... and romance is Elmer VanDyne's (Buster) motivation for almost everything he does here. Elmer is a rich well mannered young man who waits outside a store every day for shop girl Mary (Sally Eilers) to appear so he can ask her out. She thinks he is just a wealthy lay about who wants to use her, so she continually turns him down. Then WWI breaks out. While Elmer is otherwise occupied, his chauffeur is taken up by the rally for army volunteers on the streets and walks off the job. Elmer's butler tells him that since neither of them can drive they have to find a chauffeur before they can drive home. Mistaking an army recruitment office for an employment office, Buster accidentally winds up in the army with Ed Brophy playing Sergeant Carter to Elmer's Gomer Pyle. Buster quickly decides he does not like the army with all of the screaming, yelling, ditch digging, and bayonet practice and decides to resign. You'll never see if that would have worked out, because before he can even try, there is Mary! She's joined the army too, and suddenly Elmer's stock has risen in her eyes because he's a soldier. This makes Elmer decide to stay.
The middle of the film is just a series of rather funny episodes pretty well matched to Keaton's brand of physical comedy. There's a dueling ukulele match between Buster and Cliff Edwards, a funny scene where both the Sergeant and Elmer are going to say goodbye to their girls but as they walk along they BOTH arrive at Mary's house, and on it goes.
The end of the film is almost an antiwar statement. In a trench on the front, Elmer is ordered to "go get a prisoner" and returns with one of his own regiment. Ridiculed and shamed as a result, he goes out to get another prisoner. (Now what capturing a prisoner would accomplish in no man's land is beyond me, but that is not the point.) Who does Buster run into during this outing but his old butler, Gustave, who is now a German soldier. They greet each other as old friends would, but complications do ensue. At the end - I'll let you watch and see how you get from A to B - Elmer, Mary, and a bunch of German soldiers end up in the same trench. However the war is over and ALL cheer and ALL embrace. No mention of who won or what this war was all about if anything to begin with.
This film had almost an independent feel about it, and Buster must have had a great deal of input into it's making because bad verbal comedy is kept to a minimum, but the dialogue is sufficient to convey the meaning of the physical comedy, which is its main attraction. As for the subtle antiwar message, in 1930 just about all films about WWI treated it as a pointless conflict and Buster was not a political statement kind of guy, so I wouldn't attribute that angle to him. I'd recommend this mainly for fans of Buster Keaton. There are not that many laugh out loud moments, but it is amusing overall.
The middle of the film is just a series of rather funny episodes pretty well matched to Keaton's brand of physical comedy. There's a dueling ukulele match between Buster and Cliff Edwards, a funny scene where both the Sergeant and Elmer are going to say goodbye to their girls but as they walk along they BOTH arrive at Mary's house, and on it goes.
The end of the film is almost an antiwar statement. In a trench on the front, Elmer is ordered to "go get a prisoner" and returns with one of his own regiment. Ridiculed and shamed as a result, he goes out to get another prisoner. (Now what capturing a prisoner would accomplish in no man's land is beyond me, but that is not the point.) Who does Buster run into during this outing but his old butler, Gustave, who is now a German soldier. They greet each other as old friends would, but complications do ensue. At the end - I'll let you watch and see how you get from A to B - Elmer, Mary, and a bunch of German soldiers end up in the same trench. However the war is over and ALL cheer and ALL embrace. No mention of who won or what this war was all about if anything to begin with.
This film had almost an independent feel about it, and Buster must have had a great deal of input into it's making because bad verbal comedy is kept to a minimum, but the dialogue is sufficient to convey the meaning of the physical comedy, which is its main attraction. As for the subtle antiwar message, in 1930 just about all films about WWI treated it as a pointless conflict and Buster was not a political statement kind of guy, so I wouldn't attribute that angle to him. I'd recommend this mainly for fans of Buster Keaton. There are not that many laugh out loud moments, but it is amusing overall.