Salute

I had just watched John Ford's first Talking film, "The Black Watch" (1929) with Victor McLaglen and Myrna Loy, and I was amazed at how well it worked. It was an odd, but interesting mixture of a James Bond type movie with a "Gunga Din" British- in-India flavor. I was amazed that Ford made such a great talkie his first time out.

I was expecting good things here, as the movie starts out with seemingly as a drama with a brother joining the Navy to rival his older brother who has a successful career in the Army. It quickly goes from drama to light comedy, much of it very light.

The Naval Academy atmosphere is quite nice and realistic looking, but it clashes with the small scope of the comedy. The best gag in the film is a rather homely guy trying to fill up a dance card for his sister. The Academy men expect that his sister will look like him and make up excuses for not offering to dance. When she turns out to be very cute, they all change their minds and try to get a chance to dance with her.

Its predictable, but mildly amusing.

Without a developed central conflict, one is left to appreciate some of the films occasional nice touches. This is an early talking appearance by Stepin Fetchit. He's quite funny here. There's a funny brief guest appearance by future star Lee Tracy as a Football announcer. Also John Wayne and Ward Bond deliver a few laughs. It is amusing watching Wayne throw a pie at one of the Navy recruits.

It is the major central romantic characters in the film, William Janney and Helen Chandler, who are dull and have little chemistry together. Chandler did go on to star in "Dracula" (1931), so it is interesting watching her doing comedy here.

George O'brien get star billing, but he is really a minor supporting character. He was apparently given star billing because he was far more famous than Janney. He had starred in two hit films with Janet Gaynor, "Blue Eagle" (1926) and. F. W. Munau's masterpiece, "Sunrise," (1927). This was Janney's first starring role.

Again, if you want to see Ford directing a great action-adventure early talkie, watch "The Black Watch," if you want to see Ford sputtering at directing a quirky, predictable and dull light comedy, watch this one.

Bad performances by George O Brian and William Janney as rival brothers who end up playing the big Army-Navy football game against each other. Steppin Fetchit is given a lot of screen time and his performance is embarrassing and racist by today's standards, but he might make you smile occasionally even while you wince;he is very charismatic.John Wayne has a few brief scenes as one of a trio of cadets who haze (very mildly) the hero.The best parts of the movie are the unusually crisp location filming of the real Annapolis circa 1929. The big football game is unexciting and has no surprises. There is one good performance by Frank Albertson whose spirited portrayal of the callow roommate who talks back to his C.O. is the film's highlight.No real John Ford touches in this programmer.

"Salute" is a John Ford co-directed film which features Ward Bond and John Wayne in prominent supporting roles. Sadly, it also features a LOT of Stepin Fetchit...a black character actor who is about as offensive as you can find back in 1929.

Midshipman Paul Randall (William Janney) is a new underclassman at the Naval Academy. Coincidentally, his brother, John, is a cadet at West Point...and they come from a very distinguished family. The story centers on Paul's experiences as a freshman and how he manages to hold up under near constant hazing from one particular upperclassman (Bond).

Despite Janny giving a nice performance and Wayne and Bond being in the film, it's also saddled with two problematic actors...Fetchit and Helen Chandler. I already mentioned Fetchit and his sub-human sort of characterization, but Chandler is a different story...she simply couldn't act. In "Dracula" she stared off into space a lot and had a real vacant look to her...and I thought perhaps she was directed to do this. But in "Salute", she's not much better and she lacked personality and was quite bland. As a result, it's a film I'd place in the time-passer category...not bad but not especially distinguished apart from being an early Wayne film.

Although his older brother "John Randall" (George O'Brien) is currently attending West Point, a young man fresh out of high school by the name of "Paul Randall" (William Janney) is excited at the opportunity to go to Annapolis where his grandfather, "Rear Admiral John Randall" (Lumsden Hare) had also attended many years before. Upon arriving there, however, he soon finds things much more difficult than he had previously imagined and, had it not been for a young woman named "Nancy Wayne" (Helen Chandler), he might not have been able to handle the stress. Yet as much as he appreciates Nancy and enjoys spending time with her, that quickly changes when one of John's female admirers named "Marian Wilson" (Joyce Compton) appears and suddenly begins to show an interest in him--and then John arrives, and things really get complicated for all concerned. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an okay film which, unfortunately, stands out more as a historical curiosity than a good romantic-comedy. Of special interest was the presence of both John Wayne (as "Midshipman Bill") and Ward Bond ("Midshipman Harold") in supporting roles. Likewise, the uniforms and equipment used by the football players in the Army-Navy game was also rather interesting as well. Be that as it may, even though this movie is quite dated, it still managed to pass the time fairly well, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Salute is an early talkie directed by John Ford and it will never rank in anybody's list of great John Ford films. He honed this particular genre of military academy films down to a science in much better films like The Long Grey Line and Wings Of Eagles.

George O'Brien and William Janney are brothers raised by different grandfathers, O'Brien by a general and Janney by an Admiral and they both go to the service academies of each. O'Brien being older got to West Point before Janney arrived at Annapolis.

Janney is always playing second fiddle to O'Brien and when O'Brien puts some moves on Helen Chandler who Janney has flipped over, that makes the Army/Navy game a bit more personal than usual.

John Wayne and Ward Bond are a pair of upper classmen in Annapolis who take Janney over the coals. Best performance in the film is from Frank Albertson as Janney's smart mouth roommate.

It was interesting to see both Wayne and Bond before either of them was any kind of a name. The integration of newsreel footage of the Army/Navy game was well done by Ford, very similar to how he used newsreel film from Ireland in The Plough And The Stars. But Salute is a film for John Wayne or John Ford completists.