User Reviews

"We! We! Marie!" is a comedy short that was filmed on the same sets already constructed for the great anti-war film, "All Quiet on the Western Front". As far as the title goes, it's from a song which came out in 1918 and is an Arthur Fields song about a American soldier who has fallen for a French lady: "Oui oui, Marie, will you do zis for me? Oui oui, Marie, then I'll do zat for you. I love your eyes, They make me feel so spoony; You'll drive me loony, You're teasing me, Why can't we parley-vous Like other sweethearts do? I want a kiss or two From ma Cherie. Oui oui, Marie, If you'll do zis for me, Then I'll do zat for you, Oui Oui Marie."

Slim Summerville plays a dopey American soldier. He and his sergeant get into a variety of problems behind the lines as well as when the unit is sent over the top. None of it is extremely funny and to me it was hard to laugh about soldiers being sent across no-man's land to die. Still too soon? All I know is that about 20,000,000 were killed in the war, making it difficult for humor...though Laurel & Hardy did manage to make a couple funnier WWI films.

So over all, there's nothing genius about this nor anything bad apart from the war itself. Worth seeing, perhaps, but far from a must-see picture.

Slim Summerville returns to the set of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT to fight with Sergeant Harry Gribbon over pretty French Pauline Garon, and to await Zero Hour, although this comedy short has already gone over the top.

Having already demonstrated his dramatic acting chops in the Academy-Award winner, Summerville returns to his routes, getting in one scrape after another, in several comedy set pieces. Kind words should be offered to whoever played the German he unwittingly shares a foxhole with in the belief that Summerville's companion is French; while he has almost no lines, his look of malign astonishment is hilarious.

This is not even remotely funny. Wanted to like it, tried to like it, could not do either.

On October 11, 1930; the Motion Picture News reviewed We! We! Marie! as follows: "If your audiences don't shake the house with their roars as they view No. 2 of the Slim Summerville series you might as well go out of business. This is one of the funniest two-reelers we have ever seen. While Summerville, particularly, and Eddie Gribbon and Pauline Garon do great trouping, it's the large number of fresh gags and the excellent direction of Albert Ray that make it outstanding. After all, it's the material that counts. This short has enough story for a feature, and it is impossible to outline it in this space. The laughs in this are practically continuous. The Picture is filmed in the new Magnachrome style for wide screen, improving it greatly. Running time, 21 minutes."

Recently viewing a restored show at home print using Vitaphone discs, I was amazed how Universal used sets and footage from ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT to give this short feature production values. The village set; Bi-planes being shot out of the air; and battle scenes are three examples.

The comedy highlights: Slim conning the Sgt out of $20 for his mother; Slim accidentally shooting down planes while being chased by Marie; the rivalry with the Sgt for Marie's affection; in a foxhole with a German soldier; and a zany brassiere gag.

In the 1930s, very few films were shot in wide screen and to my knowledge, this is the only short that has turned up.

A WOW and a must see.