O Palhaço do Batalhão

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.

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.

This is a fun WWII-era B&W movie, full of Jerry Lewis and his ridiculous goofiness! Featuring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in their first collaboration, this film gave our family some wonderful laugh relief from our January, cabin-fever suffering.

Jerry is a hapless private and Dean is the bossy First Sergeant of a slipshod platoon at a stateside training base. Jerry and Dean were friends who grew up in the same neighborhood before Uncle Sam made GIs out of them. All of the stereotypical military comedy characters are present, including the loudmouth drill instructor, the conniving supply sergeant, the doting corporal and the bumbling, hen-pecked company commander.

Most of the action takes place in the orderly room, but our favorite scene involved Jerry singing a love song...I don't want to reveal any more details, but I think Jim Carrey may have studied acting by watching Jerry Lewis movies.

My kids liked this film more than (the original) "The Nutty Professor", because of its lighter tone. I rate this comedy "8" on a scale of 1 to 10, and highly recommend it!

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!

'At War With The Army' starts off a bit messy and much of the humour feels a little dated. The first half hour is a little out of place but some of the jokes get you through it. However, it is the latter half that I enjoyed the most. The slapstick and situational comedies keep the viewer highly entertained, whether it's the sequence with Lewis dressed in drag and adjusting his voice trying to sound like a woman (having the effect opposite to the intended). I also enjoyed the songs in this part of the movie. It is perhaps common opinion that Martin and Lewis are a formidable comedic duo on screen. Their impressions in the final sequence and the on screen banter are amongst the highlights of 'At War With The Army' and the plus, easily outweigh the negative. This may not be the best of what the duo have accomplished but thanks to them it's good enough entertainment.