Tanks a Million

Despite quite an impressive feat of memory on the radio, "Dodo" (William Tracy) looks every inch the hapless type when he joins the US Army, and the already accident-prone "Sgt. Ames" (Joe Sawyer) has his eyes on him for some fun. Before he gets the chance, though, this fella manages to impress one of the officers with his astonishingly precise knowledge of the military code and is soon given three stripes and command of a disparate platoon who have little interest in following his orders. This has to be manna from heaven for his new nemesis, especially when the Major (William Gould) catches the squad barefoot on parade. "Dodo" is quick-witted, though, and concocts the first of many responses that save his bacon, and ultimately, that of his squaddies too. It is a bit of a one-joke film at the start, and is probably quarter of an hour too long, but there is quite a fun dynamic between Tracy and both Sawyer and James Gleason who appears towards the end as their colonel, with a slightly more cerebral series of slapstick army humour than I was expecting. It is cheap and cheerful comedy fodder that you are unlikely to ever remember, but it's enjoyable enough.

Tanks a Million was the first of a series of films that starred William Tracy as an ingenuous army recruit with a knack of falling into good luck that is drives old time sergeant Joe Sawyer to his wit's end. I've never seen any of these films before I hope the others are as funny.

James Gleason is also along for the ride in this series as the cantankerous commanding officer of the post. As always Gleason is wonderful.

The gimmick in this film is that William Tracy as 'Dodo' Doubleday has a photographic memory and he's memorized the Army's book of rules. He's not brilliant, he's a milder version of an idiot savant, possibly Dustin Hoffman could play him if they ever wanted to make an updated version of these films. He arrives at the fort a young draftee and his knowledge of the Army manual gets him made a sergeant in one day which Sawyer took 10 years to learn.

Film fans might better remember Tracy as Misto from the Brother Rat films and as another ingenuous recruit in To The Shores of Tripoli. Tracy apparently had these characters down pat.

Hal Roach produced these films, cheaply made of course, but with some good comedy writing in them and good performances by some fine character actors.

Tanks a Million (1941)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Hal Roach comedy has William Tracy playing a new Army recruit with a photogenic memory, which drives everyone around him crazy. It really drives Sgt. Ames (Joe Sawyer) crazy because Tracy is soon bumped up to Sgt., which took Ames twenty years to reach. This is a pretty far fetched but mildly entertaining product piece of WW2. There are several laughs throughout but nothing big enough to make me go back and watch the film. Sawyer steals the show as the jealous Sgt. and Tracy manages a few laughs as the dorky brain. The film runs fifty-minutes and that's short enough for what's going on. Any longer would have made the film a real drag. This film received an Oscar nomination for Best Scoring of a Dramatic (!?!?!) Film.

This is the first movie in the Sgt Doubleday series, I think seven were made. This movie was made before U.S. involvement in WW II, but after it was becoming obvious we would get involved. This is a fun little bit of fluff with out to much plot.

O.K. Here comes some of the plot, so read on at your own risk! Doubleday (William Tracy) is a drafted and and is enthusiastic about becoming a member of the Army. He remembers every thing he reads, so he get a hold of some military manuals, reads them and "knows" every thing about the army. So in no time he is off to NCO training to become a Sargent. This drives Sgt Ames (Joe Sawyer) crazy. All this takes about the first ten minutes of the movie. The rest of the movie is Sgt Ames trying to catch Sgt Doubleday messing up, and Doubleday coming out smelling like a rose.

One other thing the actor James Gleason is not the actor Jackie Gleason of "The Honey Mooners" fame.

The movie starts with Bill Tracy as Dodo Doubleday, proving his incredible memory on a radio talk show. He joins the army after memorizing the regulations, which gets him quickly promoted to sergeant. His youth and inexperience bothers the other NCO's, namely Sgt. Ames (Joe Sawyer), who spends the movie trying to get Doubleday in trouble. But because of is inherent honesty and cleverness, Doubleday is able to bumble through the requisite series of mishaps and inspire loyalty in what looked to be a renegade unit. It's a fun film with good gags and good jokes, and my hat is off to James Gleason for his role as Col. Barkley.

Did I mention the series of mishaps? Or the girl (Elyse Knox)? For 50 minutes, TANKS A MILLION is an good dose of period comedy which holds up very well.