O Palhaço do Batalhão

After stealing the shows with their supporting roles in "My Friend Irma" and its sequel "My Friend Irma Goes West" Paramount decided to build an entire film around their popular contract player comedy duo, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. This 1950 release was a huge hit that would inspire numerous other successful teamings before they split up in 1956. Placing the two of them on an army base and getting them involved in all sorts of crazy situations on and off the front lines adds up to some sheer hilarity and one of their best teamings.

A decade earlier, Abbott and Costello became movie stars with a pair of World War II military films, "Buck Privates" and "In the Navy." Here Martin and Lewis march in their bootsteps during the Korean War. The plotted and scripted comedy framework for this film may not be anything special, but the Martin and Lewis set pieces remain great. With hindsight, you can see the grounds for the pair's breakup this early in their career. Martin is charming when he's allowed to sing or do a solo bit, but his character is an unsympathetic bully to Lewis' hapless fumbler -- Bud Abbott at his most brutal to poor Costello.

The glimpses of bits of their stage and radio act, however, are funny -- their byplay before a band; their imitation of Bing Crosby (Martin, of course) and Barry Fitzgerald (Lewis)in "Going My Way"; Lewis in blonde drag (with a hairy chest showing over the v-neck of his dress) singing a husky-voiced torch song to Mike Kellin, and Martin's underplayed double-take and mumbled, "No, couldn't be," as he passes by them.

One special highlight is Polly Bergen in an early brief part as Martin's girlfriend. (The movie's credits read "introducing Polly Bergen," but IMDb lists two previous roles for her, one just a voice part.) This is Bergen before she had an absolutely perfect face with an absolutely perfect nose, but still, as Martin sings "You and Your Beautiful Eyes" to her, she is given a lengthy, star-making closeup in which she smiles and becomes luminous, and her future career is assured.

When one views a Martin and Lewis film, one wasn't expect much I guess. You have Lewis's patented clowning around, and Martin's singing straight man. At War with the Army is the first movie I've seen of theirs as a team (I've seen other films with them as stars separately). It's somewhat interesting to watch them as a team. They play off each other quite well, even though the material here is quite treacly and quite hammy. You can probably predict that they're Army soldiers going into one hi-jinx after another in the barracks. This is taken from a stage play, not too sure if Martin and Lewis starred in the actual play, ( my guess is that they did). Not exactly Tony material.

One thing that did surprise me though, is what a showman Jerry Lewis is. His singing and dancing along with his comic timing is quite impeccable here, a sure sign of things to come.

This is Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis' first STARRING film--some reviews have said that this was their first film, though this was "My Friend Irma" from the previous year and "My Friend Irma Goes West" came out a few months before "At War With the Army". Because it was such an early film, the style and chemistry of the movie certainly isn't what you might expect for the team. The first big difference you'll notice is Jerry's musical number in his first scene! The next is that there really isn't much chemistry between them--as if it's a "Martin VERSUS Lewis" film! All too often, Dean yells at Jerry--and there's nothing all that funny about this. Any sort of camaraderie between them is missing. And, oddly, Jerry plays a guy who is married! The film is an army comedy--a type of film that was very popular around 1940-1941 but had a bit of a resurgence in the 1950s--with films like this one, "No Time for Sergeants" and "Jumping Jacks". Compared to such classic films as these plus "Caught in the Draft", "Buck Privates" and "Tanks a Million", "At War With the Army" comes up very short--mostly because it just doesn't have the laughs or chemistry the other films had.

Before joining the Army, Jerry and Dean had been friends. Now, Dean's a sergeant and Jerry is a lowly private. And, quite often, Dean bosses Jerry about--sort of like some sort of slave. But most of the film consists of Jerry doing his thing and Dean doing his--and not at all like a team. As a result, the overall plot isn't particularly good but the viewer instead is waiting for good moments--little gems that appear here and there. One of the best is seeing Jerry in drag--he made a very, very interesting (and hairy) blonde! The reaction of everyone in the bar was priceless! And, some of the songs aren't bad. But again, these are only moments within an otherwise humdrum film.

Overall, this is a film that is a must-see for Martin & Lewis fans...otherwise, eminently skip-worthy!

For their new comedy team of Martin and Lewis Paramount acquired the rights to a short run play on Broadway entitled At War With The Army and adapted it for Dean and Jerry. Although they don't have all that much together time on screen, Dean and Jerry do have their moments individually and together.

At War With the Army was their first starring feature and while the vehicle seems stage bound in its first half, the second half more than makes up for it. Especially with Jerry Lewis on the obstacle course being 'helped' by Sergeant Mike Kellin.

Kellin, who was in the original Broadway cast, really competes with Lewis for the laughs in this film. His characterization as a brain dead drill sergeant is really good.

Dino gets to sing Tona Wanda Hoy in this film and while it sold a few platters he never got a real big hit out of a Martin and Lewis film until That's Amore in The Caddy.

At War With the Army bears some resemblance to the Abbott and Costello films Little Giant and The Time of Their Lives where Bud and Lou play separate roles and aren't really a team. Dean and Jerry do that here, but there's enough team work so their fans wouldn't be disappointed.

The film was directed by Hal Walker who did a few of their early films and who had good training as he did a Road picture or two with Paramount. They also did a takeoff of Going My Way with Jerry nailing Barry Fitzgerald down. Then again everyone said Dino sang like Bing anyway.