Hillbilly Blitzkrieg

In HILLBILLY BLITZKRIEG, Nazi spies have infiltrated the great Smoky Mountains, and only turnip-nosed, Snuffy Smith can stop them. He's -somehow- made it into the Army, and is -miraculously- stationed near his fellow hillbillies.

The dastardly spies are up to no good, but have no fear! Snuffy -serendipitously- winds up inside of a top secret rocket!

Ludicrous? Well, the title should have been enough of a tip-off!

Inane, harmless fun from a time before irony and cynicism became the norm...

This is a pretty silly movie, but it has its moments if you like B-comedies. It starts with Snuffy Smith and Barney Google trying to outwit a bunch of spies who are after the Army's secret weapon, and from that premise it just continues to get less plausible as it goes along. But since it doesn't take itself at all seriously, much of it works fine as light entertainment. Comedy veteran Edgar Kennedy plays Snuffy's long-suffering sergeant, and gives his usual good performance. The "Hillbilly Blitzkrieg" would never have struck fear into the Axis, but there are far worse comedies that you could spend an hour watching.

Back in the 1940s, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith were immensely popular comic strip stars, so it isn't all that surprising that they put them on the big screen. However, when seen today, the characters seem incredibly annoying and even a bit grotesque! Some of this is because of the horrific makeup they put on the two characters to give them the same bulbous noses they have in the strip. This was a terrible idea in my opinion, as it (combined with horrible dialog) made the characters seem sub-human-- particularly Snuffy. Combining that with a height of only about 4 1/2 feet and his age, it goes way beyond credibility to make the guy a soldier!

The film is a propaganda comedy starring Smith and his weirdo cousin, Barney. Barney apparently helped to invent some rocket (which is hard to imagine, as he is very stupid in the film) and a group of soldiers, including Snuffy, are sent to watch over it. Not surprisingly, Axis agents try to take or destroy the rocket and so it's up to a group including a complete moron (Smith) to save the day.

The problem with all this is that the characters seem too much like the comic strips. You can suspend disbelief with comics--but with live-action, they just seem weird and creepy. Combining this with cartoon-like dialog and you have a movie that is practically impossible to finish it's so bad.

This is the sequel to Private Snuffy Smith and is better than what went before. The story picks up with Snuffy still in the army and in a shooting contest with Sgt Gatling. Gatling wins because Snuffy isn't allowed to use his squirrel gun. Gatling is then ordered to take Snuffy and some other men to the backwoods in order to protect the prototype of a new rocket that will help in the war effort. Once there Snuffy meets his cousin Barney Google who has a stake in the invention. Things get complicated when spies arrive to destroy the invention and steal the plans.

Based on the once popular comic strip the movie is step up from the previous film. Instead of several loosely connected parts (a real problem in the first movie) the film has one story from beginning to end, so it has time to actually build up situations and characters that can produce laughs. By no means a great film, this film is amusing and by the end does manage to produce a few laughs, and while they are not belly laughs they are laughs none the less (something Private Snuffy Smith never managed). The humor and the plot are pretty much by the book and you'll know where its going well before the characters do but if you're in a really forgiving mood it won't matter much.

I'm on the fence about recommending this film. Its okay- just okay. Certainly there are better ways of spending your time and money, but if you stumble across it and want something that won't clog the recesses of your brain with anything what so ever I'd give it a try, especially if you like hillbilly humor.