Abroad with Two Yanks

Are you kiddin'? "Jim Carrey style comedy"?......Sorry, but this film's funny, Jim Carrey isn't!

I've been familiar with Bendix and O'Keefe for some years. Bendix for comedy and O'Keefe for straight roles like The Fighting Seabees among others.

While it's no classic, this film does garner it's share of laughs....Though, as a military historian, I still scratch my head over that oddball cameo on the helmets.

Leonard Maltin gives it a **1/2, callin' it a "breezy comedy".........I guess that works.

I guess where I'm going here is the fact that for about 1/3 of the film Bendix and O'Keefe are in drag! I have to confess that their drag portrayals impress me more than those of Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in the fabled "Some Like it Hot". For some odd reason they seem to revel in it on a Bugs Bunny level. You'd never figure a couple of macho tough guys like these to pull it off so well - would you?

Very funny film....Simple - but it works!

As I'm sitting down to write this review, I'm trying to remember pieces from the movie. Little things that I liked or didn't, particularly funny moments, etc.. I watched it about 24 hours ago and already I've forgotten most of it. All I mean to say by this cute little anecdote is that the film is quite forgettable. I enjoyed myself during it, laughed quite a few times.perhaps more of a chuckle. Yeah, that's a perfect metaphor for this film, it's a chuckle. Just like a chuckle, you enjoy it while it lasts, then quickly forget it. William Bendix and Dennis O'Keefe made a great team, and Helen Walker was very good at being utterly confused, but overall, 'Abroad With Two Yanks' was nothing more than a one night stand . or a chuckle Rating: 21/40

After a tour of duty in the South Pacific, an US cruiser returns to base in Australia much to the excitement of the sex starved crew. Old high school buddies and shipmates Jeff and Biff decide to go their separate ways - Biff tells Jeff he is going to the library rather than girl chasing just so that Jeff can't steal his girls. However Jeff still manages to steal away Joyce from Biff by pretending to be him. However Biff reveals him as a fraud, but it only starts Jeff down a road of further trickery to try and win Joyce.

I was attracted to this film by the pun in the title (either `abroad' or `a broad') but it really isn't worth hunting down. The film is basically a film that was made as much for a public audience as it was for screening for the military out on duty. As such it's a cheery affair with little mention of death or war other than gags at the start of the film about `japs' and so on. The plot is just the ramshackle escapades of two marines who are `fighin' the Japanese and chasin' the girls', except that here it is the same girl. It isn't very funny, inventive or clever but it is a typical moral raising comedy that would have been screened in the period.

The cast are very much the type of rough comedians that would have played in the music halls of years gone by, or giving shows for the marines like Bob Hope used to do. Koraski's Biff is pretty enjoyable as is O'Keefe's Jeff. They have a few good lines but really they play it exaggerated like cartoon characters. Walker is the typical blonde, pristine leading lady who is won over by the charms of the marines - just like they all dreamed of meeting in any port.

Overall this is a poor film that won't stick in your memory. It is amiable and amusing at best but it is very much of it's time and won't do the job today. It's worth seeing just to experience the genre but it'll be forgotten even before the end credits finish rolling!