Call Out the Marines

This grade Z programmer makes an attempt to recapture the chemistry between McLaglen & Lowe from WHAT PRICE GLORY? It only manages to be a thorough embarrassment to everyone involved.

It is hard to decide whether the foolish spy plot, the poorly timed low comedy -- McLaglen seems stunned throughout the procedure and Lowe acts as if he is on stage -- or the occasional musical numbers (such as "Zaranda", sung in a rather limp-wristed manner by marines) is the dreariest, but they are all in the running, abetted by production values that glare in their cheapness. Even the talented Binnie Barnes and usually reliable Franklin Pangborn can't raise a chuckle. Give this one a miss.

I chanced upon this and found myself laughing at the stupidity cascading across the screen. Just to give you a notion of where this film is at: during a nightclub number the hostess pulls off her garter belt and tosses it into a crowd of marines and other soldiers. This causes a riot as the men fight and crash around the room in a desperate chase to grab the garter belt. The garter belt starts jumping around the room by itself! Not a lot, just enough for you to be completely startled by the weirdness. Later the two heroes are in the camp shower room shaving. One yells out "TWEEZERS!", a hand reaches into the frame and gives him a pair of tweezers. He proceeds to pluck his eyebrows! The final chase is typical but actually filmed better then several similar Abbott & Costello or Laurel and Hardy chases from the same period.

Hey most wartime fodder is unwatchable, this wasn't a classic but it didn't hurt either.

The tail end of McLaglan and Lowe's adventures as Flagg and Quirt from WHAT PRICE GLORY (the names are marginally changed) is a piece of production line entertainment that turns the battling buddies into Abbott & Costello substitutes complete with another undercrancked chase for a finale.

Things could be worse. Expert Technicians and support cast make it all move along quite nicely and there's some knowing references to fifteen years before or our finding the pair reduced to wheeling round a gout case and sweeping up at the race track.

Very evocative of WW2 entertainment. Generous padding with night club numbers.