User Reviews

Bill Mauldin was a cartoonist, and arguably, the best one WW2 produced. His work resonated with soldiers in ways no other GI cartoonist ever did, as he WAS a line Infantryman with the 45th Division right up until they went into action in Italy. He knew the lives of the grunts and his work showed it. His work deserved so much more than this film. Thats not to say it's bad, it's actually quite funny in places, but his cartoon work simply didn't translate to film. I just can't imagine ANY director who could've pulled this off, living or dead. We get a lot of visual set ups just like the cartoons, and at first it's fun to watch, but it eventually denigrates into a soupy plot where the boys are trying to dodge the MPs in an Italian town. The ending would warm the heart of any GI, where the MPs finally catch up with Willie and Joe, who have since stolen a truck filled with black-market combat boots and winter jackets, and are speeding them to the troops on the line who need them the most. When the General catches up, and all hope is lost, he turns the MPs into infantrymen and orders them into the line for failing to protect the supply lines. I'm a HUGE Mauldin fan. Even I didn't like this film much.

What starts off as a standard war film with an excellent action sequence takes comical turns that don't really come off as funny thanks to unlikable leading characters that seem to be more the enemy than the enemy. These American soldiers create such a headache for the military that a dishonorable discharge seems too good for them. It concerns two army pals (Tom Ewell and David Wayne) who become involved with an Italian moonshiner and his daughter and their efforts to fool the M.P.'s after them. One sequence has Ewell trying to break the injured Wayne out of a military hospital and his posing as a doctor in order to do so. Then, there is their interaction with the fiery Marina Berti and her father Silvio Minciotti which are more irritating than funny even if they seem to be spoofing the Italian "New Wave" of such directors as Rossellini. Such talents as Jeffrey Lynn, Richard Egan and Paul Harvey are totally wasted. A typical chase sequence between the two buffoons (not nearly as entertaining as Martin and Lewis were in "At War With the Army") and the M.P.'s concludes the film.