Tell It to the Marines

Director: George W. Hill George W. Hill

Overview

In this film, a tough-as-nails Marine sergeant sets about training a rag-tag group of boys into men. Though sporting a rough and gruff exterior, the sergeant is really a caring sort. During training, he is especially rough on a smart-alecky young man, whom he hones into a first rate fighter.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/24/2012
UPC:	0883316489307
Original Release:	1926
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:43:00
Sales rank:	41,989

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Lon Chaney	Sgt. O'Hara
William Haines	Private Skeet Burns
Eleanor Boardman	Norma Dale
Frank Currier	Gen. Wilcox
Eddie Gribbon	Cpl. Madden
Maurice E. Kains	Harry
Mitchell Lewis	Native
Carmel Myers	Zaya
Warner Oland	Chinese Bandit Leader
William Axt	Composer

Technical Credits

George W. Hill

Director,Producer

Editorial Reviews

On paper, the pairing of brusque Lon Chaney Sr. and breezy William Haines just doesn't compute; on film, however, it became a winning combination for MGM, which cleaned up at the box office with this tale of Marine life. Chaney had recently scored in the blockbuster Phantom of the Opera -- one of a string of major successes -- but he didn't need makeup to brilliantly bring gruff Sergeant O'Hara to life. Haines, on the other hand, was the new kid on the block; although he'd been in films for several years he had only just achieved stardom with Brown of Harvard. As in Brown, he plays a wise-cracking, self-centered young man, Skeet Burns, who has signed up for the Marines purely for a free train ride to San Diego and a quick hop across the border to the horse races in Tijuana. But he winds up in O'Hara's regiment, suffers through some tough training and hard lessons, and emerges four years later as a better man. Although Burns has at least as much screen time as O'Hara, Chaney's multifaceted characterization dominates the film. With a mug not unlike the one on his bulldog, he still manages to charm pretty Navy nurse Norma Dale (Eleanor Boardman), along with the audience. Haines has to work hard to keep up, and it's to his credit that he doesn't vanish completely under the power of Chaney's performance. While Chaney needs no tricks to make Tell It to the Marines his own, one actor -- the Chinese bandit leader at film's end -- is a wicked scene-stealer; it's Warner Oland in a very memorable bit. Although the picture retains a streamlined MGM feel, the details of the Marine's day-to-day activities have a crisp reality, no doubt due to the U.S. Marine Corps, which offered its cooperation during filming. Though not a recognized classic, Tell It to the Marines stands as an excellent example of mid-1920s filmmaking.