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7.2/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 7.2/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. A Hollywood Theme Song remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have twenty minutes to kill and you want to see what people thought was funny right after sound was invented, this is totally worth a look.
You should watch this if you like weird slapstick or if you want to see how early Hollywood made fun of its own clichés.
You will probably hate it if you can't stand high-pitched singing or if you expect a war movie to actually be about war. This isn't No Man's Land; it's more like a fever dream in a trench.
The movie starts with these soldiers in the Western Front, but they're all dressed like they're in a high school play. Everything is way too clean for a battlefield.
Our main guy is a "singing doughboy" who seems more worried about hitting his notes than getting shot. He just bursts into song at the most awkward times.
There is this one scene where he's singing about love while explosions are going off in the background. It feels like the movie is trying to be three different genres at once and failing at all of them in a charming way.
The highlight for me was definitely Ben Turpin as the general. If you don't know who he is, he's the guy with the famous crossed eyes.
Every time the camera cuts to him, I lost my place in the story because I was just staring at his face. It’s a distracting kind of funny that you don't really see anymore.
I noticed that the sound quality is really crunchy, like someone is crinkling wax paper right next to the microphone. It adds to the vibe, though.
There is a bit where a baby shows up—played by Billy Barty—and it is just bizarre. He’s in a little uniform and everything.
I think the movie gets better once you realize it's basically a parody of those big budget musicals that were clogging up theaters back then. It's like Trying to Get Along but with more grenades.
The mission he goes on involves a disguise that wouldn't fool a toddler. He just puts on a different hat and suddenly he's "behind enemy lines."
One thing that really stuck out was how loud the foley effects are. The sound of a door closing sounds like a cannon going off.
The "enemy" soldiers are just as goofy as the heroes. They spend a lot of time falling over things and looking confused.
There’s a girl, of course, because every 1930s movie needed a girl to look worried. Patsy O'Leary does a lot of pining while the singing happens.
The pacing is all over the place. It feels like they had ten minutes of jokes and ten minutes of filler and just mashed them together.
I actually found myself laughing at a joke that was probably meant to be serious. When the hero gets a medal, the way he holds it is just so dramatic for no reason.
It reminds me of A Close Shave in terms of how fast the gags come at you. You don't have time to process one before the next one hits.
The ending is very abrupt. It just kind of... stops? Like they ran out of film or the director just wanted to go to lunch.
It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s weirdly fascinating. It’s like looking at a postcard from a version of 1930 that never actually existed.
Don't go in expecting logic. Just enjoy the cross-eyed general and the terrible lip-syncing.
Sometimes the best movies are the ones that don't quite make sense. This is definitely one of those.
Overall, I'm glad I watched it even if I'll have that annoying theme song stuck in my head for a week. 🎬
IMDb 6
1913
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