Salute to the Marines (1943)

Well Deserved Praise

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

What begins as a feel-good-human-interest story turns into a mystery, then a tragedy, and ultimately an outrage.

MGM did this 1943 film in color which was rare doing wartime in those years for any studio to use. Probably 20th Century Fox filmed in color the most, still even their output was limited.Salute To The Marines stars Wallace Beery in one of his few color features and he brings his gruff, but lovable persona into the part of a training sergeant who is stationed in the Phillipines training new recruits for jungle combat which was thought by some to be inevitable. In fact a very farsighted commandant of the Marine Corps John Lejeune determined back in the early Twenties that the Marine Corps special mission was for amphibious landings. This is what the Beery character is working at when he gets an assignment to train Filipino civilians to fight.But a character like Beery would NEVER have been training anyone. The plot premise is that Beery, a thirty year veteran of the Corps would have missed every combat engagement in the Marines had which included Mexico, World War I, Haiti, Nicaragua etc. Now somewhere down the line he'd have been assigned some action or he wouldn't be training anyone, let alone rise to the rank of Sergeant Major.Still train he does and his civilian trainees prove adequate to the task even though they're not the most disciplined bunch.The climax is when the Japanese come Beery also proves adequate in fighting a delaying action after the Japanese bomb the church where he and wife Fay Bainter are attending services. This was on the same day where the Japanese were also doing a job on Pearl Harbor. MGM did a far better film a year earlier about the Phillipine campaign and the last stand on Bataan with Robert Taylor. That one holds up far better than Salute To The Marines.Shoehorned into the story is a kindly German store owner played by Reginald Owen who shows his true Nazi colors as the first Japanese troops land. Beery makes short work of him. The US Marines deserved a far better film than Salute To The Marines which is a dated relic of dubious propaganda value even then.

First of all, the Marine who forgot his extra shoelaces would have been verbally chewed out with foul language, probably a physical beating, and doing extra chores. The sergeant would not be giving any rational explanation why you should be carrying extra shoe laces. Back in those days, sergeants did not have to give any logical, practical, reasonable explanations for stuff like that. They tell you to do something,and you did it.Like the movie The War against Mrs. Hadley, it is totally impossible for children of enlisted men and NCOs to have a relationship with officers. The same thing could be said for people of different economic backgrounds to marry each other. Let's face it America was a social class/caste system based the monetary system and political and religious ideologies. Almost all of the officers for the 19th and 20th centuries came from the upper and rich classes families. They only marry people within their social, political, and economic classes. Even today, there is no contact between the officers, NCOs, and enlisted particularly their children when they are off duty and rich people do not marry people from the lower social and economic backgrounds plus the kind of job you have. Why do you think Goucho Marx made fun of the rich people in many of his movies because he knew what they were really like (Bush, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Rothchilds, Duponts, etc).Om his speech the ex-sergeant told the local population, that people are sick, they see a doctor. Well, back in those days the true is many people could not afford a doctor. Doesn't that familiar today? Finally, some of the air combat scenes were used in the 1977 movie Midway starring Henry Fonda and Charles Heston. I wonder why they don't show more movies like that and the War against Ms. Hadley more often? I have never heard of them until I accidentally run across them.

"Salute to the Marines" ranks as a first-class example of Technicolor World War II propaganda. The action opens and closes with the rousing Marine Corp anthem. The first thing that we see is Marines splashing ashore from transports, bailing out of a C-47, flying fighters at low altitude, and careening through the jungle in tanks. The formulaic plot occurs largely in flashbacks after the musical opening and ending gambits. Not surprisingly, MGM released "Salute" the same year it released one of its more memorable last stand sagas "Bataan" with Robert Taylor, Lloyd Nolan, and Robert Walker. In both movies, the heroes must destroy a bridge that the Japanese enemy needs to spearhead its advance, and our rough and tough leatherneck heroes perish in the process. Basically, the title tells the tale about a veteran Marine drill instructor, Sergeant-Major Bailey (Wallace Beery of "The Champ") that's spent 30 years in the Corp, but has never acquired first-hand combat experience. If there is anything that Bailey yearns for, it is to get into the thick of the shooting, so he can earn battle medals. As the storm clouds of war huddle on the horizon, his long-time friend and Commanding Officer, Colonel Mason (the great Ray Collins of "Citizen Kane"), dispatches him to train Philippine civilians, an assignment the hard-nosed, blustering hero reluctantly carries out. Thick-waisted Wallace Beery looks a mite long in the tooth to be playing such a vigorous man of action, but he delivers one of his best performances. The dressing down that he gives a Marine about shoelaces during a barracks inspection is a great scene. Look closely and you'll spot future "Dallas" TV star Jim Davis as a Marine private who butts heads with Beery's gruff sergeant-major. Watch Beery during a barroom brawl scene as he drunkenly runs one hand over his head before he wades into a crowd of Merchant Marines and throws punches, eventually knocking everybody out cold on the floor about the time that the MPs enter the saloon. When "Salute" isn't a hymn to the Marines, the filmmakers pay tribute to the valiant Philippines natives. Initially, Beery condescends to these "little fellows." Before long, however, he alters his way of thinking and grows to admire them. Check out the machete scene, and you'll see what I saying. It's a masterpiece of understatement with comedic elements. Beery trains the Phillipinos in the use of the bayonet. A villager introduces our hero to the destructive power of a machete. Berry tests it and agrees with him, so much so that he allows the native warriors to pack them as part of their regulation equipment. The Beery character is inexplicably married to a woman (Fay Bainter) who hates the Corp and pleads with Bailey to hang up his bayonet and live a quiet peaceful life in her community of peace-lovers. Meanwhile, his grown-up daughter Helen (Marilyn Maxwell of "Champion") sympathizes with him. Clearly, this community of anti-war advocates serves as a metaphor for the United States before the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Like other movies of its day, "Salute" chronicles the premeditated nature of the Asian Axis enemy. The Japanese are portrayed as subhuman vermin. The showdown between the captain of the steel-hulled Japanese fishing boat and Bailey is a classic, one-upsmanship encounter. Later, the Nipponese strafe and bomb a church during worship service. They bomb innocent, defenseless women and children. We watch in horror as a white woman running with a baby in her arms falls down between large explosives and lies strewn in the dirt dead. A Japanese tank runs over a Philippine soldier. Were that not enough, a young Robert Blake dies as the hands of the Japanese. Of course, "Salute to the Marines" isn't very politically correct now, because the Japanese are no longer our enemies. S. Sylvan Simon directs the action scenes with lean, muscular economy. "Salute to the Marines" never runs out of steam.

gives a memorable performance. The jungle scene near the end of the movie is one of most moving scenes that I've ever witnessed. This film deserves preservation consideration. And why it's not available on DVD or VHS is a mystery.