As You Were

This is the seventh of eight Sergeant Doubleday films. William Tracy played the goofy but likable Doubleday and his sometime nemesis/sometime friend, Sergeant Ames, was played by Joe Sawyer. I've seen all but two of these films and I just happened upon the last two by mistake. I rented a B-movie from Netflix ("Gasoline Alley") and it included the final two Doubleday films as bonus films. Not all of them were great, but several of the films (especially the first, "Tanks A Million") were exceptional--especially given their small budgets. So which is "As You Were"--one that isn't so great or one that's exceptional? At under one hour, this is among the shortest films in the series. Oddly, despite its short running time, a chunk of the first portion of the film is simply lifted from "Tanks a Million"--meaning that they really didn't do all that much in "As You Were" compared to the other Doubleday films.

The film begins with Doubleday no longer in the army. However, when he hears old Sergeant Ames recruiting soldiers, Doubleday is convinced to re-enlist--much to Ames' chagrin. It's odd, as Ames completely hates Doubleday in this film--much like he did in the first couple films. However, in the films in between, they became friends---and yet, oddly, this is forgotten--as if the writer never saw all the previous films. And, like the earlier films, every time Ames tries to get Doubleday in trouble, it ends up backfiring onto him. Eventually, it looks as if Ames' efforts might just get them BOTH into huge trouble. Can Doubleday manage to find a way to get them on the Colonel's good side--as well as get the Colonel to forget that they were caught in WAC's clothing? Is this, perhaps, the first case of 'Don't Ask/Don't Tell' in army history? All in all, this is neither a very good nor a poor entry in the series. The writing was inconsistent but also funny in places and easy to enjoy. Worth seeing but not one you should rush to get on DVD.