Buck Privates | |
---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
Directed by | Arthur Lubin |
Produced by | Alex Gottlieb |
Written by | Arthur T. Horman |
Starring |
Bud Abbott Lou Costello The Andrews Sisters |
Music by | Charles Previn |
Cinematography | Milton R. Krasner |
Edited by | Philip Cahn |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date
|
|
Running time
|
84 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $245,000 |
Box office | $4,000,000 (USA) |
Buck Privates is a 1941 musical military comedy film that turned Bud Abbott and Lou Costello into bona fide movie stars. It was the first service comedy based on the peacetime draft of 1940. The comedy team made two more service comedies before the United States entered the war (In the Navy and Keep 'Em Flying). A sequel to this movie, Buck Privates Come Home, was released in 1947. Buck Privates is one of three Abbott and Costello films featuring The Andrews Sisters, who were also under contract to Universal Pictures at the time.
Abbott and Costello performed a radio adaptation of the film on the Lux Radio Theater on October 13, 1941.
Slicker Smith and Herbie Brown (Abbott and Costello) are sidewalk peddlers who hawk neckties out of a suitcase. They are chased by a cop and duck into a movie theater, not realizing that it is now being used as an Army Recruitment Center. Believing that they are signing up for theater prizes, they end up enlisting instead.
Meanwhile, spoiled playboy Randolph Parker (Lee Bowman) and his long-suffering valet, Bob Martin (Alan Curtis), are also enlisting at the old theater. Randolph expects his influential father to pull some strings so he can avoid military service. Bob, on the other hand, takes his military obligations in stride. Tensions between the two men escalate with the introduction of Judy Gray (Jane Frazee), a camp hostess and friend of Bob's upon whom Randolph sets his sights.