"Keep 'Em Flying" (1941)

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello return with their fourth release of 1941 (and their third service comedy), "Keep 'Em Flying" from Universal Pictures!

This one follows the "Buck Privates" blueprint, but ratchets up the propaganda even more, as by November of 1941 it probably seemed inevitable that the U.S. would enter WWII, but who would have expected that the Pearl Harbor bombing would happen with a week or two?

In any event, Dick Foran, who had appeared in a supporting role in "In the Navy," plays the male lead. He's the cocky recruit who wants to do things his own way. But will he see the error of his ways and redeem himself by the end? If you've seen any other movie ever made, you'll know the answer!

The female lead is Carol Bruce, who made a couple of movies for Universal at the time. She was mainly a stage performer, but she later reemerged later as a character actress. I remember her from the TV series "WKRP in Cincinnati," which was on during the same time period I was watching A & C movies every weekend, and she was still striking!

As in "Hold that Ghost," the boys get a strong comedic female co-star, this time Martha Raye. And Martha plays twins, one for Bud and one for Lou!

The two Marthae(?) are basically a substitute for The Andrews Sisters but Martha has way better acting and comic chops than the Andrews ever did!

She has great chemistry with the boys, as did Joan Davis, but after this movie, however, they didn't get a "name" comedy co-star (male or female) again until Marjorie Main in 1947!

For the songs, Don Raye and Gene DePaul were back!

The big ballad is "The Boy with the Wistful Eyes," which is sung by Carol and the two Marthas as part of a charming production number in the tunnel of love.

Carol Bruce recorded it for Columbia:

Very nice!

Another version of the song was recorded for Bluebird by the great Earl Hines and his Orchestra with vocalists Madeline Greene and The Three Varieties:

That's the sort of record I just love! An underrated movie song performed by a great band!

And I really like Madeline Greene's singing!

The most noteworthy song from "Keep 'Em Flying" is "Pig Foot Pete," which was nominated for an Academy Award as best song, but it's officially listed as being from the movie "Hellzapoppin'" for some reason! The latter was a Universal movie from 1941 co-starring Martha Raye with a wacky comedy team, but that was Olsen & Johnson and it's a different move anyway!

Whatever the case, Martha (apparently as "Gloria," the brash twin teamed with Costello) sings "Pig Foot Pete" in "Keep 'Em Flying" in a dynamite performance, but it was often cut during TV broadcasts as it's in a standalone scene and stations were often shoe-horning the A & C movies into 90-minute slots.

Martha did record the song for Decca:

Martha Raye was known for her big mouth and wacky antics, but she was a talented singer and dancer. She's great performing "Pig Foot Pete" in the movie!

What's cool is that the pianist in the movie is Freddie Slack, the brilliant boogie woogie specialist who had been featured on Will Bradley and Ray McKinley's hit record of "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar," which was another Don Raye number, to which "Pig Foot Pete" is almost a sequel!

To make things even cooler, Freddie Slack cut "Pig Foot Pete" for Decca with Don Raye himself on the vocal:

The cool meter goes up even higher as that's Spike Jones on drums!

Adding to the song confusion is that Carol Bruce had recorded another song for "Keep 'Em Flying" that was cut from the final release!

This was "You Don't Know What Love Is," which made it onto some sheet music and was recorded by Carol as the flip of her Columbia record of "The Boy with the Wistful Eyes":

The would-be soundtrack recording also wound up on this promo item from Universal:

And the flipside of that was the song "Together," which was apparently sung by the Twin Martha Rayes:

Odd that Universal would promote the two songs cut from the film!

Carol Bruce did get to sing "You Don't Know What Love Is" in her next picture, which was "Behind the Eight Ball" starring the Ritz Brothers. Was it gong from Abbott & Costello to the Ritz Brothers that made her leave Hollywood and go back to the stage?

Carol did sing one more song in "Keep 'Em Flying," but it was an oldie, "I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You," the famous Tommy Dorsey theme song.

She didn't record it commercially, but we got a nice piece of sheet music anyway!

Let's listen to the Dorsey Brothers with their first version of "I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You," recorded for Brunswick in 1932 with vocalist Jean Bowes:

That's the stuff!

There was also a title song for "Keep 'Em Flying" written by Don Ray and Gene DePaul, which was sung in the film by Dick Foran and reprised by Carol Bruce, but I don't think it was commercially recorded.

And to me it sounds just like "You're a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith" from Buck Privates," but I guess that was the point!