Deux nigauds démobilisés

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."

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.

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

When Bud Abbott & Lou Costello made this sequel to their first starring film and first real hit, Buck Privates, their last couple of movies suffered, box-office-wise, because they were playing characters that were only acquainted with each other as opposed to being good friends which was once again the case here. Also, by this period in time, their studio Universal Pictures had merged with International Pictures to become Universal-International. International's founders, William Goetz and Leo Spitz, wanted to fire the team as they were more interested in more prestige pictures but someone must have reminded them that despite their not being as popular as during the war years, A & C still was the most popular stars of the studio. So they made this follow-up to one of their most popular pictures with Nat Pendleton also returning as their often-nemesis Sgt. Collins who goes back to being a cop just as Bud & Lou again become con men selling ties. Mixed in this time is a young pre-teen French girl orphan named Evey (Beverly Simmons) who Lou wants to adopt but can't because he doesn't have a legitimate job and isn't married. There's more but I'll just now mention that the team are once again funny in their own unique way especially with Costello's reactions and physical pratfalls. Pendleton, himself, is also funny in what turned out to be his last film role. Bud & Lou were back in the groove after temporarily changing direction with Little Giant and The Time of Their Lives. If there's some disappointment concerning this movie, it's what I know about a couple of deleted scenes like that of Abbott, Costello, and Evey encountering a shoeshine boy who reveals being an immigrant who got adopted and recites the "Give me your poor, tired..." speech that inspires Lou to find a way to adopt Evey. In that scene, Lou's father Sebastian Cristillo is sitting next to Bud. The other deleted scene concerns Lou in the climatic race car chase smashing through a movie theatre that is showing him in a scene from Romeo & Juliet as Lou-on-film is talking to Lou-in-car before bopping him on the nose! Those two cut sequences might have added to my enjoyment of the film. ( I should note here that I've yet to watch the excised scenes as I only know of them from stills and descriptions in the book "Abbott & Costello in Hollywood" by Bob Furmanek and Ron Palumbo.) Still, there's enough in Buck Privates Come Home for me to recommend it. Oh, and the real estate salesman who sells Bud & Lou a broken-down bus is Lou's brother-in-law Joe Kirk. So as we leave this comedy team from the sequel to their Army comedy, we next go on to Laurel & Hardy in their Army comedy, Great Guns.

After two box office disappointments in a row ("Little Giant" and "The Time of Their Lives"), Universal put Abbott and Costello back into familiar territory with a sequel to "Buck Privates." Here, the boys return from France to find familiarity in civilian life by selling ties on a street corner again. Costello has stowed away Evie, the French girl who was the camp mascot, aboard ship, and now must find a way for her to stay in the US.

Through a series of situations and some funny material, A&C make the best of a sometimes weak script. The film has little continuity from the original "Buck Privates", which explains the excerpt from the original film during the first ten minutes. For continuity's sake, the movie does get a big boost by the return of Nat Pendleton as the sergeant. It also helps matters much when we get to see Costello get a couple of shots into Pendleton -- especially after the abuse he receives from him in the two films! Passable entertainment, and A&C fit back into their old characters well. 6 out of 10.