Salute

"Salute" is a John Ford co-directed film which features Ward Bond and John Wayne in prominent supporting roles. Sadly, it also features a LOT of Stepin Fetchit...a black character actor who is about as offensive as you can find back in 1929.

Midshipman Paul Randall (William Janney) is a new underclassman at the Naval Academy. Coincidentally, his brother, John, is a cadet at West Point...and they come from a very distinguished family. The story centers on Paul's experiences as a freshman and how he manages to hold up under near constant hazing from one particular upperclassman (Bond).

Despite Janny giving a nice performance and Wayne and Bond being in the film, it's also saddled with two problematic actors...Fetchit and Helen Chandler. I already mentioned Fetchit and his sub-human sort of characterization, but Chandler is a different story...she simply couldn't act. In "Dracula" she stared off into space a lot and had a real vacant look to her...and I thought perhaps she was directed to do this. But in "Salute", she's not much better and she lacked personality and was quite bland. As a result, it's a film I'd place in the time-passer category...not bad but not especially distinguished apart from being an early Wayne film.