"23-1/2 Hours' Leave" was originally a story by Mary Roberts Rinehart, an author hugely popular in her lifetime who is now largely forgotten. The story was filmed in 1919 as a starring vehicle for Douglas MacLean. He must have liked it, because MacLean obtained the film rights and produced this remake in 1937, with the action still set in Rinehart's original 1917. I once viewed a damaged print of the silent version that had a couple of reels missing, and I had difficulty following the story. This remake turns out to be radically different from its predecessor, omitting a couple of subplots and running gags that didn't help the silent version. But what it replaces them with isn't much of an improvement.
Allegedly we're on a cavalry base of the American Expeditionary Force during the Great War. The uniforms seem authentic enough, but the civilian clothes (and the marcelled hairstyle of actress Terry Walker) are firmly 1937 vintage. Who wrote this movie's dialogue? It's full of words that one almost never hears spoken in real life, such as 'sorrowfully' and 'cantonment'. And I was deeply annoyed that nearly every character in this movie refers to flapjacks as 'pattycakes'. I've studied the American slang of that time period -- military and civilian -- but I've never encountered that usage. Also, would a new auto in 1917 (with standard features) retail for $2,000? I doubt it.
This is one of those movies in which one sharpie (James Ellison) keeps breaking the rules and getting away with it, while the other characters stand on the sidelines and exclaim about how brilliant he is. Worse luck, his behaviour is implausible. Ellison is cast as a cavalry sergeant who wears non-regulation underwear and a tailored uniform (instantly rumbled as non-regulation); I just couldn't believe that a real non-commissioned officer would do this.
Oddly, this movie is a semi-musical: at unexpected moments, Ellison and some of the other cast members burst into song ... but this happens so seldom and so sporadically that the transitions into and out of the songs are much more unwieldy than they would be in a full-fledged musical. And the songs are quite lacklustre. Fans of Ward Bond will be intrigued that he sings briefly here, and very well! Terry Walker (who?) sings pleasantly and is nice to look at, but she shows very little screen presence. The best performance here is by Arthur Lake, in a characterisation very different from his usual Dagwood Bumstead performance.
A subplot about foreign spies is barely developed, and I couldn't believe that spies would waste their time on this cavalry regiment. The cavalrymen know in advance the date when they'll ship out for Europe: I know for a fact that the soldiers in the real AEF were *not* told when they'd ship out. A fight sequence in this movie, featuring dozens of brawling he-man soldiers in a duplex barracks, is easily the single worst-staged (and most implausible) brawl I've ever seen in decades of movie-watching ... with the men flinging cotton batting at one another, instead of throwing their fists. At least the silent version of this story correctly kept the apostrophe in its title. I'll rate this clunker just 2 points out of 10.
Allegedly we're on a cavalry base of the American Expeditionary Force during the Great War. The uniforms seem authentic enough, but the civilian clothes (and the marcelled hairstyle of actress Terry Walker) are firmly 1937 vintage. Who wrote this movie's dialogue? It's full of words that one almost never hears spoken in real life, such as 'sorrowfully' and 'cantonment'. And I was deeply annoyed that nearly every character in this movie refers to flapjacks as 'pattycakes'. I've studied the American slang of that time period -- military and civilian -- but I've never encountered that usage. Also, would a new auto in 1917 (with standard features) retail for $2,000? I doubt it.
This is one of those movies in which one sharpie (James Ellison) keeps breaking the rules and getting away with it, while the other characters stand on the sidelines and exclaim about how brilliant he is. Worse luck, his behaviour is implausible. Ellison is cast as a cavalry sergeant who wears non-regulation underwear and a tailored uniform (instantly rumbled as non-regulation); I just couldn't believe that a real non-commissioned officer would do this.
Oddly, this movie is a semi-musical: at unexpected moments, Ellison and some of the other cast members burst into song ... but this happens so seldom and so sporadically that the transitions into and out of the songs are much more unwieldy than they would be in a full-fledged musical. And the songs are quite lacklustre. Fans of Ward Bond will be intrigued that he sings briefly here, and very well! Terry Walker (who?) sings pleasantly and is nice to look at, but she shows very little screen presence. The best performance here is by Arthur Lake, in a characterisation very different from his usual Dagwood Bumstead performance.
A subplot about foreign spies is barely developed, and I couldn't believe that spies would waste their time on this cavalry regiment. The cavalrymen know in advance the date when they'll ship out for Europe: I know for a fact that the soldiers in the real AEF were *not* told when they'd ship out. A fight sequence in this movie, featuring dozens of brawling he-man soldiers in a duplex barracks, is easily the single worst-staged (and most implausible) brawl I've ever seen in decades of movie-watching ... with the men flinging cotton batting at one another, instead of throwing their fists. At least the silent version of this story correctly kept the apostrophe in its title. I'll rate this clunker just 2 points out of 10.