SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Robert J. Maxwell This typical training camp film has a couple of things going for it. The screenplay by Guy Trosper has some improbably keen and sarcastic exchanges between Army draftee Tab Hunter and his superiors. "Is there any chance we can make a soldier out of you, Schaeffer?", asks his barracks sergeant. Hunter is lying on his bunk, looking sour. "I'm here because the Army has many guns pointed at my back but don't wait for me to become ardent -- you haven't got the time." Another admirable element of the film is the supporting cast, and Murray Hamilton in particular. Hamilton plays much the same character as the platoon sergeant that he did as the recruit with "a touch of ROTC" in "No Time For Sergeants," except here he's largely benign. That ironic grin is peerless.There are some amusing scenes too, which some people may not get. ("Turn your head and cough.") They were funnier at the time.Alas, that about does it for the more watchable features of the movie. The plot is straight out of a training-camp-movie textbook. An unprepared ordinary citizen, preferably a little spoiled, is forced into one of the armed services, overcomes some serious difficulties, and emerges from his chrysalis, a fully-fledged Blue Admiral. Often there are army games or maneuvers of one kind or another, in which he sheds his civilian ways and saves lives. You can see it in movies as diverse as "The Caine Mutiny" and "See Here, Private Hargrove." You can see the same plot in a Laurel and Hardy feature.The two leads -- Tab Hunter and the girl he left behind, Natalie Wood -- are both very attractive but neither is much of a performer. Pretty Natalie Wood would improve with time and with better parts but handsome Hunter had already plateaued although he'd just started a year or so before.The experience that Tab Hunter has in basic training in the Fifth Infantry Division is almost incredible. The mess hall has separate tables, seating for four, with table cloths and a vase of flowers on each. I went through boot camp and the mess deck looked more like James Cagney's berserk scene in Sing Sing in "White Heat" -- and I was just in the Coast Guard.None of the recruits calls the sergeants "sir." Instead they insult the sergeants to their faces. They're full of sarcastic comebacks to which the cadre reply with tolerant smiles. If anyone in MY company had been as snotty or negligent as Tab Hunter, he'd have wound up wearing a red arm band in a retraining company -- as I did.At any rate, if you want to see the U. S. Army brainwash a winsome young man and turn him into a clone of his platoon sergeant -- make a man out of a boy -- this is the movie to watch. It ends with the regiment marching proudly on the drill field and a band playing "The Caissons Go Rolling Along."

dougdoepke Spoiled rich kid (Hunter) is drafted into the army where he creates problems.For about a ten-year period from the smash-hit Mr. Roberts (1955) to the deepening involvement in Vietnam, Hollywood produced a spate of service comedies, including this one. These were movies trading on the lighter side of military service. They existed in what might be called the triumphant after-glow of WWII, and perhaps as a way of further forgetting that awkward war in Korea. Of course, Hollywood being Hollywood, liberties with real military service were taken, sometimes in wholesale lots. Nonetheless, comedies like Mr. Roberts, Operation Mad Ball (1957), Operation Petticoat (1959) were genuinely funny and harmless entertainment unless taken seriously.Few people, I expect, remember this entry and for good reason—it's not even amusing, let alone funny. Which means for one thing that folks familiar with Basic Training are not apt to overlook the many liberties taken, as other reviewers detail. Clearly, Warner Bros. intended the movie as a vehicle for its younger players, probably hoping for chemistry between Hunter and Wood. And that's the trouble. Hunter simply lacks the skills for what's actually a rather difficult role. Shaeffer needs to be not just arrogant, but also likable at some level. Unfortunately, Hunter's Pvt. Shaeffer is just obnoxious without the redeeming qualities that a Jack Lemmon or a Tony Curtis, for example, could have managed. And since Hunter's miscasting is in about every scene, the movie is more unpleasant than anything else. Wood's role as the girlfriend is clearly secondary to Hunter's, and one most any young actress less talented could have handled. But at least, the movie's a payday for such fine supporting players as Jones, Janssen, and especially the arch Murray Hamilton whose platoon sergeant is made to suffer indignities from a trainee no real sergeant would put up with. I'm just sorry Jim Garner wasn't young enough to bring his superb light-comedy skills to the lead role. Then the movie might have worked.

jak-766-401436 First saw this movie in 1965 the night before marksmanship qualification at Parris Island, I suspect that the reason they showed it to us is so that we could react to the slogan on the sign at the 11th Infantry's Headquarters. Yes, it was "Semper Fidelis"! The whole theater erupted each time that was shown. We also enjoyed the Sergeant's "Your behinds are grass, and I'm the lawnmower" because it was one of our DI's favorites; although with more colorful mode of expression.The movie itself was hilarious in its badness (except for Natalie Wood). We could not fathom anyone getting away with the crap that Tab Hunter's "Andy" was dishing; not even in the Army! The less said about Andy's 'heroics', the better.As for the romantic aspects, it was clear to all of us that Hunter's interest was not in Wood. No one (especially an actor as bad as Tab Hunter) could be within a mile of Natalie Wood and pretend such indifference. Even a great actor could not be indifferent.A nice piece of big studio fluff that is too bad to get made today.

moonspinner55 Tab Hunter plays a disgruntled college football star with bad grades who reluctantly joins the Peace Time Army, immediately getting on the wrong side of the other G.I.s with his surly attitude. I doubt, even in 1956, that Army officers would have put up with as many of Hunter's time-wasting shenanigans as they do here: he nods off and snores during a speech, he gets sarcastic and throws a few punches, his mother and former girlfriend both come for visits during Basic Training. The Fort Ord locations in California are well-captured, but this script seems conjured up by Hollywood persons unfamiliar with the milieu. For his part, Tab Hunter does almost nothing naturally as an actor. When he focuses on another performer, Hunter's intense stare makes him look furious--and when he's joshing or sweet-talking his mama, the smile is forced and nervous. Hunter isn't a bad actor, necessarily; there are one or two scenes where he seems in the moment. Still, both he and Natalie Wood are slumming here, giving about fifty-percent of what they've got. Supporting players Henry Jones, Jim Backus, Murray Hamilton, James Garner (in a small role), David Janssen, and even Alan King (as the proverbial barracks clown) do much better work than the stars. ** from ****