Tell It to the Marines is a movie that I learned about after I bought a set of 2 discs from TCM's website. The contents of the discs are 2 or 3 Lon Chaney films (one of which was destroyed in a 1960s fire and no longer exists). They attempt to reconstruct it using still images that managed to survive. Also included on one of the discs is a documentary about Chaney's life. In it, they go over many of the important movies he starred in, but sadly, most are gone forever. This doesn't mean we should be sad about the Chaney films we'll never get to see, rather, we should enjoy the ones that were saved. This movie got Chaney a lot of good recognition, not just from the general public, but from the US marine corps itself. They said that his portrayal of the sergeant he plays in this movie was so convincing and done so perfectly, it was like watching every marine they ever knew. For his extremely talented performance, Chaney became the first actor to become an honorary marine. But lets get into the movie itself. It is about a guy named "Skeet" Burns who wants to join the marines in 1924. He only wants to do this so he can get on a train to Mexico. He returns though, and enlists anyway. Once he signs up, he comes under the command of Sergeant O'Hara (Chaney). One day, Burns sees Norma, a nurse for the US navy who he becomes attracted to. As usual though, she doesn't like him back. Even worse, he finds out O'Hara likes her too, and she's more likely to choose him since his rank is higher. Later on, O'Hara is transferred to an island in the middle of nowhere, where he meets another girl who seems to like him. He has no choice but to reject her though, and O'Hara saves Burns in an ensuing fight. Chaney is then moved again, this time to Shanghai. Once again, both men come face to face with Norma, who is now working on a ship. She appears happy to see O'Hara, but acts disdainfully towards Burns. Towards the end, a militia of some kind attacks the city, and the marines must try and stop them. The marines are evacuated just in time, and Burns and Norma buy themselves land. In the final moments of the movie, Burns asks the sergeant if he wants to join him, but he says no, insisting the corps is his life. It's not hard to see why the military held this movie in such high regard. Chaney plays the part of the soldier here perfectly. To quote Full Metal Jacket, he is hard but he is fair. While watching him on the screen, you can obviously sense that he might have been friendly and nice at one time, but years of service have hardened him. Still, he really does care about his men. Even though I like this movie a lot, every time I see Chaney on screen, I get mad. It's very unlucky how we lost so many movies that he was in simply because nitrate is very unstable. At least we have this one.
Review of Tell It to the Marines
