El tonto del batallón

When one views a Martin and Lewis film, one wasn't expect much I guess. You have Lewis's patented clowning around, and Martin's singing straight man. At War with the Army is the first movie I've seen of theirs as a team (I've seen other films with them as stars separately). It's somewhat interesting to watch them as a team. They play off each other quite well, even though the material here is quite treacly and quite hammy. You can probably predict that they're Army soldiers going into one hi-jinx after another in the barracks. This is taken from a stage play, not too sure if Martin and Lewis starred in the actual play, ( my guess is that they did). Not exactly Tony material.

One thing that did surprise me though, is what a showman Jerry Lewis is. His singing and dancing along with his comic timing is quite impeccable here, a sure sign of things to come.

A decade earlier, Abbott and Costello became movie stars with a pair of World War II military films, "Buck Privates" and "In the Navy." Here Martin and Lewis march in their bootsteps during the Korean War. The plotted and scripted comedy framework for this film may not be anything special, but the Martin and Lewis set pieces remain great. With hindsight, you can see the grounds for the pair's breakup this early in their career. Martin is charming when he's allowed to sing or do a solo bit, but his character is an unsympathetic bully to Lewis' hapless fumbler -- Bud Abbott at his most brutal to poor Costello.

The glimpses of bits of their stage and radio act, however, are funny -- their byplay before a band; their imitation of Bing Crosby (Martin, of course) and Barry Fitzgerald (Lewis)in "Going My Way"; Lewis in blonde drag (with a hairy chest showing over the v-neck of his dress) singing a husky-voiced torch song to Mike Kellin, and Martin's underplayed double-take and mumbled, "No, couldn't be," as he passes by them.

One special highlight is Polly Bergen in an early brief part as Martin's girlfriend. (The movie's credits read "introducing Polly Bergen," but IMDb lists two previous roles for her, one just a voice part.) This is Bergen before she had an absolutely perfect face with an absolutely perfect nose, but still, as Martin sings "You and Your Beautiful Eyes" to her, she is given a lengthy, star-making closeup in which she smiles and becomes luminous, and her future career is assured.

After stealing the shows with their supporting roles in "My Friend Irma" and its sequel "My Friend Irma Goes West" Paramount decided to build an entire film around their popular contract player comedy duo, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. This 1950 release was a huge hit that would inspire numerous other successful teamings before they split up in 1956. Placing the two of them on an army base and getting them involved in all sorts of crazy situations on and off the front lines adds up to some sheer hilarity and one of their best teamings.

For their new comedy team of Martin and Lewis Paramount acquired the rights to a short run play on Broadway entitled At War With The Army and adapted it for Dean and Jerry. Although they don't have all that much together time on screen, Dean and Jerry do have their moments individually and together.

At War With the Army was their first starring feature and while the vehicle seems stage bound in its first half, the second half more than makes up for it. Especially with Jerry Lewis on the obstacle course being 'helped' by Sergeant Mike Kellin.

Kellin, who was in the original Broadway cast, really competes with Lewis for the laughs in this film. His characterization as a brain dead drill sergeant is really good.

Dino gets to sing Tona Wanda Hoy in this film and while it sold a few platters he never got a real big hit out of a Martin and Lewis film until That's Amore in The Caddy.

At War With the Army bears some resemblance to the Abbott and Costello films Little Giant and The Time of Their Lives where Bud and Lou play separate roles and aren't really a team. Dean and Jerry do that here, but there's enough team work so their fans wouldn't be disappointed.

The film was directed by Hal Walker who did a few of their early films and who had good training as he did a Road picture or two with Paramount. They also did a takeoff of Going My Way with Jerry nailing Barry Fitzgerald down. Then again everyone said Dino sang like Bing anyway.

This is a fun WWII-era B&W movie, full of Jerry Lewis and his ridiculous goofiness! Featuring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in their first collaboration, this film gave our family some wonderful laugh relief from our January, cabin-fever suffering.

Jerry is a hapless private and Dean is the bossy First Sergeant of a slipshod platoon at a stateside training base. Jerry and Dean were friends who grew up in the same neighborhood before Uncle Sam made GIs out of them. All of the stereotypical military comedy characters are present, including the loudmouth drill instructor, the conniving supply sergeant, the doting corporal and the bumbling, hen-pecked company commander.

Most of the action takes place in the orderly room, but our favorite scene involved Jerry singing a love song...I don't want to reveal any more details, but I think Jim Carrey may have studied acting by watching Jerry Lewis movies.

My kids liked this film more than (the original) "The Nutty Professor", because of its lighter tone. I rate this comedy "8" on a scale of 1 to 10, and highly recommend it!