1h 33min | Comedy, Musical, War | 31 December 1950
Director: Hal Walker
Stars: Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Polly Bergen.
(no choreographer)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042209/
Watched online, mediocre print.
Wow, I fell asleep at least 4 times trying to watch this.
We get at least 4 musical numbers, but they are few and far between. If they were edited together, they might make a decent short film. They have an actual dance routine, which felt pretty well rehearsed, so maybe it came from their live act, which would also explain the lack of choreography credit.
But the vast majority of the film is bad comedy at an Army base, supposedly during the war. Goldbricking and shirking responsibility is the order of the day. But even worse: Martin is mean to Lewis for the whole film. DM is cast as a sergeant with JL as a private, but they were supposedly buddies before enlisting. In the tradition of Hardy dominating Laurel, Moe dominating Larry, Curly, et al, and Abbott dominating Costello, Martin relentlessly dominates Lewis. But at the end, he's stripped of his rank, JL gets a stripe, and starts to dominate, but immediately relents and is sweet to DM.
Too dull to deserve a 4 (which indicates irritation), I beg myself never to watch this again.
3 indies, distr. Paramount, dir. Walker; 5-
