At War with the Army

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!

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.

Writers: James B. Allardice (based on a play by), Fred F. Finklehoffe (written for the screen by)

Yep, Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis are in the army. No telling how they got there. All that is known is that 1st Sgt. Vic Puccinelli (Dean Martin) is desperate to go overseas for some action; Pfc. Alvin Korwin (Jerry Lewis), not as comedic as usual is just trying to stay out of trouble.

Capt. Ernest Caldwell the titular head of the unit, answers to his wife. A beautiful girl walks into the office which the wife knows she's PG but nothing more. So, it's up to Capt. Ernest Caldwell to track down the father and make an honest woman of her.

She can see the environment and can anticipate the comedy of errors.

'At War With The Army' starts off a bit messy and much of the humour feels a little dated. The first half hour is a little out of place but some of the jokes get you through it. However, it is the latter half that I enjoyed the most. The slapstick and situational comedies keep the viewer highly entertained, whether it's the sequence with Lewis dressed in drag and adjusting his voice trying to sound like a woman (having the effect opposite to the intended). I also enjoyed the songs in this part of the movie. It is perhaps common opinion that Martin and Lewis are a formidable comedic duo on screen. Their impressions in the final sequence and the on screen banter are amongst the highlights of 'At War With The Army' and the plus, easily outweigh the negative. This may not be the best of what the duo have accomplished but thanks to them it's good enough entertainment.

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.