User Reviews

I am confused by the title and the synopses that say the protagonist wants out of the army to get back to the girl he left behind. That is not at all what is going on here.

First, this is just a weird film. The first third of it has a "Leave It To Beaver" like voice over complete with goofy light music talking about how easy youngsters have it in this period of peace and prosperity - the mid 1950s - and then the narrator says, let's go meet them. This voice-over and music continues until into the basic training part of the film and appropriately disappears.

Eventually we land upon Andy Shaeffer (Tab Hunter), the well off son of an attorney and a mother who just won't stop smothering Andy. Don't get me wrong, he seems to like being smothered! He is unbelievably "pinned" (pre-engaged back in the day) to Susan Daniels (Natalie Wood), who has a good work ethic. They are both college students. She asks Andy what he wants out of life. He says he wants to avoid the draft board, so he'll keep going to college until he is too old to be drafted, then let dad set him up in a cushy job. Surprisingly this shirker's attitude does not induce projectile vomiting in Susan, or at least a break up. What does start a fight is when he borrows her car, promises to pick her up so she can get to class, and then arrives as class is ending. Their fight causes him to fail a couple of examinations, and that gets him kicked out of college, and that gets him drafted.

So Andy is a guy in the service who would rather do something else. Well that describes about 90% of the fellows who got drafted from 1945-1975. He proceeds to be a real jerk, talking back to drill sergeants, getting into fights with the rest of the platoon, and writing a love letter to his girl when he is supposed to be looking out for civilians who might wander into the firing range. Now Andy Griffith as Will Stockdale in "No Time For Sergeants" and Gomer Pyle as a marine both were well meaning and enthusiastic screw ups. They wound up on latrine duty and singing with a bucket over their head, respectively. But for some reason the non comms in charge give this guy unrealistic pass after pass until finally he makes a mistake so bad that he is offered a discharge - a dishonorable one. He asks where does he sign, not caring that this is the same as a felony conviction on his record. How will all of this turn out? Watch and find out.

The only thing that makes this a 4 instead of a 2/10 are all of the supporting players who give outstanding performances. There is Jessie Roy Landis as Andy's mom who just can't get that Andrew has to let go of her breast and eat solid food sometime. There is Jim Backus and David Jannsen as officers, and most prominent is Murray Hamilton as Sgt. Clyde who gives Andy chance after chance. For some reason he believes in this guy. There is Henry Jones as Hanson, a WWII vet who has failed as a civilian and rejoined the service to try to straighten himself out, plus he missed the camaraderie of the army. Finally there is James Garner as just another soldier who still manages to impress. Natalie Wood looks cute here with her Italian cut, but I just don't believe it when she says she loves awful Andy.

I watched the first 45 minutes or so of this movie. Watching classic movies is fun because you get to see many actors who you are familiar with from later works in their lives. There are many fine supporting actors in this movie. The obvious problem rests with the lead Tab Hunter who cannot act.

I thought the scene where Hunter's character undergoes his physical for the military was funny and gay themed. I am sure the gay crowd loved this scene watching bare chested Tab parade around in his underwear in line with other young men in similar attire. Then comes the best line when Tab sits shirtless behind a desk and the military interviewer asks him if he likes women. Considering that Tab is gay in real life and was pretending to be straight in 1956 this is funny.

Tab was a good looking young man who had gay friends in powerful positions and that is probably how he got the lead in this movie. The poor guy could not act worth a whit at least not in 1956!

As I watched "The Girl He Left Behind", I was very surprised. Considering that Tab Hunter was a hot property at the studio, you'd think Warner Brothers would have wanted to portray him as positively as possible. Additionally, Hollywood had a long history of portraying the US military very positively. But here in this film, Hunter plays a man that is easy to hate AND he is about as lousy a recruit you can find in a film! A strange film...that's for sure.

When the film begins, Andy Shaeffer (Tab Hunter) is a college student who is a bit of a mama's boy. In other words, he's spoiled. But while he's in college, he's immune to the peacetime draft. But after blowing a few exams, mostly because he is so spoiled, he flunks out...and is promptly drafted into the Army.

Now you'd THINK Andy would accept this and try to become a decent soldier. However, he's got a big mouth....and is a serious trouble-maker in the company. And, throughout his basic training, he's a complete jerk and the other recruits hate his guts. Will Andy ever straighten out or is he destined for court martial? Or, will his fellow soldiers kill him?!

As I already said, I am very surprised that the studio would allow Hunter to play such a despicable and unlikable character. But somehow it happened!! Apparently, Hunter was not pleased with the script either...so it's not just me complaining! Plus, as you watch you wonder WHY the military would put up with such repeated insubordination from a recruit. I'm no expert but assume in such a case he'd be in VERY serious trouble and the Army would not put up with him like they did in the film.

So despite this problem, is the film worth seeing? No! Even with the expected redemption at the end (much like in "Buck Privates"), Hunter plays such an unlikable, selfish and horrible person that it was tough even finishing the movie! They really should have tried to make his character likable in some way and not so worthless and awful. Yes, the guy he played really was THAT bad...to the detriment of the movie. Overall, a huge misfire for the studio and Hunter....despite a 'nice' ending that doesn't save the film but only serves to further accentuates how badly it was written.

This typical training camp film has a couple of things going for it. The screenplay by Guy Trosper has some improbably keen and sarcastic exchanges between Army draftee Tab Hunter and his superiors. "Is there any chance we can make a soldier out of you, Schaeffer?", asks his barracks sergeant. Hunter is lying on his bunk, looking sour. "I'm here because the Army has many guns pointed at my back but don't wait for me to become ardent -- you haven't got the time." Another admirable element of the film is the supporting cast, and Murray Hamilton in particular. Hamilton plays much the same character as the platoon sergeant that he did as the recruit with "a touch of ROTC" in "No Time For Sergeants," except here he's largely benign. That ironic grin is peerless.

There are some amusing scenes too, which some people may not get. ("Turn your head and cough.") They were funnier at the time.

Alas, that about does it for the more watchable features of the movie. The plot is straight out of a training-camp-movie textbook. An unprepared ordinary citizen, preferably a little spoiled, is forced into one of the armed services, overcomes some serious difficulties, and emerges from his chrysalis, a fully-fledged Blue Admiral. Often there are army games or maneuvers of one kind or another, in which he sheds his civilian ways and saves lives. You can see it in movies as diverse as "The Caine Mutiny" and "See Here, Private Hargrove." You can see the same plot in a Laurel and Hardy feature.

The two leads -- Tab Hunter and the girl he left behind, Natalie Wood -- are both very attractive but neither is much of a performer. Pretty Natalie Wood would improve with time and with better parts but handsome Hunter had already plateaued although he'd just started a year or so before.

The experience that Tab Hunter has in basic training in the Fifth Infantry Division is almost incredible. The mess hall has separate tables, seating for four, with table cloths and a vase of flowers on each. I went through boot camp and the mess deck looked more like James Cagney's berserk scene in Sing Sing in "White Heat" -- and I was just in the Coast Guard.

None of the recruits calls the sergeants "sir." Instead they insult the sergeants to their faces. They're full of sarcastic comebacks to which the cadre reply with tolerant smiles. If anyone in MY company had been as snotty or negligent as Tab Hunter, he'd have wound up wearing a red arm band in a retraining company -- as I did.

At any rate, if you want to see the U. S. Army brainwash a winsome young man and turn him into a clone of his platoon sergeant -- make a man out of a boy -- this is the movie to watch. It ends with the regiment marching proudly on the drill field and a band playing "The Caissons Go Rolling Along."

Saw this 1956 movie the other night.

Billed as a "romantic comedy," it is actually a fairly effective story about a rich, spoiled, immature young man (Tab Hunter) who gets dumped by his mature-acting girlfriend (Natalie Wood). He then joins the army and alienates both staff and peers with his petulant, trouble-causing, rebellious behavior. Complications ensue.

It got so-so reviews, and not a great reception by reviewers on IMDB, so I didn't expect much.

Surprise: I found it very enjoyable, engaging, and convincing.

Tab Hunter is ideally cast as the spoiled rich kid. Impossibly good-looking as to seem unreal, Hunter manages to make you loathe his character's dim-witted inability to see the cause-and-effect of his actions, one incident of which nearly turns deadly.

Natalie Wood is wonderfully fresh and natural as his level-headed, college-ambitious on-off-on girlfriend. She is very convincing and believable when she gives Hunter, at various points, the plausible reasons why she doesn't want to commit to him: he's arrogant, immature, and careless of the feelings of others. Wood's character is unusually strong and independent for a young woman of the 1950s. She's got a brain, is studious and serious about her education. Willing to part with a major dreamboat of a boyfriend because he is not worthy of her.

The catalyst for Hunter's spoiled-boy behaviors is in Jessie Royce Landis's portrayal of his mother. Landis is simultaneously horrifically overbearing and hilarious; she coddles her boy and threatens the army staff with "I'll call my congressman about this," when she encounters Hunter reduced to cleaning the sludgy grease trap in the mess-hall kitchen. You see in no uncertain terms why her precious doll-boy is such an insufferable mess.

Also hilarious is Murray Hamilton, replete with a deep-South accent, as a platoon commander who smiles broadly and does pithy, ironic sarcasms as he deals with Hunter's brattiness.

Look at the rest of the cast: a young, debonair David Janssen, Jim Backus, Alan King, Henry Jones, and...a very young James Garner! All of them provide memorable characterizations.

Story and star-wise, this is a solid, enjoyable movie, one I didnt expect to like as much as I did.