei trübe Tassen - vom Militär entlassen

Buck Privates Come Home is directed by Charles Barton and written by John Grant, Frederic I. Rinaldo and Robert Lees. It stars Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Tom Brown, Nat Pendleton, Joan Fulton and Beverly Simmons. Cinematography is by Charles Van Enger and music by Walter Schuman.

Abbott and Costello star as two GI's returning from their service who get involved with much malarkey as they try to adopt a six year old orphan who Herbie (Costello) sneaked back in his duffel bag.

The 19th film in the Abbott and Costello series, Buck Privates Come Home is the sequel to Buck Privates from 1941 and evidently it was produced to return the boys to safe commercial ground. It worked and a year later they would pair up with Frankenstein for the first of their much loved films with the Universal Monsters.

Formula is obviously the same as the boys produce high energy slapstick wrapped around a thin plot line. Pace is never less than brisk and with the pair on fine form a number of scenarios score high on the laugh meter. Highlights include sequences involving a time bomb, a sawhorse (come see-saw) table involving food and the customary pie in face gag, Costello in high clothes line peril, some bang-bang at the bank commotion and the finale is a riot as Costello causes chaos behind the wheel of a midget motor car. Pendleton is excellent as the fall guy, first as the army sergeant and later as a New York cop, and Brown and Fulton provide the lovey dovey axis.

Fun and frothy, just how the best A & C films should be. 7.5/10

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!

With the war effort in Europe over and done with, the many men enlisted into the military return home as heroes. As most of them return to their previous stations in life, Herbie and Slicker are not overjoyed with this as it involves them becoming hustlers again. This time though they have a reason to better their position as Herbie has smuggled French orphan Evie into the US and is going to struggle to adopt her legally. The pair do come up with some sort of plan but they can only succeed if they manage to evade the clutches of the police (in the form of one Sgt Collins) for long enough.

It has been many decades since I saw Buck Privates and I did want to see it again as I remembered enjoying it. Unfortunately I could not find it so I went with what I could get, which was this sequel, which sees the boys return to their private lives but with as many troubles and challenges as ever. In terms of plotting we are on pretty thin ground here because the only tangible narrative device is a sickly sweet kid (never an easy proposition) and even that is quite uninteresting. The film just about manages to get by because the various comic situations are mostly pretty funny. There aren't really any classic exchanges or situations but it is consistently amusing for those that like this sort of thing.

Abbott and Costello are doing their usual thing but they are far from going through the motions in the way that they would occasionally do in some other films they made. There are some nice in-jokes and Costello is pretty funny with some of his pratfalls and reactions. The overblown car chase at the end isn't them at their best though mainly because it feels like the writers are just looking for something "big" to end on with the hope that the noise will make viewers overlook the fact that it is neither all that clever or funny. Pendleton is pretty good as a fall guy although I did feel for his character a little bit. Brown is so-so, Shawlee is sidelined to the point of being forgettable and Simmons is so sickly that I suspect extras in her scenes developed diabetes.

All told though I quite enjoyed the film. It doesn't have the classic material or the big laughs that their better films produced but it is still an amusing affair that doesn't have too many problems to it and can be easily enjoyed by fans as well as doing an OK job for the casual viewer.

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."

We managed to win World War II in the European theater even with the presence of Bud and Lou in the American Army. The boys who enlisted in the army to get away from the cops in Buck Privates and found their nemesis patrolman, Nat Pendleton, as their sergeant are now returning veterans. Only Costello managed to smuggle in little Beverly Simmons, a French war orphan, in his duffel bag. Imagine going across the Atlantic without a change of clothes.

Beverly's the company mascot and she's adopted Costello so Bud and Lou are going to adopt her. Of course they run into all kinds of problems with the army, with the police and with immigration. Then again their situations make for the plot of Buck Privates Come Hone.

The original Buck Privates was as much musical as it was burlesque comedy. With the Andrews Sisters, Jane Frazee, there was not one dull moment in this film. For some reason the writers here did not include much of the classic comedy routines. There's only one here, the famous Left/Right routine with Costello getting all balled up with the word "right." No musical numbers except the men singing about how they're going home.

Lots of physical comedy though, depending as much on Nat Pendleton's reactions as well as Costello's knack for getting into situations that no one else could possibly. And we can't forget Donald MacBride who has the best slow burn in films save for Edgar Kennedy.

The climax is Costello's wild ride in a midget racing car which is well staged. Buck Privates Come Home isn't quite up to the standard they set in their wartime films, but it's still pretty funny and should appeal to more than just A&C fans.