Here Come the Marines (1952)

Touches You

As Good As It Gets

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

In an earlier film, the Bowery Boys found themselves in the army. Well, now, once again, they are in the service...though by this point the films were less about a group of fellows but mostly about Sach (Huntz Hall) and Slip (Leo Gorcey). Considering they are not exactly kids any more (both were approaching mid-life) and how amazingly bone-headed the characters were, as you watch you are amazed that the US military would be THIS desperate for soldiers!When the film begins, Slip is drafted. Soon, his friends volunteer and Slip spends much of the early part of the film trying to keep them out of trouble...but to no avail. However, it turns out that Sach is the son of 'Hardhead' Jones--a sergeant who was apparently quite the soldier. In fact, based JUST ON THIS, Sach (who's IQ approaches that of a grapefruit) is made a sergeant and he spends most of the film lording this over his friends and making their lives miserable. However, despite his being a total dope, he's also much like Curious George...and every mistake turned out to be mistakenly GOOD and he kept getting promoted! But, when a nearly dead marine is discovered, Slip shows some amazing deduction skills and fans of the series would be shocked to see that he's actually pretty competent in getting to the bottom of all this. As for Sach, well, he's still Sach...This is a film that is far from the best material for the Bowery Boys plus the idea of a group of friends is all but gone. Instead of the usual friends, two completely forgettable guys are there but contribute nothing to the film. As a result, it's entertaining but really a film for the die-hard fans and the average viewer would be hard-pressed to see a reason to watch this one.

Sam Katzman never did worry about continuity for his Bowery Boys. Before Here Come The Marines the guys were in the army and navy both. But military service comedies are always good for laughs and the Bowery Boys were naturals for them.As the Marine Corps recruiting slogan goes, the Marines are looking for a few good men. So why would the Marines consider drafting the Bowery Boys? Don't those other armed forces talk to each other?The commandant of the base discovers that Huntz Hall's father was his sergeant in World War I and immediately makes Sach a sergeant. Like that sits well with Leo Gorcey given his natural leadership abilities. I don't think it takes much imagination to see where this is going.Guest performers include Paul Maxey who runs a gambling clip joint where Marines lose their hard earned pay and the beautiful Myrna Dell who is the come-on.No new ground for the series broken here.

An ordinary Bowery Boys comedy without much notoriety to make it stand out from other films in this series. When Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) gets a draft letter into the Marines, Sach (Huntz Hall) and the other "boys" join up too. It turns out that the dimwitted Sach is related to the old buddy of one of the higher-ups, and so he's immediately promoted to sergeant. This prestige goes to his head, and Sach becomes a hard task master to the rest of his pals. Relying on the simple notion of Sach being a tough boss does not leave room for much of a plot here, so tossed in is a subplot where the boys find a murdered marine on the side of the road and trace it to a crooked gambling joint (typical). ** out of ****

Between Abbott & Costello and The Bowery Boys, it would be a toss up as to who created more havoc on the country's service branches. I don't think A&C ever made it to the Marines though, so Slip, Sach and the gang have a leg up on their comic rivals.Along with the military hi-jinks, the Bowery Boys once again encounter a shady gambling operation, just like they did in "Jinx Money" and "Lucky Losers". This time, an unlucky 'two of hearts' introduces the gang to Jolly Joe Johnson (Paul Maxey) and his moll Lulu Mae (Myrna Dell). They specialize in conning the local military boys out of their pay by virtue of a rigged roulette wheel and a dicey dice table. Once Slip (Leo Gorcey) gets all the facts 'crucified' in his mind, he'll be ready to expose the whole operation and turn it over to the Feds.Say, did you notice something unusual in the opening scene at Louie's Sweet Shop? Every other Bowery Boys flick I've seen had the entrance to the store on the left. This time characters made their way into Louie's from the right. Maybe even more amazing, once the boys got relegated to KP duty in the mess, that ladle Sach (Huntz Hall) took out of the soup pot, you know, the one that vaporized in all the hot sauce - it was bigger than the one he put in! Except for the hole in the bottom of course.Well except for Slip's malapropisms, I wouldn't have known that a sergeant is ranker than a corporal, delightfully proved by Sach as he manages to keep on getting promoted following every goofy mix-up that turns out in his favor. Gorcey also lets out with one of his cleverest phrases ever when near the end of the story, he wishes to avoid a case of the 'delirium Trumans'.