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.

Typical '40s-era service comedy in the Private Hargrove tradition with WILLIAM TRACY starring as a naive information specialist who drives his Army pals crazy with his inability to perceive when his fund of information is unwanted. JOE SAWYER is the gruff and tough Sgt. Ames that he drives up a wall in some amusing incidents as Ames tries to discipline the troops and Tracy is made Sgt. Dodo Doubleday on the basis of his total recall of army regulations.

Quite a few recognizable names in the supporting cast. NOAH BEERY, JR. and FRANK FAYLEN are amusing as army recruits (draftees) and DOUGLAS FOWLEY can be seen as an irate officer inspecting the troops.

JAMES GLEASON is the new post commander, but he doesn't arrive until the last twenty minutes of the film. Before that, it's Sawyer, Tracy and Fowler who get most of the laughs.

Summing up: Trivial bit of service humor, but strictly a B-film programmer of the low-budget kind.

This cute little pre-war comedy is typical fare for the era. Some nice performances make it a nice little catch for fans of immediate pre-war and wartime comedies. I found it by seeing it on James Gleason's filmography. The fine old character actor turns in one of his better performances as Col. "Spitfire" Barkley. Gleason would later gain notoriety for playing William Bendix's father-in-law in the movie version of Life of Riley and for supporting roles in films such as The Night of the Hunter.

I wasn't familiar with William Tracy, but he impressed me as the lead, "Dodo" Doubleday, a railroad information specialist, turned solider, with a photographic memory and a naïve inability to discern when his knowledge isn't wanted. Joe Sawyer is also amusing as the befuddled Sergeant Ames.

Tanks A Million was surprisingly nominated for an Oscar – for best musical score. I wouldn't have expected it to be nominated for any – although Gleason conceivably could have been in the running for best supporting actor in a comedy. Still, for clean, good old-fashioned fun, this is still a nice little movie.

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.

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.