Fall In (1942) User Reviews (3)

Prat Falls

[boblipton · 6/10 · 5 January 2007]

This is another amusing episode in the "Sergeant Doubleday' series of streamliners from the Hal Roach studio, full of pratfalls and mugging. The streamliners were short features intended for double or triple bills, averaging about 50 minutes. This series is made amusing by the contrasting of Doubleday, a draftee with photographic memory, made a sergeant for it, and his would-be nemesis Sergeant Ames, a twenty-year man who keeps trying to one-up Doubleday and fails continually.

This episode is enlivened when the two of them are given new trainees. Doubleday's bunch are Kentucky mountain men, ringled by Arthur Hunnicutt who spent the 1950s and 1960s playing the type. Frank Faylen also shows up as Captain Gillis. Presumably after the war he retired and reared his son, Dobie.

Dumb soldiers take on ruthless Nazi's. Who do you think will win?

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 16 April 2015]

The onslaught of war means the need for more soldiers and more officers, so the Army has decided to promote enlisted men into officer roles, and between William Tracy and Joe Sawyer, who do you think will be chosen? The old pals from "Tanks a Million", "About Face" and "Hay Foot" are back in the fourth of the streamlined feature series as the dimwitted soldiers who seem to succeed more based upon dumb luck than skill, and in Tracy's case, his dumb luck comes from the ability to memorize things without even studying. Chosen as an officer candidate over the infuriated Sawyer, Tracy helps by accident uncover a spy ring right under the army's nose, and this leads to a comical conclusion where practically every military policeman and soldier in the neighborhood (including an uncoordinated one on roller skates) comes to the rescue. Also involved is pint-sized Jean Porter as Tracy's sweet girlfriend who shows that she can cut Nazi's down to size when the freedom of America is threatened. This leads to a farcial conclusion that is straight out of producer Hal Roach's best Laurel and Hardy films, although Tracy and Sawyer are second rate Laurel and Hardy at best. Still entertaining for its abbreviated running time, this holds up for comical pratfalls and farce, and as a result, is as accidental a winner as the two American soldiers always seem to be.

Decent Comedy

[Michael_Elliott · 26 February 2008]

Fall In (1942)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Hal Roach comedy with William Tracy and Joe Sawyer is in the same vein as Tanks a Million. In this film, Tracy plays a Sgt. wiz who can remember anything he reads, which gets him his own platoon but this doesn't with well with the jealous Sawyer. Tracy has to train a bunch of dumb rednecks from Kentucky before finally tracking down some Nazis. I'm not sure how many films were in this series but so far I've enjoyed the two I've seen enough to where I'd seek out the others. These aren't anything great but with the running time of 45-minutes they fly by with some nice laughs along the way. Being from KY, I got a kick out of the redneck training sequence.