O Sabichão

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.

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.

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.

This film essentially begins with a young man by the name of "Dorian 'Dodo' Doubleday" (William Tracy) being drafted by the United States Army and reporting for duty at his basic training site with several other fellow draftees not long afterward. It is then revealed that Private Doubleday has a photographic memory and, as a result, knows the Army regulations better than anyone. This includes the non-commissioned officer named "Sergeant Williams Ames" (Joe Sawyer) who has been tasked to train the new soldiers. Needless to say, this embarrasses Sergeant Ames who immediately decides to put him in his place. Unfortunately for Sergeant Ames, however, the officers appointed over him are quite impressed with Private Doubleday--so much so that they immediately send the young private to a non-commissioned officer course a few buildings away. To everyone's surprise, when he returns a short time later, he is now wearing the rank of First Sergeant. Absolutely enraged by this, Sergeant Ames begins to do everything he can think of to humiliate the young man. The problem, however, is that everything he tries backfires in a spectacular manner. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film turned out much better than I initially expected due in large part to the unique solutions Dorian Doubleday used to extricate himself from one highly unlikely situation after another. Everything was totally absurd--but quite humorous at the same time. And although this is a rather short comedy, I still found it to be quite enjoyable, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.