A large field gun is fired at the audience. Then a machine gun punches out the movie title: RAT-A-TAT-TAT! This is a nice beginning that leads into a passable first part. It is 1917 and the USA is at war with Germany. There are montages of factories making various wartime weapons, like cannon shells and military rifles. A rifle stock rotates on a lathe while a gun barrel is honed.
The first active part of the movie shows a typical military boot camp. We meet Fred Willis (Spencer Tracy), a circus owner, and Jim Davis (Franchot Tone), a rather shy country type who shuns weapons. NCO Meadowlark (Edgar Dearing) is the drill instructor. Thirteen minutes into the film, our soldiers are on a French battlefield, of which the action is impressive and well-staged. A German machine gun nest in a battered church has pinned down an American company. Through the heroics of Jim Davis, who has been thoroughly trained in the use of his rifle, the nest is cleared out, but Jim refuses the surrender of a helpless German soldier who has raised his arms into the air. Jim has become a changed man. Anyway, he is wounded and Rose Duffy (Gladys George) becomes his nurse although she eventually falls in love with Fred by the 30-minute mark. But Fred is sent back into the front, and is later thought to be lost. Meanwhile Jim receives the French "Croix de Guerre," a very high decoration for bravery on the battlefield. Now Jim has fallen in love with Rose. At the 47-minute mark, or more than half-way through, the screen reads 11 November 1918, the end of the Great War. Right after our screen characters are back in the USA.
In the second half, it is the early 1920s, and gangsters are running roughshod over the general public in the big city. Right after a shooting of a mobster in his automobile, Fred and Jim run into each other for the first time since war's end. They exchange information to meet again as Fred learns that Rose and Jim are married. Before the one-hour mark of the movie, we know Jim's terrible secret: He has become a mob hit-man. After he fails to convince Jim to transform his ways, Fred wises up dumbfounded Rose to the situation. Right after, there is an absolutely ludicrous scene. Rose, without any hindrance whatsoever, strolls into a warehouse unnoticed to eavesdrop on her husband who's planning a St. Valentine's Day type of massacre: Hit-men are dressed like policemen. Rose calls up the cops and tips them off. The next scene is Jim's trial and sentencing of three years in prison. Of course Jim will break out of jail, find Rose at Fred's Circus Maximus, where she has a job. Before anything happens, the police will conveniently locate him, and Jim will unfortunately try to escape and suffer the consequences. Fred quips to the policeman Meadowlark, the former drill instructor turned cop, "Why don't you pin a medal on him now, Sgt. Meadowlark? He was your star pupil." Fred and Rose embrace as she sobs . . . THE END.
Spencer Tracy was a fine performer who won back-to-back Oscars for Best Actor for movies made in 1936 and in 1937. Tone is somewhat believable here. But Gladys George at 37 years of age is miscast as a young volunteer nurse supposedly in her early twenties. She delivers her lines with little conviction or empathy. The montages, of high quality, help the first half of the movie, but the second half script is so-so and the outcome is very predictable.
The first active part of the movie shows a typical military boot camp. We meet Fred Willis (Spencer Tracy), a circus owner, and Jim Davis (Franchot Tone), a rather shy country type who shuns weapons. NCO Meadowlark (Edgar Dearing) is the drill instructor. Thirteen minutes into the film, our soldiers are on a French battlefield, of which the action is impressive and well-staged. A German machine gun nest in a battered church has pinned down an American company. Through the heroics of Jim Davis, who has been thoroughly trained in the use of his rifle, the nest is cleared out, but Jim refuses the surrender of a helpless German soldier who has raised his arms into the air. Jim has become a changed man. Anyway, he is wounded and Rose Duffy (Gladys George) becomes his nurse although she eventually falls in love with Fred by the 30-minute mark. But Fred is sent back into the front, and is later thought to be lost. Meanwhile Jim receives the French "Croix de Guerre," a very high decoration for bravery on the battlefield. Now Jim has fallen in love with Rose. At the 47-minute mark, or more than half-way through, the screen reads 11 November 1918, the end of the Great War. Right after our screen characters are back in the USA.
In the second half, it is the early 1920s, and gangsters are running roughshod over the general public in the big city. Right after a shooting of a mobster in his automobile, Fred and Jim run into each other for the first time since war's end. They exchange information to meet again as Fred learns that Rose and Jim are married. Before the one-hour mark of the movie, we know Jim's terrible secret: He has become a mob hit-man. After he fails to convince Jim to transform his ways, Fred wises up dumbfounded Rose to the situation. Right after, there is an absolutely ludicrous scene. Rose, without any hindrance whatsoever, strolls into a warehouse unnoticed to eavesdrop on her husband who's planning a St. Valentine's Day type of massacre: Hit-men are dressed like policemen. Rose calls up the cops and tips them off. The next scene is Jim's trial and sentencing of three years in prison. Of course Jim will break out of jail, find Rose at Fred's Circus Maximus, where she has a job. Before anything happens, the police will conveniently locate him, and Jim will unfortunately try to escape and suffer the consequences. Fred quips to the policeman Meadowlark, the former drill instructor turned cop, "Why don't you pin a medal on him now, Sgt. Meadowlark? He was your star pupil." Fred and Rose embrace as she sobs . . . THE END.
Spencer Tracy was a fine performer who won back-to-back Oscars for Best Actor for movies made in 1936 and in 1937. Tone is somewhat believable here. But Gladys George at 37 years of age is miscast as a young volunteer nurse supposedly in her early twenties. She delivers her lines with little conviction or empathy. The montages, of high quality, help the first half of the movie, but the second half script is so-so and the outcome is very predictable.