Parachute Battalion

RKO gave the movie going public of the fall of 1941 Parachute Batallion about this new creation of the US Army the paratrooper. This film follows the training and rivalry of three paratrooper trainees Robert Preston, Edmond O'Brien and Buddy Ebsen.

Buddy Ebsen plays a hillbilly type around for comic relief. But O'Brien and Preston are in serious heat over Nancy Kelly, daughter of Harry Carey a legend in the ranks of those who were pioneering the art of jumping out an airplane. Preston is a former All American with notches on his belt over the various women he's conquered. O'Brien unbeknownst to all is the son of the base commander Robert Barrat and on a drunken dare enlists to see if he has the right stuff.

If you think you've seen this before you have. Strip away the musical numbers of the Andrews Sisters and the comedy of Abbott&Costello you've got Buck Privates. Parachute Batallion comes down to pretty much the same thing, the only question is who will get Nancy Kelly.

Richard Cromwell has an interesting part, something not in Buck Privates, a wise guy who looses his nerve. He and Edmond O'Brien have a great scene when he calms down Cromwell in an airplane.

Nicely done, but dated wartime flag waver.

It's debatable if this qualifies as a propaganda film as such . According to this website PARACHUTE BATTALION was released in September 1941 three months before Pearl Harbor . That said the winds of war had been blowing in America's direction for two years so Americans must have known it was coming and what better to raise morale than a patriotic flag waver showing good old American boys becoming airborne warriors ?

Actually this movie must have taken place in some alternative universe because while Western Europe had been conquered by Nazi Germany , Britain had been bombed and the Soviet Union was engaged in the first stages of a war of total annihilation with the Nazis the American response was to form a parachute battalion composed of drunks , small town hicks and football jocks

With all due respect to Simon Jack who has written an interesting review on this page it's impossible to take this film seriously now . In fact I'd be hard pressed to think anyone would have taken it seriously at the time ! From what I learned from PARACHUTE BATTALION jump school is composed of a senior citizen in his late 60s standing in front of some back projection telling a bunch of recruits who slouch around with their hands in their pockets how to jump out of a plane . It's easy to scoff at all this and The Hays Code was in full swing but there's very little that resembles realism . In fact it comes across as so light hearted and unrealistic you can't help wondering if it's a propaganda film that's been produced by the Germans !

This curious movie, which seems to be part documentary and part drama, tells of three individuals who have signed up for a parachute battalion. This film almost gives the VIEWER a heads up on what it takes to train to drop your parachute. Everything from Jumping exercises to height practice to even detailed instruction on how to pack a parachute! Oh yeah, two of the squad have a bit of a spat over a girl, but the main plot is about the training. What's so curious is that the film was made with the National Paratroopers Batallion in America, but shows some curious habits of the paratroopers that almost put them in a bad light. I'm talking of course of the captain pushing off a scared paratrooper off a plane for his solo flight, and another scene where another scared paratrooper pulls a gun on the plane (!!) and tells them HE'S NOT JUMPING!! Anyways, that's all forgotten of course, because any film that has Buddy Ebsen dancing and doing comedy is fine by me J

I just watched PB on TCM. It was made at Fort Benning a few months before Pearl Harbor and seems designed to publicize the new 501st Parachute Battalion, the first airborne unit of the American military. The storyline focuses on new recruits training to become paratroopers.

The main trainer is MSGT Thunderhead Richards (Harry Carey), a pioneer army parachutist. The two main trainees in the film are football hero and ladies man Don Morse (Robert Preston), and Bill Burke (Edmond O'Brien). Bill's father, Colonel Burke, happens to be the commander of the new Parachute battalion. Don and Bill compete for the attentions of Thunderhead's daughter, Kit (Nancy Kelly). Other characters are Tex (Paul Kelly), hillbilly Jeff Hollis (Buddy Ebsen), and Spence (Richard Cromwell).

The 75 minutes goes by quickly, with a lot of attention to detail in the training, including how to pack a parachute, and how to use a reserve chute. The actual jump scenes were performed by real members of the 501st, and the founder of the American airborne and commander of the 501st, General William C. Lee, served as Robert Preston's double in several scenes.

The ending of PB is one that could only be dreamed up by Hollywood writers, but it's still a fun way to spend 75 minutes. The full movie is available on YouTube so check it out if you can.

It's another standard story of raw recruits undergoing training, falling in love with the same girl, etc.etc. This time Robert Preston gets first billing, but there's also Edmond O' Buddy Ebsen, and Richard Cromwell, and Nancy Kelly for them to compete over as they undergo training as paratroopers under Harry Carey and Paul Kelly. You've seen it before, you'll see it again, even if Ebsen gets to do some eccentric dancing near the end. The real 501 Parachute Battalion takes part in the big drop sequence towards the end.