The boy's 5th film and 3rd armed forces-oriented film. Like "Buck Privates" and "In the Navy", this one clearly was partly a recruitment propaganda film. It was released only a week or so before Pearl Harbor: a very opportune time. I would also label it a musical comedy, like it's predecessors. We have Carol Bruce, Martha Raye, Dick Foran, and the Six Hits as lead singers.
At a nightclub, where Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are celebrating being fired from their circus jobs, Carol sings "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You". Foran hopes she means him, and immediately strikes up a conversation with her. Their flirting will have its ups and downs through the picture. Later, at an informal gathering, Martha, abetted by the Six Hits, sings and dances to "Pig Foot Pete. Then, when Foran awakes one morning, he sings the theme song: "Let's Keep 'em Flying". Back at the circus, while drifting through the Tunnel of Love, "The Boy With the Wistful Eyes" is sung first by Carol to Foran, then by Martha, in her Gloria incarnation, to Lou, then by Martha, in her Barbara incarnation, to Bud, and lastly by the Six Hits to their girls. Near the end, Carol sings the theme song again, as part of the Air Show celebration. Seems to me, this should have been the finale, but we still have more flying misadventures to see. The plot is interesting, if quite contrived. It begins with a circus, moves to an air training center, then back to the circus, and, finally, back to the air training center. This provided potential comedic situations in two quite different settings.
At the circus, while Foran is buzzing the patrons with his aerial acrobatics, A&C are given the job of running the 'Kill the Umpire' game. Of course, Lou is the umpire. Forget the patrons, Lou is nearly killed by the bat that keeps hitting his head. When the same thing happens to their boss, when he arrives, they are fired, along with Foran. When they later revisit the circus with their girls, Lou has a couple of encounters with a gorilla and a walking skeleton. He finally figures out that Gloria and Barbara are two different girls, thus Bud has not been butting in on his girl. Earlier he had been confused because both Gloria and Barbara had been working at the same small restaurant, and they kept changing places. When Gloria asks Lou what starts the torpedo they are examining, he demonstrates by pulling the pin. The torpedo, on a wheeled cart, takes off, later with Lou on it, and makes a tour of the airbase before detonating. Later, A&C illicitly take off in a plane and do cartwheels over the base before making a decent landing. Then, they are in a plane with another pilot who tells them to bail out. But Lou doesn't know how to open his chute, so lands on top of Bud's shoot, partly destroying it, landing on Bud, who opens Lou's shoot to save them.
Meanwhile, Foran has been grounded for taking Carol's brother(Jim) up in a plane, then parachuting out, leaving Jim to pilot it himself, with a stuck throttle. Following Foran's instructions, Jim precariously lands it, but is badly shaken up as the plane partly crashes. Foran then redeems himself by taking a risky move, taking a plane up to try to save his flight instructor, whose parachute got caught on the tail of the plane.
In all, a very fun enlistment promoter, especially for kids, with lots of comedy, plenty of songs and some romance thrown in.
At a nightclub, where Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are celebrating being fired from their circus jobs, Carol sings "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You". Foran hopes she means him, and immediately strikes up a conversation with her. Their flirting will have its ups and downs through the picture. Later, at an informal gathering, Martha, abetted by the Six Hits, sings and dances to "Pig Foot Pete. Then, when Foran awakes one morning, he sings the theme song: "Let's Keep 'em Flying". Back at the circus, while drifting through the Tunnel of Love, "The Boy With the Wistful Eyes" is sung first by Carol to Foran, then by Martha, in her Gloria incarnation, to Lou, then by Martha, in her Barbara incarnation, to Bud, and lastly by the Six Hits to their girls. Near the end, Carol sings the theme song again, as part of the Air Show celebration. Seems to me, this should have been the finale, but we still have more flying misadventures to see. The plot is interesting, if quite contrived. It begins with a circus, moves to an air training center, then back to the circus, and, finally, back to the air training center. This provided potential comedic situations in two quite different settings.
At the circus, while Foran is buzzing the patrons with his aerial acrobatics, A&C are given the job of running the 'Kill the Umpire' game. Of course, Lou is the umpire. Forget the patrons, Lou is nearly killed by the bat that keeps hitting his head. When the same thing happens to their boss, when he arrives, they are fired, along with Foran. When they later revisit the circus with their girls, Lou has a couple of encounters with a gorilla and a walking skeleton. He finally figures out that Gloria and Barbara are two different girls, thus Bud has not been butting in on his girl. Earlier he had been confused because both Gloria and Barbara had been working at the same small restaurant, and they kept changing places. When Gloria asks Lou what starts the torpedo they are examining, he demonstrates by pulling the pin. The torpedo, on a wheeled cart, takes off, later with Lou on it, and makes a tour of the airbase before detonating. Later, A&C illicitly take off in a plane and do cartwheels over the base before making a decent landing. Then, they are in a plane with another pilot who tells them to bail out. But Lou doesn't know how to open his chute, so lands on top of Bud's shoot, partly destroying it, landing on Bud, who opens Lou's shoot to save them.
Meanwhile, Foran has been grounded for taking Carol's brother(Jim) up in a plane, then parachuting out, leaving Jim to pilot it himself, with a stuck throttle. Following Foran's instructions, Jim precariously lands it, but is badly shaken up as the plane partly crashes. Foran then redeems himself by taking a risky move, taking a plane up to try to save his flight instructor, whose parachute got caught on the tail of the plane.
In all, a very fun enlistment promoter, especially for kids, with lots of comedy, plenty of songs and some romance thrown in.