Tanks a Million

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.

This is the first movie in the Sgt Doubleday series, I think seven were made. This movie was made before U.S. involvement in WW II, but after it was becoming obvious we would get involved. This is a fun little bit of fluff with out to much plot.

O.K. Here comes some of the plot, so read on at your own risk! Doubleday (William Tracy) is a drafted and and is enthusiastic about becoming a member of the Army. He remembers every thing he reads, so he get a hold of some military manuals, reads them and "knows" every thing about the army. So in no time he is off to NCO training to become a Sargent. This drives Sgt Ames (Joe Sawyer) crazy. All this takes about the first ten minutes of the movie. The rest of the movie is Sgt Ames trying to catch Sgt Doubleday messing up, and Doubleday coming out smelling like a rose.

One other thing the actor James Gleason is not the actor Jackie Gleason of "The Honey Mooners" fame.

Starting in the late 1930s, Hal Roach Studios began making less and less one and two-reel shorts (such as those of Laurel and Hardy, the Little Rascals and Charley Chase) and began making short feature-length films (about 60 minutes each). This seemed to be what the public wanted, so Roach made some changes. Additionally, his old money-makers (Laurel and Hardy) went independent--working for Fox and other studios (in hindsight, NOT a good decision by the boys). So, Roach started trying to develop new talent, such as his TOPPER films and a variety of cute comedies (such as NAZTY NUISANCE and TURNABOUT). In addition, he made a short series of WWII army films about Sergeant Doubleday (starring William Tracy) and this film, TANKS A MILLION, was the first.

Before I began watching it, I thought the film had two strikes against it, so I expect it to be at best a "time passer". First, like all these Roach films, it had a small budget and secondly, I haven't yet been very impressed by ANY of these later Roach films (in general, the humor seems VERY broad and the situations VERY contrived). So, with these very low expectations, I was hard to impress. Amazingly enough, I actually was quite charmed by this little sleeper. The character of Doubleday was a very likable guy and the situations he got himself into were often hilarious. In fact, compared to other similar products of the day from other studios, this one was better than Abbott and Costello's BUCK PRIVATES (from Universal) and at least as good as Bob Hope's CAUGHT IN THE DRAFT (from Paramount).

So why did I like it? Well, part of it was Tracy and his character. He was silly and very difficult to believe, but he was also so likable and nice that I really bought into the character. Plus, his nemesis, Sgt. Ames was a great foil and watching Ames try again and again and again to catch Doubleday messing up was great--especially when again and again his sneakiness blew up in his face!! Additionally, James Gleason was a very welcome addition as the Colonel. While far from my favorite character actor, in this film, he was perfect.

The film was a great blend of comedy, WWII propaganda meant to support the war effort and entertainment. While not the funniest film of the era, it is among the best and had me wanting more. Unfortunately, one of the follow-up films in the series (ABOUT FACE) was a severe let-down. I certainly hope that HAY FOOT (1942) and the other Doubleday films (made both during WWII and the Korean War) were better.

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.

Tanks a Million (1941)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Hal Roach comedy has William Tracy playing a new Army recruit with a photogenic memory, which drives everyone around him crazy. It really drives Sgt. Ames (Joe Sawyer) crazy because Tracy is soon bumped up to Sgt., which took Ames twenty years to reach. This is a pretty far fetched but mildly entertaining product piece of WW2. There are several laughs throughout but nothing big enough to make me go back and watch the film. Sawyer steals the show as the jealous Sgt. and Tracy manages a few laughs as the dorky brain. The film runs fifty-minutes and that's short enough for what's going on. Any longer would have made the film a real drag. This film received an Oscar nomination for Best Scoring of a Dramatic (!?!?!) Film.