Private Buckaroo (1942)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Really Surprised!

Excellent but underrated film

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

I just love this film, for the most part, and not just because it came out the year I was born. Universal gathered some of their best musical and comedic talent for for this military recruitment-promoting film. True, they overdid trying to make serving in the armed forces seem like a picnic, with everyone beating the door down to get in the army. True, they could have made much better use of the comedy talent, which included Dead End Kids standout comedian Huntz Hall, and a very young Don O'Connor, as well as Joe E. Lewis, stooge Shemp Howard, and Olive-like willowy Mary Wickes. The last two carried 90% of the effective comedy, along with the Andrew Sisters. Huntz was limited to teaching famous trumpeter Harry James how to do army bugle calls, without much success, until near the end: a running gag. Don O'Connor, in his first of many films for Universal, at age 16, only appears briefly in a few scenes, sometimes with his future constant film companion for the next few years:Peggy Ryan. Peggy gets to do a brief sampling of her athletic dancing talent in the jive dancing scene, which included the 'Jivin' Jacks and Jills'. She even gets a couple of kisses to or from Don, which would be very rare in their subsequent films, when Don's character typically regarded her as a fun playmate, but not a serious romantic interest. Shemp and Lewis compete for Mary's attention in the early part. Poor Shemp has to pay off the nightclub receptionist to get admitted, but his dollar only gets them a table in a recess between 2 swinging kitchen doors. You can guess the rest. In stooge style, he gets slapped and punched by the much taller Mary and ,later, by the Andrew Sisters while they are singing "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree".Presumably, they didn't want him to sit with them.Dick Foran plays the title character and sings the title song while wearing a cowboy hat. This is in recognition of his frequent film appearances as a singing cowboy. With his Nelson Eddy-like voice and appearance, he leads in several additional songs, mostly the army-related ones, including "We're in the Army Now". Also, the beginning of the finale, with "We've Got a Job to Do", before the Andrew Sisters finish with "Johnny Get Your Gun", amid marching soldiers and film clips of various war-related activities. He also begins an extensive treatment of the African American spiritual "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen", while playing the piano. Harry James' band shows up with singer Helen Forest, and they mostly take over from Dick, with singing, followed by Harry's featured trumpet playing.Speaking of Harry James, I've seen several films that included his legendary skill on the trumpet, as well as his band, and this film is by far his best and most pervasive showing. The film begins with his trumpet and Helen Forest singing the popular early 20th century standard "You Made Me Love You". Toward the end, Harry does a very difficult trumpet number: "Concerto for Trumpet", immediately followed by the Andrew Sister's rather comical "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", which begins with them pulling a heavy cardboard apple tree on stage and ends with them collapsing under the tree, having disposed of an unwanted Shemp several times. Again, this act is immediately followed by the 'Jivin' Jacks and Jills' plus D.O. and Peggy, dancing to a lively James number. Quite an entertainment sequence!I've already mentioned several performances by the then very popular Andrew Sisters. Like James and Foran, they kept popping up for yet another number throughout. Besides the numbers I've mentioned, they begin with "Three Little Sisters". The lyrics have one sister hot for a soldier, another for a sailor, and the third for a marine(there being no separate air force then).Their next number has them in the back of a jeep, with 3 soldiers in front, bouncing along on a bumpy road to an army camp, while singing the lively "Six Jerks in a Jeep". Two years later, Fox studios would repeat this scene with their USO-themed "Four Jills in a Jeep", with Phil Silvers driving the girls over another bumpy road to an army camp.After we've finished with the Shemp-Mary-Lewis problems in James's nightclub, and the various leads have overcome their problems getting accepted into the army, the between-the-musicals tends to focus on Dick Foran, who is the formulistic romantic lead. He develops a transient romantic interest in the training company commander's niece, played by unknown Jennifer Holt. This was only her 2nd film role. Although not apparent in this film, apparently the rational for choosing her was that she nearly always played a cowgirl in her future films, and thus seemed like a good match for Foran, with his frequent cowboy roles and persona in this film. Of course, formulistically, she initially hated Foran's character, with his superior attitude upon joining the army. But, he gets a kiss from her while marching in formation onto the troop ship. That's about the extent of it.Having seen a number of these flag-waving revues, made by various studios, this is clearly the most entertaining. Two years later, Universal would produce a rather similar flag waver: "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", also very good entertainment. See both on You Tube.

Private Buckaroo is one of those wartime musicals set in the army where the plot is barely noticeable among the musical numbers. In fact I'm not sure of what the plot was. In fact this one was another of those films to incorporate a top big band into the Hollywood studio system. In this it was Harry James and his Orchestra.Harry's gets one of those letters from FDR that a lot of men between 18 and 45 were getting back in 1942. But his orchestra apparently thinking they'd have to go out hustle other jobs decides the one that Harry's getting is good enough for them so the whole band enlists. Including Helen Forrest and Dick Foran who are his vocalists.Unlike the patriotic Foran who was a CPO in In The Navy, this Foran has an attitude similar to that of Lee Bowman in Buck Privates. Of course when you're drill sergeant is Shemp Howard it's kind of hard to take the army seriously. Foran's also pursuing Jennifer Holt who is Tim's sister.Also in the film are the Andrews Sisters and Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan and that about covers the musical portion of the film. For a 69 minute film they had at least a dozen numbers so you can see the plot barely got in the way. Not to mention there was a triangle involving Shemp with Mary Wickes and Joe E. Lewis.The film that Frank Sinatra made about Joe E. Lewis, The Joker Is Wild is infinitely better than Private Buckaroo. But this certainly is an opportunity to see the real Lewis perform.So if you're a fan of any or all of these folks you might spend some time watching Private Buckaroo. All this Universal classic needed was Abbott&Costello.

The cardboard comedy and the pencilled-in plot scarcely have a moment to bore you before the next musical number comes along. Some numbers are better than others-- unfortunately, the title song has not aged well-- but the Andrews Sisters make the movie worthwhile. And Harry James reminds us that he wasn't *only* Betty Grable's husband...

This is essentially an armed forces recruitment film made by Universal shortly after the U.S. formal entry into World War II, utilizing some comics and swing musicians to raise the patriotic tenor. The wispy plot relates how the entire band of Harry James decides to enlist in the Army to follow its drafted leader, with a subsequent U.S.O. follies being organized directly before the entire group marches avidly into combat. With the exception of the reliable Mary Wickes, the comedians, in particular Joe E. Lewis and Shemp Howard, are dreadful and serve only to make the various musical interludes, notably those featuring the sprightly Andrews Sisters, a welcome relief --- from comedy. Former big band singer Dick Foran, who warbles the title tune, is the featured non-musical performer tasked to deal with the hapless propagandistic script, but 16 year old Donald O'Connor nearly steals the show along with some of his jitterbugging cronies.