Keep 'Em Flying

Before rewatching this movie on YouTube, I watched a 9-minute short called Life with the Flying Cadets which was basically a trailer for this film as it shows many scenes from it especially the ones with stars Abbott & Costello. It basically told of the value of those men training to fly for whatever awaits them. Now Keep 'Em Flying was the second A & C movie I saw as an 11- or 12-year-old kid in 1979 when it showed up on TV late Saturday night on "The Abbott & Costello Theatre" which was devoted to showcasing all their Universal product. The first was Hold That Ghost. Anyway, here Blackie (Abbott) and Heathcliff (Costello) are associates of daredevil flyer Jinx Roberts (Dick Foran who had also appeared with Bud and Lou in In the Navy and Ride 'Em Cowboy) who all get fired from the fair and they all swear off women but then they go to a nightclub where singer Linda Joyce (Carol Bruce) is performing her last engagement before going to the USO. Of course, Jinx is smitten with her and ends up working near her at a cadet training center. Blackie and Heathcliff follow and encounter two waitresses at a cafe there but since they're twins-Barbara and Gloria (both Martha Raye)-and they don't appear together when they all meet, confusion reigns! I'll just now say that this was even more funny now than when I first saw this all those years ago, that's for sure! I especially thought that routine in which the Abbott character tells the Costello character to not make any orders since they're short on money and he's offering to share his order only for Costello to renege quickly because Abbott keeps insisting he order something was much better than a similar routine Laurel & Hardy did in Men O'War which was my last review before this one. Speaking of L & H, the producer of this picture was Glenn Tryon who was previously an actor who, among his earlier appearances, was in the short 45 Minutes from Hollywood which was the first time Stan & Ollie were in the same Hal Roach short-having first previously appeared together in The Lucky Dog for another company-though they missed actually being together in that one. And if the names of Carol Bruce and Martha Raye are familiar to you, you probably saw them in their later years during the late '70s when Ms. Bruce had a recurring role as Mama Carlson in "WKRP in Cincinnati" and Ms. Raye likewise had such a role as Mel Sharple's mom in "Alice"! A few more things about this movie: I thought the moving torpedo and the standing-on-the-wing-of-a-flying-plane sequences involving Lou were partly convincing enough to me to excuse the obvious use of moving background projection (it should be noted that Pat, Lou's brother, was the stunt double for these segments), that the serious parts of the Jinx storyline was fine with me, and that the musical interludes were entertaining enough especially Carol and Martha's "The Boy with the Wistful Eyes" number. So that's a high recommendation of Keep 'Em Flying. Oh, and continuing my reviews of A & C and L & H doing similar movies, my next one will be on the latter's Our Relations in which Stan and Ollie have their own set of twins encountering mistaken identity...

When high-flying stunt pilot Jinx Roberts joins the air corps, his two assistants Blackie and Heathcliff follow him into the service out of loyalty and lack of other options. While Jinx gets a pilot's position they find themselves essentially at the level of janitors with little in the way of glamour or prestige. They end up causing more trouble than anything else – not least of which in the world of romance where the attention of twins Gloria and Barbara causes more confusion.

This film was part of several made in a short period by Abbott & Costello in support of the war effort and the structure is roughly the same. A "straight" guy pursues a girl while Abbott and Costello trail along behind getting involved in various escapades and misunderstandings in support of the "straight" guy's romantic efforts. This should not surprise anyone and the only thing of concern should be whether or not the film is funny and makes good use of the comic abilities of the stars (by which I do not mean Foran). The answer is "sort of" and it is because of this that the film is quite amusing for fans but not good enough to really win over others or stand out as one of their best. The plot with Jinx does take up a bit too much of the running time and, as is often the case, the film is padded out with too many songs (although at least one of them is actually pretty good) and I didn't find myself laughing often enough. There are some good bits though; the scene where they order food in the restaurant is brilliant stuff and had me laughing out loud but, a few good lines here and there and that is pretty much it. The torpedo sequence is the normal stuff but lacks inspiration while the flight stuff, although quite good suffers badly from poor back projection and basic model work – OK both are of their time but still.

The cast do reasonably well and the fault for the film perhaps being a bit lacking is not with their performances. Both Abbott and Costello do good work as you would expect but it is just a shame that they don't get better material to work with. What they do benefit from is a female co-star who isn't just a cute love interest for Costello. Raye plays it in a way that echoes Costello's style but it does work and she is funny and adds a bit of variety which is needed when you consider the "main" plot. Bruce, Gargan and Foran are all fairly dull and stiff – again it is a shame that they take so much of the time from the others.

Keep 'em Flying is an OK Abbott & Costello film that has enough about it to please most fans however it is still not as funny as it should be and it has too much stuff that either pads (the songs) or detracts (the main plot). If you like them it is worth a look but only a few scenes here and there show what the two are capable of.

Not their best, but by far not their weakest, the film provides the viewers with the duo in the Army Air Corps, or at least a training facility.

While there has been some comment on the wood and fabric airplanes in the film, filmed shortly before the U.S. got involved in World War II, many training facilities taught their students initially on such aircraft, just so they could learn the rudiments of flight. Later, the fledgling pilots would graduate to more state-of-the-art trainers.

Minor spoiler For the aero gags, the fabric airplanes worked well: in the "inverted" sequence, Costello's head wouldn't have been able to break through a metal skin.

I had this on VHS, and finally was able to locate it on DVD, in an A&C collection.

KEEP 'EM FLYING (Universal, 1941), directed by Arthur Lubin, marks the fifth screen collaboration of the popular comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello who, in this venture, take to the air and have quite a time staying on the ground. Previously appearing in the Army in BUCK PRIVATES (1941) and IN THE NAVY (1941), each featuring the Andrews Sisters, what logical choice to find them back in peacetime military comedy, this time with the Army Air Corps, with Martha Raye and Carol Bruce stepping in for the Andrews Sisters.

The story begins in a carnival where Jinx Roberts (Dick Foran) works as a daredevil stunt pilot. After getting fired by his boss, McGonigle (William B. Davidson), Jinx, along with his two assistants, Blackie (Bud Abbott) and Heathcliff (Lou Costello) enlist at the army air corps at Cal-Aero Academy. While there, Jinx immediately meets and falls in love with Linda Joyce (Carol Bruce), a USO hostess and singer, who has a jealous boyfriend (William Gargan) and brother (Charles Lang), who disapproves of him dating his sister, while Jinx and Heathcliff encounter confusion after meeting up with Gloria Phelps, who happens to have a twin sister, Barbara (both played by Martha Raye). In between these love matches comes a handful of Abbott and Costello routines and stunts that keep this film going at a fast pace for 86 minutes. There is also time out for music, featuring some popular 40s tunes of the day by Don Raye and Gene DePaul including: "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" (written by Ned Washington and George Bassman/ sung by Carol Bruce); "Pig Foot Pete" (Sung by Martha Raye); "Keep 'Em Flying" (sung by Dick Foran); "The Boy With the Wistful Eyes" and "Keep 'Em Flying" (reprise).

Aside from the romantic subplots, the movie relatively belongs to Abbott and Costello who supply the story with their comedy highlights: The "Go ahead, order something" routine where Blackie and Heathcliff only have a quarter to their name and go to a diner where Blackie orders only a turkey sandwich and a cup of coffee, with the intention of splitting the order with his partner, but whenever the waitress (Raye) asks for Heathcliff's order and says he doesn't want anything, it is Blackie who coaxes him to order something, only to give him a slap in the face and tell him that no matter how much he coaxes him, he should refuse. This routine is further developed when the daffy waitress (Raye) gives Heathcliff a piece of cake on the house, and when she goes to the kitchen, the other, her serious-minded twin sister (Raye) returns to find Heathcliffe with the cake and insisting that he'd pay for it. Other highlights include Heathcliff in the tunnel of love with one of the twin sisters; Blackie and Heathcliff riding on a runaway torpedo all over the base, followed by a couple of scenes involving the comedic dual taking to the air via plane and creating unintentional stunts of their own before parachuting to safety. In spite of obvious rear projection backgrounds, these faults should be overlooked and simply enjoyed as originally intended.

Featured in the supporting cast are: Truman Bradley as Butch, and Freddie Slack and his Six Hits. Martha Raye, who adds twice as much fun playing twin sisters, each partnered with Bud and Lou, works well with the team. It seems a pity that she didn't get to work with Abbott and Costello again for that they make a wonderful trio. While a formula movie the plays strictly for laughs, it is Costello who gets his rare opportunity on screen to show himself on the serious side in one scene early in the story when he pleads with a major to give him a job so that he could serve his country. This sequence could have been a low point, but funny man Costello manages to make this brief moment followed by a patriotic speech believable and moving. He certainly was an original.

While KEEP 'EM FLYING might be considered extremely dated by today's standards, it still ranks one of the funnier comedies of the 1940s. KEEP 'EM FLYING is available on video cassette through MCA Home Video. Once presented on the cable television's The Comedy Channel in the early 1990s, it resurfaced on New Year's Eve, December 31, 2000, on American Movie Classics where it played occasionally for almost two years. (***)

Blackie (Bud Abbott) and Heathcliff (Lou Costello) are the ground crew for barn storming pilot Jinx Roberts. They join the Air Corps as ground crewman where the fall for twin USO hostesses (Martha Raye).

The guys are still fun but they are stuck in a propaganda film for the military. I don't care about the Jinx story. So the movie is split into two. I enjoy the boys but when they're not on the screen, the movie stalls out. I also enjoy Martha Raye playing the duo role. She's great with the guys. I like half of this movie.