"Buck Privates" (1941)

As we continue to review the films of the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, we hit pay dirt with Universal's "Buck Privates" from 1941!

This is the movie that established the team as a box office sensation, leading to a long line of movies.

I love everything about this movie and it's just a blast!

Bud and Lou are the comedy relief, but they get a bigger storyline than they did in the previous year's "One Night in the Tropics" and they make the most of it.

(Left to right) Lee Bowman, Jane Frazee, Alan Curtis

I like the straight romantic plot too, as I think Lee Bowman, Alan Curtis and Jane Frazee are perfectly cast. Along with Nat Pendleton as the tough sergeant, this is probably the strongest cast of any A & C movie.

I like how the movie is filled with familiar character actors from Shemp Howard down to Tom Tyler (in a bit as the boxing referee).

And the music is great! I know a lot of modern viewers don't like the musical numbers, but I'm a fan of 1940s  music anyway and I like how this movie offers up a total entertainment package and can understand why 1941 audiences went crazy for it!

The top song is the Oscar nominated "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" by songwriters Don Raye and Hughie Prince (who appear in the movie as fellow recruits) and sung by the Andrews Sisters!

It's probably the most famous sing from an Abbott & Costello picture and is also one of the Andrews Sisters' best remembered numbers.

So here are the girls on Decca Records:

So much fun!

Don Raye and Hughie Prince had previously collaborated drummer/vocalist Ray McKinley on the hit song "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" and "Buck Privates" included a follow-up, "Bounce Me Brother with a Solid Four," which the Andrews Sisters also performed in the film.

But let's hear Ray sing it with Will Bradley on Columbia:

The Bradley/McKinley band was great band while it lasted!

Another song from "Buck Privates" was "You're a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith," which the Andrews Sisters sang as part of a production number.

Let's listen to the Decca recording by the Decca Band with The King's Men (of "Fibber McGee & Molly" fame):

Fun to hear it as a march! 

The Andrews Sisters also performed their version of the then-oldie "I'll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time," which they also recorded for Decca:

A couple of other Raye/Prince songs, Jane Frazee's "I Wish You Were Here" and Lou Costello's specialty "When Private Brown Becomes a Captain" don't seem to have been recorded, but are effective in the movie.

Lots of fun!