Fall In

Fall In (1942)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Hal Roach comedy with William Tracy and Joe Sawyer is in the same vein as Tanks a Million. In this film, Tracy plays a Sgt. wiz who can remember anything he reads, which gets him his own platoon but this doesn't with well with the jealous Sawyer. Tracy has to train a bunch of dumb rednecks from Kentucky before finally tracking down some Nazis. I'm not sure how many films were in this series but so far I've enjoyed the two I've seen enough to where I'd seek out the others. These aren't anything great but with the running time of 45-minutes they fly by with some nice laughs along the way. Being from KY, I got a kick out of the redneck training sequence.

This is another amusing episode in the "Sergeant Doubleday' series of streamliners from the Hal Roach studio, full of pratfalls and mugging. The streamliners were short features intended for double or triple bills, averaging about 50 minutes. This series is made amusing by the contrasting of Doubleday, a draftee with photographic memory, made a sergeant for it, and his would-be nemesis Sergeant Ames, a twenty-year man who keeps trying to one-up Doubleday and fails continually.

This episode is enlivened when the two of them are given new trainees. Doubleday's bunch are Kentucky mountain men, ringled by Arthur Hunnicutt who spent the 1950s and 1960s playing the type. Frank Faylen also shows up as Captain Gillis. Presumably after the war he retired and reared his son, Dobie.

Several years ago, I saw all of the 'Dodo' Doubleday films from Hal Roach Studios. However, when I found "Fall In" on YouTube, I was surprised to find it is the one Doubleday movie I've missed.

When the film begins, Sgt. Doubleday (William Tracy) is picked to go to Officer Candidate School. Not surprisingly, his friend and nemesis, Sgt. Ames is NOT picked...and as you'd expect he's both jealous and petty about this...like in ALL the films they did together. And, like in the other films, Ames tries to outdo or undermine Doubleday...with expected results.

Soon after, Doubleday is given a chance to train a group of recruits. Ames makes sure to give Doubleday a most undisciplined group of Hillbillies from Kentucky. But using his noggin, Doubleday is able to get them into shape...a real credit to the Army. He also is promoted to an MP (Military Police) and is in charge of a unit of these lawmen. What's next? Well, a gang of 'fifth columnists'...and to see what this means, see the film.

This film was made during WWII and you can see that the comedy was intended as a form of positive propaganda...an attempt to galvanize the audience against the enemy. It's well written and fun.