Pack Up Your Troubles

Pack up Your Troubles is a joint vehicle for spunky, talented Jane Withers and zany comedy masters, The Ritz Brothers, Zanuch short- changed the Ritz Brothers (who intended to leave Fox" by second billing them to young Miss Withers. Jane performs a musical number and an impersonation of George M. Cohan (who was still well-known in 1939) and Eva Tanguay, the biggest of vaudeville headliners, but unknown by 1939. The Ritzes open the movie with A comedy and song routine that is supposed to tell the film audience why they could no longer get vaudeville gigs and thus had to join the Army to keep body and soul together. Sadly that is the last time we get to see a Ritz routine, so there is no precision dancing. Pack up Your Troubles seems less like a 20th Century Fox film than one from Universal, the boys' next studio, but it is better than its reputation. By the way, demeaning the Ritz Brothers is a demonstration of poor judgment. They may not be to everyone's taste, but Harry Ritz, along with Chaplin, Frank Fay and Ted Healy were the four most influential comedians of their era to other comedians. Ask Mel Brooks.

I like the movies of Jane Withers, the Shirley Temple of the B movies. However, in this one, she is paired with the Ritz Brothers. As usual, Al, Harry and Jimmy pall very quickly in this World War I story about how American Jane Withers, who has been living in the war zone, goes to rescue her father the spy, who is trapped in Germany.

It sounds improbable. Yet if it weren't for the comedy interludes of the Ritz brothers, you wouldn't have time to notice. Director Bruce Humberstone, who never got out of the Bs, directs at speed and the second unit work is very good; Miss Withers is quite believable as a terrified girl while sneaking through the lines under fire. Lots of other talent is on display, including Fritz Leiber as a one-legged French cobbler, Stanley Fields doing his Wallace Beery imitation, Joseph Schlidkraut as Jane's father, and a very pretty Lynn Bari, who smiles charmingly as she does a cleaned-up can-can. Miss Withers' solo song has music by Jules Styne.

All in all, superior example of the entertainment that one of the big studios' B department could do. If it weren't for the Ritz Brothers, it would be excellent.

In 1932, Laurel & Hardy made a film by the same name. And, like this 1939 film, it's about WWI and an orphan! Confusing, huh? Well, not so much because this 1939 film also features the Ritz Brothers and there is no way that this 'comedy' team would EVER be mistaken for Laurel & Hardy. Heck, they weren't even good enough to be in the same league as the Three Stooges or even Wheeler & Woolsey. I would venture to say that they were the most obnoxious and untalented comedy team in movie history! Fortunately, they are used in the film rather sparingly and it's a Jane Withers starring vehicle. However, had they been eliminated from the movie, it certainly would have been better.

The film begins with the Ritz Brothers joining the cavalry during WWI. When their unit arrives in France, they meet a nice girl, Colette--who seems VERY American. Her mother is supposed to have been an American and her father a Frenchman--but she sure sounds American! Regardless, she apparently is an orphan yet has a sweet personality--sort of the role that Shirley Temple usually handled. But, unlike Shirley, Jane later becomes more of a child hero--sneaking through the German lines in order to save the day for the Allies. Unfortunately, the Ritz Brothers tag along to help.

So is the film any good? Well, it has its flaws but the film is enjoyable as a simple time-passer. Jane helps overcome the Ritz Brothers and the overall product is decent. Plus, while these obnoxious brothers are in the film, it's fortunately in small doses and they don't anchor the movie.

By the way, the film is filled with strange anachronisms. Sure, the Germans all speak English and drive cars circa 1930s but the part that really made me laugh was when the mule gave birth to a baby mule. Mules do NOT work that way--they are sterile offspring of a horse and a donkey!