Compañeros de armas y puñetazos

By the early 1960s, attempts at screwball comedies were often strained. This service buddy film is certainly oddball, and frequently lurches into unsettlingly dramatic material, but it contains one of Tuesday Weld's very best performances: her scene at the fair with Jackie Gleason is amazingly touching and funny and (startlingly) romantic. Any film that can sustain a comic-romantic idyll between Tuesday Weld and Jackie Gleason must be given credit (it's the only truly romantic scene in Gleason's movie career).

While this scantily plotted 1963 comedy-drama is nothing to brag about in itself, what makes the film memorable (at least for me) is Jackie Gleason's superlative performance as Army MSgt Maxwell Slaughter. It seems the role of aging, overweight and fairly complacent career NCOIC was tailor-made for Gleason. OTOH, Steve McQueen overacts in his role as a young supply Sgt. Eustis Clay, who idolizes Slaughter and attempts to get him to quit the service and go into a business venture with him. It has been said that McQueen instinctively realized that Gleason was stealing the show and over-reacted, making himself look foolish in his comedic attempts. Tuesday Weld also delivers a fine performance in another tailor- made role as the pouty teenager, Bobby Jo Pepperdine, whom Gleason dates and inevitably forms a paternal attitude towards. Great chemistry between Gleason and her in their mutual scenes. Tom Poston and pre-Batman Adam West play small supporting roles as Army superior officers. Not much drama, but it is fascinating to watch Gleason actually bodyslam an adversary in a bar brawl! Besides the Gleason-Weld scenes, the most memorable ones involve the wistful monologues Gleason gives while standing before a full-length mirror in his office, as they reveal poignant insights into his character. As I've said, the film meanders, not really going anywhere, so the truncated ending is much of a surprise. If you don't care for Gleason too much, then you probably won't like "Soldier In The Rain" all that much either. However, if you are a Gleason fan, this film will be a delectable feast!

The unlikely pairing of Steve McQueen and Jackie Gleason generates surprising on-screen chemistry in this sweet little film depicting the equally unlikely friendship of enlisted man Eustis Clay and his mentor/idol Sgt. Maxwell Slaughter.

Country boy Eustis is counting the days until his hitch is up, while the erudite, knows-all-the-angles Maxwell has made a home of what Eustis calls "this stupid old army." Theirs is a rather symbiotic relationship; Maxwell guides and educates Eustis, as well as helping him out of his little scrapes, while Eustis, with his devil-may-care enthusiasm, coaxes Maxwell from his comfortable cocoon and into various adventures.

McQueen gives an uncharacteristically animated performance, while Gleason displays ample justification for his nickname, The Great One. Indeed, it can be imagined that Master Sargeant Slaughter is exactly the person Gleason would have become had he chosen a career in the military rather than show-business. There is not so much a story here as a series of episodes in the day-to-day lives of the two friends and the colorful characters with whom they interact. There is able support from Tom Poston as a clueless lieutenant ("What's the poop, Sargeant?"), Tony Bill as Eustis' own sort-of protégé and Tuesday Weld, demonstrating the versatility for which she was already coming to be known. A pre-Batman Adam West also shows up, and has one of the film's best lines. Escorting a Batallion Major to Poston's office, he says "This company's in charge of Lt. Magee." "You mean, Lt. Magee's in charge of this company," corrects the officer, to which West replies with an uncertain shrug, "Well....."

SOLDIER IN THE RAIN moves deftly from farce to drama, and at 88 minutes, packs a lot into a small package. One can't help but wonder what the set of this film was like. Both Gleason and McQueen were uncompromising, take-charge kind of guys and, with the possible exceptions of billiards and broads (excuse the terminology), probably found little common ground over which to relate. Maybe that was enough. Whatever the case, they play off of each other beautifully.

Ralph Nelson was a more than capable director who had associated with Gleason the previous year on "Requiem For a Heavyweight." He wisely lets the charisma of his two lead players dominate, and the result is an unusual but thoroughly charming picture. Not available on video except for a years-old VHS release, it may be hard to find, but catch it if you can. "Until that time, Eustis, until that time."

Update: It's now available from TCM (online only) as part of their "From the Vault" collection, at a very affordable price.

Ralph Nelson's "Soldier in the Rain" is a wonderful movie about the true power of friendship. But it is also Blake Edwards' film. He may only be the writer and producer, but it is as personal as his best films.

The movie features two exceptional performances from Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen, each cast against type here. The stunt works: Gleason is tender and convincing and McQueen is surprisingly funny and sensitive. I've read that the duo were real life friends and I think that adds another dimension to this film. We really believe that they could be friends and it makes the ending of this film, which I will only describe as a real surprise, even more effective. Like I stated before, Edwards only wrote and produced. But his script (co-written with Maurice Richlin, his co-writer on "The Pink Panther", "The Great Race" among others) doesn't preoccupy itself with the plot. It is content to simply observe these characters and Ralph Nelson has directed it well enough to make it a strong and honorable film.



More over, this film confirmed that "Days of Wine and Roses" was no fluke; that Blake Edwards was a talent that was here to stay. After making a string of disappointments ("Operation Petticoat" was a good film, but Edwards had no hand in the script and was only a contract director there), "Days" showed us a great new talent and "Soldier in the Rain" confirms it. After this, he would write and direct "The Pink Panther", which would make him bankable. "Soldier" is better than "Panther", but lesser known. Perhaps people bought into the mystique of "Panther" but wouldn't want to see a movie about character rather than plot. Hollywood must of thought the same, because "Soldier in the Rain' received zero nominations from the usual gang of idiots we call the Academy. Too bad.

"Soldier in the Rain" is not available on home video at this moment, unfortunately. It is a shame that some of Edwards' lesser films are easily available ("Switch", "High Time")but this neglected masterpiece isn't. I think that smart audiences that want to laugh, cry and think will love this tender little masterpiece. It airs often on AMC in both pan-and-scan and letterboxed versions. Tape it when you get a chance. You never know if it'll ever be seen again.

**** out of 4 stars

For all its heavy-handed sterotyping of hick Southerners(the real backbone of our armed services) and its Hollywood ham hocks accents, this film offers some fine-tuned dramatics and genuinely poignant moments. Gleason's performance couldn't be improved upon, and perhaps Tuesday Weld is just too pretty for some critics to be convinced she can act, but she demonstrates real pathos in her fair scene with Gleason, for instance. It's a shame someone didn't tell Steve McQueen to tone it down. Maybe they did and he didn't listen. He portrayal is too often off pace and far too broad. Goldman's story does not lend itself well to the grinning goofiness of, say, "No Time for Sergeants." McQueen's true acting genius does not come through here until the final scene and it's a shame. There are some fine moments throughout, nevertheless.