The Movie
Recalling a more innocent America some 71 years ago, Buck Privates was the second movie to team comedy partners But Abbott and Lou Costello, and the first to put them in starring roles. They're a couple of small-time street hustlers who start out dodging a beat cop and wind up enlisting in the Army, shortly after FDR's initiation of a peacetime draft. Their misadventures begin immediately, a series of pithy wordplay, physical gags and full-on routines repurposed for the big screen.
The style has an endearing quaintness to it that will bring surely back a warm nostalgia for anyone who grew up on Abbott & Costello, while much of the movie's dramatic heart comes from a subplot about the military making a man out of a spoiled playboy. Produced shortly before Pearl Harbor and then bolstered by the sudden wave of support for our soldiers, Buck Privates was a big hit at the box office, and because of all its buffoonery it was even used as an anti-American propaganda tool by the Japanese during World War II!
The Picture
According to the package, the 4:3, black-and-white Buck Privates has been "digitally remastered and fully restored from high resolution 35mm original film elements" and, as the characters here might say, brother, they ain't kiddin'! The image is immaculate, purged of every flaw to reveal abundant fine details, including the textures of the various costumes. What I mistook for a speck of dirt was actually a fly buzzing around Lou's head.
The blacks are deliciously rich, while the edge enhancement is minor and the noise minimal. The AVC-encoded video on this dual-layer platter hovers around the generous 30-megabits-per-second mark.
The Sound
The sound too has obviously been cleaned up for this new DTS-HD Master Audio mono presentation, in a 2.0 configuration that spreads pleasantly enough across the front half of the home theater. Except for the a few quick moments during the war games in Act III, there's nothing fancy or complicated about this track. Highs can go a little thin but lower frequencies reproduce with a healthy kick, and dialogue is always crystal-clear.
The Extras
We start off with the 1994 television special "Abbot and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld," wherein the standup comedian and sitcom megastar shares his fondness for Bud and Lou's work (46 minutes, in SD). This is followed by a trio of those "100 Years of Universal" featurettes in HD, about the heyday of founder Carl Laemmle, the recent restoration of select catalog titles and--most relevant--the studio's classic characters.
A DVD of the movie and these same extras is also included, and both discs arrive inside a well-researched hardbound book full of photos, facts, quotes and reproductions of vintage materials. The introduction was written by director John Landis.
Final Thoughts
At its finest, Buck Privates achieves a measure of pre-war patriotism, and the worst it can be called is corny by today's standards, but who can resist the timeless humor of stars Abbott and Costello, especially when so lovingly restored for this surprisingly accomplished Blu-ray debut?
Product Details
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