Andrew Sisters

(On Cable TV, February 2022) Considering the flood of propaganda films that Hollywood churned out in the early 1940s, it’s almost a surprise to find out that the Abbott and Costello army comedy Buck Privates is technically a pre-war film: entirely produced and released months before the attack on Pearl Harbor that precipitated the United States’ entry into the war, it nonetheless could anticipate the direction things were going in Europe. (Indeed, there were two more military-themed Abbott and Costello movies before the end of 1941, covering the Navy and the Air Force.)  That’s for the geopolitical context—as for the comedy, well, you’ll be on familiar grounds if you’ve seen other movies from that pair: a mixture of verbal and physical comedy adapted from their years performing on the stage. It’s decently funny, and a way to see some of the classic routines captured on film. You also get to see the Andrew Sisters perform a few songs, which is a nice bonus. Otherwise, there’s not much more to say: if you like Abbott/Costello, then you know what to expect with Buck Privates.