Wallace Ford is a small-time crook in New York who has to flee to Great Britain. Once there, through a series of misunderstandings, he finds himself a recruit in the British Army, vying for the affection of Sergeant-Major Frank Cellier's daughter, Anna Lee, with John Mills. Mills was near the start of his long career in which he played many any army man, starting as a raw recruit in the previous year's REGAL CAVALCADE. He would be promoted out of the ranks during the Second World War and reach the rank of Field Marshall in 1969's OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR, amidst nearly three quarters of a century in which he was a bulwark of British film actors.This service comedy is a fairly standard affair, although a good deal of pleasure is available. Ford sings and dances, as does gorgeous Grace Bradley as a show girl. There's an exciting battle sequence and editor Charles Saunders offers some fine montage work of British soldiers training and on parade. Director Raoul Walsh, on a working vacation from the U.S. knew how to mix comedy and savagery and, within the limits of late-1930s delicacy, he does so ably.

GB under the command of Michael Balcon as production head decided to aim its productions at the American market.Unfortunately as this film shows it would have missed its mark by a mile.As Rachel Low in her estimable book on British Film Production in the 30s says,either they shows actors of insufficient stature or those who were of sufficient stature didn't come up to the mark.Wallace Ford is after all an amiable enough actor but by no stretch of the imagination was he a star.So there was little likelihood that he would draw the customers in the states.Even employing Raoul Walsh as director is nullified by the longueurs of the first half when clearly as a quid pro quo to the army we see drilling and marching and bands playing so that the film grinds to a halt.Ironically at the end the British Army are shown as all conquering in the Asian conflict whereas a few years later they were routed by the Japanese army.It is little surprise that shortly after this film was made Gaumont British closed down their production arm and Shepherds Bush studios and was eventually sold off t rank.A sad end to a misguided dream.

I am writing this after watching only nine minutes of this film -- !! -- but I'm already so excited! What a fabulous storyteller is this Raoul Walsh, and he does it with such ease. The first nine minutes are a veritable compendium of storytelling technique: the cuts are fast (average shot length 3 seconds), and yet in the midst of it are efficient, meaningful re-framings, dolly shots, pans, etc. And the verve! Opening shot: standard Times Square at night, then another, then a third (I think), finally to medium shot of Wallace Ford striking a match on the ass of a chorus girl! -- on a poster; then: the chorus girl in question, on stage, doing her number. It's wise-ass, straightforward and charmingly naive all at once. OK, back to the movie!...later, having watched the rest:which turns out to be terrific. Walsh really thinks visually, and especially in terms of action: he RHYMES visually: there is an scene early on where Wallace Ford, escaping frantically from the police, tumbles head first into a window and to safety. Striking enough, but there is a strong payoff at the end: Ford, as lonely advance guard to his regiment, arrives at the besieged Chinese city where Anna Lee (his love and also John Mills's) is captive in the embassy -- and tumbles into the window. The fugitive and the hero perform the same action -- thus telling us that it's the same man, but made greater by circumstances. When Mills arrives at the head of the regiment, Lee is relieved as only a woman in love can be, kisses him: reaction shot: Ford, realizing; Ford then (within seconds) sacrifices himself. It's amazingly efficient, and yet not unfeeling. And the death scene, while brief, would not be unworthy of John M. Stahl (who would, no doubt, have slowed it down a good deal). Quite a picture. And if you're American you'll never see it. Fortunately, the French have a much greater interest in our patrimony than we have, and this is available (in a box set with "The Revolt of Mamie Stover") on Region 2 DVD, with a short appreciation by a French critic (laudatory and interesting, but in French only, no English subtitles). Well worth seeing! (though only 8 out of 10, since the "romance" aspect is -- until the excellent conclusion -- pretty routine).

You'll either love it or hate it. John Mills probably hated it, playing a decidedly secondary role as British straight man to Wallace Ford's eccentrically comic Yankee soldier who has somehow found his way into the British army. Ford's wise-cracking character steals every scene and the only question is whether he'll also steal John Mills' girl.From its outset the movie tries to achieve too much - it wants to be a comedy, a romance, a serious drama and a military propaganda piece. It's hard to strike the right balance between so many competing objectives and the inevitable result is that it does not achieve distinction in any ofthem. Just one of the numerous imbalances in the movie is the inclusion of too many lengthy items of newsreel footage showing ranks of military horsemen and precision marching foot soldiers training in Britain in the late 1930s. These skills seem woefully unsuitable for the imminent mechanized blitzkrieg about to engulf Europe as the movie was being made. It's sad confirmation of the adage that every army is only prepared to fight its previous war.