BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Robert J. Maxwell Well, I am a fan of the Marine Corps. True, I spent my four-year military career in the Coast Guard but it was just as rugged as the Marine Corps. It was very nice to be served breakfast in bed by the attractive, blond, seventeen-year-old Swedish maids but there must be no expression in Swedish for "medium rare" because they kept fouling up the steak and eggs. But I taught the Marines at Camp Lejeune for several years and they were among the best of students. When they're sharp, they're really sharp. It's also the only service in which the officers' dress uniforms were less gaudy than the enlisted man's.With that prologue out of the way I can now go on to say that Wallace Beery is no marine. My God, is he sloppy. His whole presence is one pile of flab upon another. He was fine as the comically sly Long John Silver but as a by-the-book top sergeant, he's plain incredible. It's almost painful, watching him rearrange the manifold dimples and gyri of his face into one or another expression.The movie, told mostly in flashback, begins in 1941 in the Philippines. Beery's job, as it must be in all such movies, is to bear down on his men and kick them into shape, the Filipino troops included, before he retires. That impending retirement is an event he dreads because he has never won any "battle decorations." He gets his chance. He retires at the proper time but just as he's finding out that inactivity doesn't suit him the Japanese invade the Philippine Islands pari passu. The "bandy legged Nips" and "monkeys" conquer town after town, forcing all the civilians to flee ahead of them. A determined Beery struggles into his dress blue blouse, mobilizes the American and Filipino troops, and stops the enemy long enough for the women and children to escape across the bridge.They're successful despite the bombs delivered by Japanese airplanes. The Japanese airplanes are dull-colored Vought Vindicators, an obsolete American dive bomber of the period, called disparagingly by pilots the "Vibrator" or "Wind Indicator." The Vindicator also plays itself, when American airplanes rush to the rescue of the beleaguered bridge defenders.Fans of old movies may enjoy it. There are a lot of familiar names in the cast but you won't notice them on the screen. The kids may get a kick out of it. But it's really made for Saturday afternoons when people went to the movies and didn't really care much about what was on the screen. William Manchester -- historian, journalist, and biographer of John F. Kennedy -- claimed that he was seduced into joining the Marines after seeing the snazzy uniforms in "The Shores of Tripoli." One look at Wallace Beery wrestling to get into his tent-sized blouse, and Manchester would have joined the Coast Guard.

wholeben Mr. Rap's 2003 review of this movie, its context, and the characterization by Wallace Berry, needs a reply. First, the movie was released in 1943 -- at which time the US was not doing particularly well in the Pacific Theatre. Second, the lead character is a career combat NCO who has never seen combat -- yet his outfit has left for the field leaving him behind. Third, America used the theater as a way of seeing familiar faces (actors/actresses) in roles that many would be unable to fulfill, regardless of patriotism, fervor, or desire. Besides Mr. Rap's comments seemingly being out of context as to what was happening in the film (e.g. drinking and fighting, BUT because he was ashamed at being left behind after 30 years of service), the comments also seem downright petty, juvenile, and mean-spirited ("old," "fat," "pot-bellied" etc.). My assumption is that Mr. Rap has other motivations to examine and overcome, unrelated to the movie, but stimulated by the character of Beery.

zardoz-13 "Salute to the Marines" ranks as a first-class example of Technicolor World War II propaganda. The action opens and closes with the rousing Marine Corp anthem. The first thing that we see is Marines splashing ashore from transports, bailing out of a C-47, flying fighters at low altitude, and careening through the jungle in tanks. The formulaic plot occurs largely in flashbacks after the musical opening and ending gambits. Not surprisingly, MGM released "Salute" the same year it released one of its more memorable last stand sagas "Bataan" with Robert Taylor, Lloyd Nolan, and Robert Walker. In both movies, the heroes must destroy a bridge that the Japanese enemy needs to spearhead its advance, and our rough and tough leatherneck heroes perish in the process. Basically, the title tells the tale about a veteran Marine drill instructor, Sergeant-Major Bailey (Wallace Beery of "The Champ") that's spent 30 years in the Corp, but has never acquired first-hand combat experience. If there is anything that Bailey yearns for, it is to get into the thick of the shooting, so he can earn battle medals. As the storm clouds of war huddle on the horizon, his long-time friend and Commanding Officer, Colonel Mason (the great Ray Collins of "Citizen Kane"), dispatches him to train Philippine civilians, an assignment the hard-nosed, blustering hero reluctantly carries out. Thick-waisted Wallace Beery looks a mite long in the tooth to be playing such a vigorous man of action, but he delivers one of his best performances. The dressing down that he gives a Marine about shoelaces during a barracks inspection is a great scene. Look closely and you'll spot future "Dallas" TV star Jim Davis as a Marine private who butts heads with Beery's gruff sergeant-major. Watch Beery during a barroom brawl scene as he drunkenly runs one hand over his head before he wades into a crowd of Merchant Marines and throws punches, eventually knocking everybody out cold on the floor about the time that the MPs enter the saloon. When "Salute" isn't a hymn to the Marines, the filmmakers pay tribute to the valiant Philippines natives. Initially, Beery condescends to these "little fellows." Before long, however, he alters his way of thinking and grows to admire them. Check out the machete scene, and you'll see what I saying. It's a masterpiece of understatement with comedic elements. Beery trains the Phillipinos in the use of the bayonet. A villager introduces our hero to the destructive power of a machete. Berry tests it and agrees with him, so much so that he allows the native warriors to pack them as part of their regulation equipment. The Beery character is inexplicably married to a woman (Fay Bainter) who hates the Corp and pleads with Bailey to hang up his bayonet and live a quiet peaceful life in her community of peace-lovers. Meanwhile, his grown-up daughter Helen (Marilyn Maxwell of "Champion") sympathizes with him. Clearly, this community of anti-war advocates serves as a metaphor for the United States before the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Like other movies of its day, "Salute" chronicles the premeditated nature of the Asian Axis enemy. The Japanese are portrayed as subhuman vermin. The showdown between the captain of the steel-hulled Japanese fishing boat and Bailey is a classic, one-upsmanship encounter. Later, the Nipponese strafe and bomb a church during worship service. They bomb innocent, defenseless women and children. We watch in horror as a white woman running with a baby in her arms falls down between large explosives and lies strewn in the dirt dead. A Japanese tank runs over a Philippine soldier. Were that not enough, a young Robert Blake dies as the hands of the Japanese. Of course, "Salute to the Marines" isn't very politically correct now, because the Japanese are no longer our enemies. S. Sylvan Simon directs the action scenes with lean, muscular economy. "Salute to the Marines" never runs out of steam.

jerome-newberry I was only about 8 years old when I saw this film, I'm 69 now,but I never forgot it. In fact it may have played a part in my joining the Marine corps 10 years later. As I recall the story takes place in the Phillipine islands at the beginning of WW2. Sgt. Baily is a crusty old recently retired Master Sergeant who does his best to repel the invading Jappanese with the help of a Phillipino boy. The scene I remember the best was when US forces were trying to blow up a bridge and kept getting shot as they tried to set the charges. I remember It was filmed in color. I would sure like to see it again but I'm sure it must have been destroyed by time and neglect.