Tanks a Million

Typical '40s-era service comedy in the Private Hargrove tradition with WILLIAM TRACY starring as a naive information specialist who drives his Army pals crazy with his inability to perceive when his fund of information is unwanted. JOE SAWYER is the gruff and tough Sgt. Ames that he drives up a wall in some amusing incidents as Ames tries to discipline the troops and Tracy is made Sgt. Dodo Doubleday on the basis of his total recall of army regulations.

Quite a few recognizable names in the supporting cast. NOAH BEERY, JR. and FRANK FAYLEN are amusing as army recruits (draftees) and DOUGLAS FOWLEY can be seen as an irate officer inspecting the troops.

JAMES GLEASON is the new post commander, but he doesn't arrive until the last twenty minutes of the film. Before that, it's Sawyer, Tracy and Fowler who get most of the laughs.

Summing up: Trivial bit of service humor, but strictly a B-film programmer of the low-budget kind.

Tanks a Million was the first of a series of films that starred William Tracy as an ingenuous army recruit with a knack of falling into good luck that is drives old time sergeant Joe Sawyer to his wit's end. I've never seen any of these films before I hope the others are as funny.

James Gleason is also along for the ride in this series as the cantankerous commanding officer of the post. As always Gleason is wonderful.

The gimmick in this film is that William Tracy as 'Dodo' Doubleday has a photographic memory and he's memorized the Army's book of rules. He's not brilliant, he's a milder version of an idiot savant, possibly Dustin Hoffman could play him if they ever wanted to make an updated version of these films. He arrives at the fort a young draftee and his knowledge of the Army manual gets him made a sergeant in one day which Sawyer took 10 years to learn.

Film fans might better remember Tracy as Misto from the Brother Rat films and as another ingenuous recruit in To The Shores of Tripoli. Tracy apparently had these characters down pat.

Hal Roach produced these films, cheaply made of course, but with some good comedy writing in them and good performances by some fine character actors.

The movie starts with Bill Tracy as Dodo Doubleday, proving his incredible memory on a radio talk show. He joins the army after memorizing the regulations, which gets him quickly promoted to sergeant. His youth and inexperience bothers the other NCO's, namely Sgt. Ames (Joe Sawyer), who spends the movie trying to get Doubleday in trouble. But because of is inherent honesty and cleverness, Doubleday is able to bumble through the requisite series of mishaps and inspire loyalty in what looked to be a renegade unit. It's a fun film with good gags and good jokes, and my hat is off to James Gleason for his role as Col. Barkley.

Did I mention the series of mishaps? Or the girl (Elyse Knox)? For 50 minutes, TANKS A MILLION is an good dose of period comedy which holds up very well.

This cute little pre-war comedy is typical fare for the era. Some nice performances make it a nice little catch for fans of immediate pre-war and wartime comedies. I found it by seeing it on James Gleason's filmography. The fine old character actor turns in one of his better performances as Col. "Spitfire" Barkley. Gleason would later gain notoriety for playing William Bendix's father-in-law in the movie version of Life of Riley and for supporting roles in films such as The Night of the Hunter.

I wasn't familiar with William Tracy, but he impressed me as the lead, "Dodo" Doubleday, a railroad information specialist, turned solider, with a photographic memory and a naïve inability to discern when his knowledge isn't wanted. Joe Sawyer is also amusing as the befuddled Sergeant Ames.

Tanks A Million was surprisingly nominated for an Oscar – for best musical score. I wouldn't have expected it to be nominated for any – although Gleason conceivably could have been in the running for best supporting actor in a comedy. Still, for clean, good old-fashioned fun, this is still a nice little movie.

This film essentially begins with a young man by the name of "Dorian 'Dodo' Doubleday" (William Tracy) being drafted by the United States Army and reporting for duty at his basic training site with several other fellow draftees not long afterward. It is then revealed that Private Doubleday has a photographic memory and, as a result, knows the Army regulations better than anyone. This includes the non-commissioned officer named "Sergeant Williams Ames" (Joe Sawyer) who has been tasked to train the new soldiers. Needless to say, this embarrasses Sergeant Ames who immediately decides to put him in his place. Unfortunately for Sergeant Ames, however, the officers appointed over him are quite impressed with Private Doubleday--so much so that they immediately send the young private to a non-commissioned officer course a few buildings away. To everyone's surprise, when he returns a short time later, he is now wearing the rank of First Sergeant. Absolutely enraged by this, Sergeant Ames begins to do everything he can think of to humiliate the young man. The problem, however, is that everything he tries backfires in a spectacular manner. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film turned out much better than I initially expected due in large part to the unique solutions Dorian Doubleday used to extricate himself from one highly unlikely situation after another. Everything was totally absurd--but quite humorous at the same time. And although this is a rather short comedy, I still found it to be quite enjoyable, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.