The Age of Commercialism

Lack of good storyline.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

I was only about 8 years old when I saw this film, I'm 69 now,but I never forgot it. In fact it may have played a part in my joining the Marine corps 10 years later. As I recall the story takes place in the Phillipine islands at the beginning of WW2. Sgt. Baily is a crusty old recently retired Master Sergeant who does his best to repel the invading Jappanese with the help of a Phillipino boy. The scene I remember the best was when US forces were trying to blow up a bridge and kept getting shot as they tried to set the charges. I remember It was filmed in color. I would sure like to see it again but I'm sure it must have been destroyed by time and neglect.

In this leisurely-paced Technicolor flag-waver, grizzled, beer-bellied lout Wallace Beery plays a thirty-year sergeant major stationed in the Philippines just before the war. When he's forced into retirement, long-suffering wife Fay Bainter has to cope with his refusal to adapt to civilian life in their sleepy island village. He antagonizes the peace-loving neighbors with his gross manners and anti-Japanese sentiments, trains the local children in military maneuvers, and gets into brawling confrontations with shifty Niponese sailors. But once Pearl Harbor is attacked and the enemy advances on their town, Beery rallies the villagers to defense and goes out in a blaze of glory.The climactic combat action is a long time coming, since the bulk of the movie is devoted to Beery's fatuous, self-aggrandizing antics. Whether condescending to his native troops (he refers to them as "little fellers" as though they were exotic incarnations of Jackie Cooper) or pouring on the 'aw shucks' geniality to a passel of adoring kids, this slob-king is a grating, grandstanding humbug. (What appeal could this man have possibly held for contemporary audiences? Perhaps as a fanciful role model for home front-bound middle-aged men -- the run-to-seed but still vital codger.)No less phony is the hubba-hubba Marilyn Maxwell as his incessantly smirking daughter; it's tough enough to believe the refined, genteel Bainter could have ever had a booty call with Beery, much less produced so dishy a specimen from such rot-gut sperm.If one can last through all this spurious slop, the final thirty minutes deliver a Johnny-come-lately wallop. As Japanese bombers hover over a crowded church, director S. Sylvan Simon uses rapid-fire editing to build tension to a fever pitch. What follows is a grand scale action set-piece that is eye-filling and surprisingly fierce, weakened only by the unhinged spectacle of the tubby, lead-footed Beery traipsing through brush to single-handedly knock out an enemy machine gun emplacement. The movie seems to be telling us that a regiment of lumbering, dissipated fat men could have shortened the war by years. Fat chance.

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.