Women of All Nations

I like another reviewer i watched this for Bogart, sadly he was not even in it, why? well because he thought the film that bad it could ruin his film career and so threatened to buy all copies and have them burnt so they could not be seen. The scene with Bogart was pulled and the film released and it really is a very slow, plain print.

It is a very early film and only just on the cusp of talking movies from the silent era, you will see this as during the film we still get the writing boards explaining parts of the script and you get the feeling it is in fact a silent. I will say that if this were stripped of sound and a few more directive posters during the film it could work. Maybe watch it first with sound then without to see how it is then.

The film itself is short and about two chaps surviving the war and after some time in New York they travel to Sweden and other countries and seek affection of Elsa. its not so much slapstick but its comedic of sorts.

If your here to see Bogart hes not in it, if you want a busy film its not, if you want a film to while away the afternoon after a nice roast dinner and nap then stick this one on.

This is one truly lame, incredibly awful film, vapid and empty, with terrible characters, none of whom add anything at all to the ridiculous, nonsensical story! The only reason I watched this film was to see Marjorie White. She's only in one or two scenes near the beginning, then gone, her character is completely undefined,, she's just an extra. But Bela Lugosi meowing like a cat, and El Brendel picking his nose, come on now! And those two entirely talentless Vaudevillians Maglaglen & Lowe, either of them is forgettable on his own, but the two of them teamed together make Wheeler & Woolsey look like the Barrymores! Just Plain bad!! I'm really surprised to see something this poor come from from famed director Raoul Walsh, it's more suited to Ed Wood or John Waters!! (Obviously not one of his best efforts!!) Z-grade shlock on the minus scale of rating, what waste of good celluloid!! It's rumored that Humphrey Bogart was in it, but his scenes cut out at his own expense, he realized it ws so bad he wanted nothing to do with it, so as not to ruin his career! A one-word review: NO!

In the 1920s and into the 30s, Fox made a string of movies starring Sergeant Quirt (Edmund Lowe) and Sergeant Flagg (Victor McLaglen). Despite what IMDB's trivia says, "Women of All Nations" isn't the first film in the series* but the fourth.

I must say up front that I've seen a few Quirt & Flagg films (including the 1950s remake of "What Price Glory?") and haven't been very impressed by the films. Part of it might be because although the pair are Marines, they never seem to be in war and the film makes it seem like being a Marine is nothing but laughs and chasing women. Is this one any different? Well, not especially. It plays much like a Popeye cartoon minus Olive Oyl...as Quirt and Flagg are almost at odds with each other or fighting over some woman.

The pace of this one is tiring. The duo keep fighting and arguing and acting like thick-headed fools throughout the movie. It's not terrible...but a bit tiresome after a while. Worth seeing only as a time-passer and not much more.

*IMDB says that "This the first of five films made during the pre-code period with the duo, Edmund Lowe and Victor McLaglen". It's the fourth but perhaps they are implying that the Pre-Code era began around 1930...but this still wouldn't make this the first. I'm really not sure how they came up with this number.

Women Of All Nations is still another watered down version of the characters of Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt made popular in the Maxwell Anderson play What Price Glory. Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe after creating the original parts on film in What Price Glory went on to play these parts in a series of movies. The films concentrated on the rollicking hijinks of these two Marine lifers without the serious drama portion of What Price Glory.

This episodic film is watered down pretty good. McLaglen and Lowe spend the film chasing after Greta Nissen a Swedish floozie who's playing up to both of them. Young private El Brendel who came to the Marines by way of Sweden joins McLaglen and Lowe in their adventures both romantic and dangerous.

Humphrey Bogart is supposed to be in this film as one of the Marines under McLaglen and Lowe. The Citadel Film Series book on The Films Of Humphrey Bogart lists this replete with still of Bogey in dress blues with the stars. He might be in this print in passing, I missed him and supposedly in longer versions he's there.

One person also down the credits is Bela Lugosi as an Arab sheik who adds Niesen to his harem. All three McLaglen, Lowe and El Brendel try to cut in on Bela. Of course in the end duty calls and the Marines go another place where Uncle Sam has need of them.

Women Of All Nations is choppy and episodic and asks to much of its stars to carry it.

...that's the third in a series from Fox and director Raoul Walsh.

Edmund Lowe and Victor McLaglen return as Sgt. Quirt and Capt. Flagg, respectively, two US Marine brothers-in-arms who are rivals in everything else. The episodic plot sees them shipped around the world, from a stateside furlough to a stint in Sweden where they battle over local girl Elsa (Greta Nissen), to disaster aid in Nicaragua, and finally to Egypt, where they find Elsa in the harem of local Prince Hassan (Bela Lugosi).

This series started with the silent What Price Glory in 1926, followed by The Cock-Eyed World (1929). There would be one more entry after this one, 1933's Hot Pepper. Director Walsh himself called this a "turkey", and that's a fitting description. The script is threadbare, the situations unfunny and uninspired. What entertainment exists is due to the performers, who generally try their best, although Brendel's shtick gets old quick. I watched this for Lugosi; he doesn't appear until the final 20 minutes. One noteworthy aspect of this film was that there was another co-star, Humphrey Bogart, but his entire role was left on the cutting room floor. Lucky him.