"Pardon My Sarong" (1942)

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were back at their home studio of Universal for their next movie, "Pardon My Sarong" from 1942!

This movie puts the boys front and center, making it more like "Hold That Ghost" than the service comedies or "Ride 'Em Cowboy" or "Rio Rita."

A couple of things, though, strike me as you consider these films chronologically.

The first is that Lou really takes over as the dominant comedy force. He still interacts with Bud a lot, but he gets a ton of solo bits and actually drives the plot. It's rare for Bud to get to do anything without Lou.

The other thing is that this is the first time that Abbott seems really nasty to Costello. Up to now, they've been buddies with Bud always taking advantage of Lou, but it was still friendly.

Interestingly, female lead Virginia Bruce calls out Abbott a couple of times, which is rare for an A & C film, so I guess it was all intentional on the part of the filmmakers.

Virginia Bruce is quite lovely and talented and leading man Robert Paige is also very good, but their roles here are pretty perfunctory. They argue a lot, but even Costello knows they'll get married, so no spoiler there!

The movie is quite episodic, but moves along pretty well.

The boys get a few scenes with William Demarest at the beginning and he's extremely funny with them. Abbott even gets a bit with him without Costello and he's quite good!

The villain of the piece is Lionel Atwill, who's always a blast in this type of role. He's kind of in on the joke with us or something.

As for the songs, there are a couple of faux tropical ones from Don Raye and Gene DePaul, "Lovely Luana" and "Vingo Jingo," which are well-staged in the film.

The gorgeous Nan Wynn, former band singer with Hal Kemp, does very well.

I'm kind of surprised that none of the record labels at the time had a recording of either song, as movie sings were always being pushed by the music publishers.

And there must be sheet music for the songs, as they had to have been published, but I can't find an example.

The beginning of the film has a long sequence in a night club which features the (Four) Ink Spots singing a couple of songs, but those were already in their repertoire and seemingly shoehorned into the movie.

But, they're good, so let's hear them with "Do I Worry?" on Decca:

So typical of their hits, following the "If I Didn't Care" formula, but it works.

They display some versatility with "Shout, Brother, Shout":

In the movie, "Shout, Brother, Shout" also features a dynamite dance routine by Tip, Tap & Toe!

I will say that the presentation of the musical acts here is stereotypical, but the talent shines through and it's good to have theses acts preserved.

And since we're listening to old Decca records and we don't have any strictly from "Pardon My Sarong," let's take this opportunity to hear Benny Carter and his Orchestra with "Serenade to a Sarong":

Sounds good!

Next: No music!