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Buck Privates Come Home

Buck Privates Come Home - Bud Abbott - Lou Costello - DVD

Abbott and Costello’s sequel to Buck Privates – Buck Privates Come Home. Abbott and Costello’s sequel to their blockbuster movie, “Buck Privates” – here they’re returning home after World War II, trying to smuggle Evie, a war orphan

Review of Buck Privates Come Home

Buck Privates Come Home is a hilarious, sweet, fast-paced, hilarious, sequel to their classic World War II hit Buck Privates. Did I mention that it’s hilarious?

The basic story has Bud and Lou returning home after serving in the Army. Unknown to Bud, Lou’s smuggling home a French orphan. She loves her “Uncle Herbie”, and he can’t bear the though of her living in an orphanage. On the way home, she’s found, and put in the charge of a female Army officer named Sylvia. Bud and Lou want to adopt the little girl, but they aren’t married, and don’t have steady jobs. And Sylvia might marry her boyfriend Tom, if he can only prove the success of a new automobile engine he’s developed.

Sergeant Collins find Evie in "Buck Privates Come Home"

Buck Privates come home is very fast paced and funny. It’s absolutely hilarious. Especially the running joke of Lou making poor Sergeant Collins life as miserable as a police officer as he did in the Army! It’s frankly one of my favorite Abbott and Costello movies. I hope you enjoy it as well. I rate it a rare 5 stars. Honestly, I can’t see how it could be improved.

Comedy highlights

Hilarious In and Out door routine in "Buck Privates Come Home"
  • Lou trying to get rid of a live bomb on board ship.
  • In and Out door routine with Sergeant Collins on board ship.
  • Teeter Totter table routine – that ends with Sergeant Collins wearing the cake!
  • Lou nearly getting re-enlisted by mistake.
  • Slicker back to selling $15 ties for 35 cents. With Herbie as his stooge, who accidentally gives everything away. Evie to the rescue! And poor Sergeant Collins getting demoted on his first day back on the police force!
  • Slicker, Evie, and Herbie at the French Consulate. Where they nearly give up everything!
  • The running gag of Collins who keeps getting transferred to a progressively worse police beat by his Captain, thanks (inadvertently) to Bud & Lou.
  • Trying to get a veterans loan at a bank. The midget car prototype misfires, causing people to think Lou’s shooting off a machine gun!
  • The hilarious scene in the car garage, where Bud, Lou, and Tom are trying to get their midget car out for the race the next day. The chase by Collins & his friends is absolutely hilarious! The ending is reminiscent of a Looney Tunes cartoon.
  • The zany chase scene at the end.

Editorial review of Buck Privates Come Home (1947) starring Abbott and Costello, courtesy of  Amazon.com

Lou and Evie in "Buck Privates Come Home"

In this sequel to 1941’s  Buck Privates,  Bud and Lou are on their way home from the war in Europe (having joined the Army by mistake in the first film).  Lou is smuggling home Evey, an adorable French orphan. When Evey is discovered and scheduled for deportation, the only way Bud and Lou can keep her is to get real jobs, a real home, and a real wife. They seek out Evey’s “Aunt” Sylvia for help, but first, her fiancée needs some quick cash to get his midget-car racer ready for the big race.

Of course, the whole thing ends with Lou in the car, leading the cops on a hilarious chase. And don’t worry — Evey finds a real home with Sylvia.  Buck Privates Come Home is one of those rare sequels that may be better than the original. It’s got plenty of routines, sight gags, and action — and only one of those musical interludes that frustrate dyed-in-the-wool A&C fans. The following year, Bud and Lou would team up with the same director and writers to make the classic  Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. —Geof Miller

Funny movie quotes from Abbott and Costello’s  Buck Privates Come Home

Herbie Brown (Lou Costello): [explaining their situation with Evie] We’ve been like a mama and a papa to her.
Slicker Smith (Bud Abbott): Leave me out of this.
Herbie Brown (Lou Costello): Okay, Papa.

Herbie, Slicker, and Evie at the French Consulate

Man: What’s the boy’s name?
Herbie Brown (Lou Costello): Pat.
Slicker Smith (Bud Abbott): Mike.
Herbie Brown (Lou Costello): Mike.
Slicker Smith (Bud Abbott): Pat.
Man: [to Evie, who’s dressed up like a boy] What’s your name?
Herbie Brown (Lou Costello): [leaning in to Evie] Don’t you tell him, Evie.
Man: Evie?
Herbie Brown (Lou Costello): Evie … E.V., that’s her name, Edward Vincent.
Man: HER name?

Man: Where does this little girl live?
Herbie Brown (Lou Costello): Paris.
Slicker Smith (Bud Abbott): Marseilles.
Herbie Brown (Lou Costello): Marseilles.
Slicker Smith (Bud Abbott): Paris.
Man: Paris and Marseilles?
Herbie Brown (Lou Costello): Her mother is a traveling salesman.

Sylvia Hunter: You love your uncle Herbie, don’t you?
Yvonne “Evie” LeBrec: Oh yes, I’d marry him if I was a little bigger and he was a little littler.

Slicker Smith (Bud Abbott): Don’t be silly. Have you every heard of somebody marrying a man?
Herbie Brown (Lou Costello): Yessir.
Slicker Smith (Bud Abbott): Who?
Herbie Brown (Lou Costello): My mother.

Slicker Smith: [referring to Bill and his car] He races midgets.
Herbie Brown: Midgets? Why don’t he race somebody his own size?

Slick and Herbie arguing in "Buck Privates Come Home"

Herbie Brown: I did all my fightin’ with a knife!
Slicker Smith: With a knife?
Herbie Brown: I had 6,382 to my credit.
Slicker Smith: Enemies?
Herbie Brown: No, potatoes.

Bill Gregory (Tom Brown): That’s my car, hey Slick, who’s racing my car?
Slicker Smith (Bud Abbott): I don’t know, I’ll ask Herbie … Herbie? Herbie can’t drive!

Trivia for Abbott and Costello’s  Buck Privates Come Home

  • His reprise of the role of Sergeant Collins from Buck Privates became the final film role for Nat Pendleton.

Cast of characters

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