Buck Privates Come Home

Two ex-soldiers come home from the war, one of them having smuggled in a French orphan girl he became attached to. Unable to get her registered through any official channel, they have to keep her hidden. On top of that their old sergeant, who hates them, turns up again, and he is a policeman now. Meanwhile they get involved in finding backers for an inventor building a midget racing car, and the whole thing arrives, inevitably, at a chase. Charles Barton's film is the sequel to the 1941 Buck Privates, the picture that made Abbott and Costello famous. The pair move from wartime army comedy to the problem of fitting back in afterwards, and run the same routine inside a new arrangement. Costello's relationship with the child gives the film an unexpected softness, and the car chase at the end is pure slapstick.