Buck Privates

While it might not be the funniest movie featuring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, the 1941 comedy Buck Private made them stars. Although the pair had appeared in second-banana roles in an earlier film, they were the center attractions of director Arthur Lubin's wartime comedy, which scored at the box office. The nominal plot has the sidewalk hucksters inducted into the Army (enlisting by accident while ducking a New York cop), following their antics through basic training, where their drill sergeant is the very same New York flatfoot (Nat Pendleton) on their trail. All of this is mostly an excuse for Abbott and Costello to perform their most successful vaudeville routines (such as “Dice Game”) and to play off of Pendleton, whom they constantly annoy. Universal still wasn't sure the boys could support a production themselves, so Lee Bowman and Alan Curtis costar, taking a big chunk of the story in a conventional (and forgettable) romantic subplot with Jane Frazee (much more memorable is a musical appearance by the Andrews Sisters singing “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”). Even if it doesn't include their signature piece “Who's on First,” Buck Privates is still the most famous of the Abbott and Costello comedies. Universal's 100th Anniversary Collection edition presents the film in a Blu-ray/DVD Combo set packaged in a digi-book case with illustrated notes and scripts of the duo's best bits in the film. Extras include the TV special “Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld.” Recommended. (S. Axmaker)