| At War with the Army | |
|---|---|
 1958 theatrical reissue poster | |
| Directed by | Hal Walker |
| Screenplay by | Fred Finklehoffe |
| Based on | At War With the Army 1949 play byJames Allardice |
| Produced by | Fred Finklehoffe |
| Starring | Dean Martin Jerry Lewis Mike Kellin Jimmy Dundee Polly Bergen |
| Cinematography | Stuart Thompson |
| Edited by | Paul Weatherwax |
| Music by | Joseph J. Lilley |
Production companies | Fred F. Finklehoffe Productions Screen Associates Inc. York Pictures Corporation |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates | |
Running time | 93 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | less than $500,000[3] or $420,000[4] |
| Box office | $3.3 million (US rentals)[5] 1,464,218 admissions (France)[6] |
At War with the Army is a 1950 Americanmusicalcomedy film directed byHal Walker and released byParamount Pictures. It stars the comedy team ofMartin and Lewis and introducesPolly Bergen. Filmed from July through August 1949, the film premiered in San Francisco on New Year's Eve 1950 before opening nationwide on January 17, 1951. It was rereleased in 1958 by OMAT Pictures.
In aUnited States Army base in Kentucky at the end of 1944 duringWorld War II,[7]First Sergeant Vic Puccinelli andPrivate First Class Alvin Korwin, who were partners in a nightclub song-and-dance act, enlist.
Puccinelli wants to be transferred from his dull job to active duty overseas, but he is refused transfer and is to be promoted to the rank ofwarrant officer. Korwin wants a pass to see his wife and new baby. In addition, they have to rehearse for the base talent show and avoid the wrath of Alvin'splatoon sergeant McVey. They sing songs and perform animpression ofBing Crosby andBarry Fitzgerald by recreating a scene fromGoing My Way (1944) for the talent show.
The film is based on a three-actfarcical play byJames B. Allardice that ran for 151 performances at theBooth Theatre onBroadway from March 8, 1949, to July 16, 1949.[8] The film rights were sold in June 1949 for $50,000 to producerFred F. Finklehoffe, who wrote the screenplay. Finklehoffe originally intended to produce the film in New York with exteriors to be shot at a local military base.[9] However, it was filmed atCorriganville Movie Ranch from July to August 1949.[10][11]
Dean Martin's character of Vic Puccinelli was named Robert Johnson in the stage production, in which it was played byGary Merrill. Two characters from the play were combined to create Jerry Lewis's character.[12]
Following the releaseAt War with the Army in 1951, Martin and Lewis became embroiled in a legal battle with Screen Associates, Inc., for whom they had agreed to create seven films through the duo's own company, York Productions. Screen Associates sued York Productions and producerHal Wallis forbreach of contract, arguing that Martin and Lewis refused to make the remaining six films after the release ofAt War with the Army and that they had violated an agreement to alternate between productions for Wallis and Screen Associates when they appeared in two consecutive films (That's My Boy andThe Stooge) for Wallis. Screen Associates sought an injunction preventing Martin and Lewis from starring in another planned Wallis production,At Sea with the Navy (later released asSailor Beware), as well as $10 million in total damages.[13]
In a contemporary review forThe New York Times, criticA. H. Weiler wrote: "The comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, who are starred in this service gambol, work harder than any buck private avoiding a top kick. However, their efforts, except for the masterful mugging of Mr. Lewis, do nothing to put a kick into this consignment of corn."[1]
Reviewer Philip K. Scheuer of theLos Angeles Times wrote:
It takes place, if I may be permitted a slight exaggeration, almost entirely in the offices of an army barracks. These in turn exist in a kind of timeless vacuum through which men in uniform drift rather than advance; a fuzzily photographed vacuum that is neither day nor night, and that puts the same confining strictures upon the audience as it does upon the men. ... Jerry Lewis is the funny member of the duo, in his usual moronic way. It is a little embarrassing to have to laugh at him because our sympathy is with him, so we are relieved whenever he shows flashes of intelligence. He is the sad sack to whom everything happens. Dean Martin plays a sergeant with not much more intelligence and something of a mean streak besides. He acts as if he thinks he is faintly superior not only to Lewis but also to most other people, including the audience. We do not care one way or the other what happens to him, but nothing much does.[2]
This film's copyright was registered to York Pictures Corp. and Screen Associates, Inc. on January 23, 1951 (LP 679), and was renewed on December 7, 1979 (RE43009).[14] However, the film has since lapsed into thepublic domain as the copyright holders failed to renew their copyright in the 28th year of publication pursuant to theCopyright Act of 1909.
As the film is in thepublic domain, many DVD releases have appeared from a variety of companies offering prints of varying quality. In July 2014, Film Chest released a restored version in high definition.[15]
