Buck Privates: An Appreciation

This year marks the 80th anniversary of one of the classic film comedies of all time, Abbott & Costello’s Buck Privates. It deserves to be remembered — even praised — for a number of reasons.

It was the first of Hollywood’s wartime musical comedies. Filming began in late 1940, taking advantage of the nation’s preoccupation with the newly instituted draft. Hitler’s armies were trampling across Europe at the…