As two of the most popular entertainers of the mid-century film industry, comic greats Bud Abbott and Lou Costello offered an essential balm to the American public following the sorrows of the Great Depression and during the trauma of World War II. This is the first book to focus in detail on the immensely popular wartime films of Abbott and Costello, discussing the production, content, and reception of 18 films within the context of wartime events on the home front and abroad. The films covered include the service comedies
Buck Privates, In the Navy
, and
Keep 'Em Flying
; more mainstream comic relief films such as
Pardon My Sarong
and
Who Done It?
; and post-war experiments such as
Little Giant
The Time of Their Lives
. More than 120 stills and lobby cards from the author's personal collection illustrate the text, including many showing outtakes or deleted scenes.