User Reviews

A family movie about relationships between adults and children. Any reasonable adult is going to have a problem with children. They never look or act entirely human. For a while I entertained the notion of a medical model to explain their condition -- childhoodosis, the chief symptom of which was neoteny. Ordinary human traits were still discernible but nascent, not quite formed. It seemed that childhood was a disease with which otherwise normal adults were born, and that the disease underwent spontaneous remission during maturation. I have the proof of that theory right here in my back pocket but the world isn't ready for it.

The half-grown cadets at Sheridan Military Academy are no exception. We can see those human traits alright but only in the rawest form. One of them is a whiner, another a spoiled brat, another a fatty, and so on. Major Barney Benson (Charlton Heston) is in hot water with the Army for being too hard on his men, so he's assigned to the academy and ordered to bring these tykes up to snuff and get them through the upcoming ROTC inspection.

Now, admittedly that doesn't sound too promising. Positively emetic in fact. But actually it's cute and it's funny. We don't associate Heston with comic roles but he handles this one quite well. He's no Cary Grant, but the role doesn't require a particularly deft touch from the actor. What the role requires is Moses reduced by comic circumstances to a smaller set of ambitions than delivering the Ten Commandments. Maybe parting the Red Sea but then getting stuck in the mud and throwing a fit of pique.

The script sets it up nicely, even if it follows the necessary formula, and all of the performances are almost exactly suited to the template. The dialog is amusing too. When Heston first is taken through the academy, Mother Redempta points out a portrait, identifies the subject, and adds that he was canonized. "Too bad," says Major Benson.

What's the movie about? On the surface it's about a tough Army guy making these inept and spoiled brats shape up. Beneath that, it's kind of an interesting demonstration of compromise on the part of both Heston and the cadets.

Heston applies the book and rags the cadets constantly, for instance, until they finally win the football trophy that they've never won before. Instead of elation the kids feel nothing but sadness because football hasn't been fun. The kids hate him. Heston is deflated like a punctured football. He hates the kids.

Angry and resentful Heston decides to sneak away to Los Angeles. At the bus station he runs into one of the cuter but more annoying of the tots, also trying to run away from the school. Heston bonds with the kid and actually learns a lesson. Not just something as banal as "you can't run away from yourself," but that the book when indiscriminately applied becomes an obstacle rather than a tool for greater efficiency.

If you want to increase teamwork, you take into account the characteristics of the individual and address their unique set of strengths and weaknesses. You don't act like a robot enacting a set of rules but more like a judge of human nature, differently for each problem. In sociology this is sometimes known as sub-institutional behavior.

What do the kids learn? Well, in a way, they learn the opposite -- respect and appreciation for the system to which they owe their allegiance. They change from slackers to military cadets. And in doing so, they save Heston's bacon.

That is to say, there's compromise on both sides. Each has something to learn from the other, even if it means giving up some part of their earlier taken-for-granteds -- sloppiness for the kids, unbreakable will for Heston.

Well, it sounds as if this is a slow, dull movie with too much of a moral dragging behind it, but it's not. It moves at a sprightly pace, is efficiently directed, and has some perky characters and snappy dialog. The family ought to get a kick out of this. It's one that both adults and children might find amusing and at times touching.

I have waited for this to come out on DVD for over 10 years, and it finally did, although it had one disappointment. Seems like I recall the original shown on TV many years ago had the cadets march to "The Bonnie Blue Flag" as part of their test for ROTC certification. Sadly, it did not.

This trite story actually had a good basic idea back of it, but that intriguing plot line was very poorly developed. Also not helping to make the movie anything like a success, was Jerry Hopper's very mediocre direction. I always wondered where Jerry came from. Now, thanks to IMDb, I now know that he started his movie career from scratch. He first worked as an uncredited assistant editor, and then somehow managed to move into directing in Paramount's short subjects division in 1946 with "Golden Slippers", a little number with only one claim to fame, namely that it was filmed in Technicolor! Would you believe that nearly ten years later, this little movie's only tangible asset is also its engaging Technicolor photography. True, it does have a meaty but totally wasted cast led by Charlton Heston, who had slipped from his pinnacle in "The Greatest Show On Earth", but was soon to hit the big time again with "The Big Country" and "Ben-Hur".

If dealing with the Creature From the Black Lagoon was difficult for Julie Adams, wait till she meets Charlton Heston as a strict military commander in this amusing comedy. Heston is a by the books combat officer, responsible for training soldiers in preparation for active duty, and all of a sudden, he is transferred to become the dean of a Catholic military school. He doesn't realize that what doesn't always work with adults certainly won't work with the young, and he finds obstacles at every corner with school doctor Julie Adams, Mother Superior Nana Bryant and the various boys he encounters, particularly the very young Tim Hovey who could really use a father figure. Through the strict patience and guidance of the tough but caring Adams, Heston strives to make alterations through challenges that outweigh his capabilities. But miracles can happen, and sly manipulations by the pretty doctor keep him trapped at the school when demands from Washington threatened to remove him.

In the very same year where Sal Mineo played a shy and reluctant "Rebel Without a Cause", he has quite a different role here as the one student who respects Heston for his strictness, knowing wisely the motivations behind it. The story of the romance between Adams and Heston and the friendship that slowly grows between Heston and Hovey is quite touching as it is to see Heston grow from the experience. This is a comedy of mostly smiles, not laughs, and yet when there are laughing inducing moments, they bring out loud ones. William Demarest appears giving one of his typical lovable grouchy curmudgeon performances, usually being knocked around unintentionally by the rushing kids. Many of the circumstances that occur within this film don't always seem realistic in a military setting, let alone a school setting, but the charm of the cast makes that palatable. Adams and Heston have a nice rapport, and Bryant has a sly wink in her performance of the wise but very humane mother superior. The charming slightly animated credits will entrance you and you fulfill its promise to be a sweet if not perfect comedy. I have been humming the cute little ditty that opens the film since the first time I saw this several decades ago which I noticed that you being utilized in several other Universal films made around the same time, most notably "The Toy Tiger" which also featured Honey.

This is primarily a drama, with occasional comedic moments. It's mostly a study in how to strike a balance between trying too hard, with draconian standards, and not trying hard enough, which invites failure to achieve accepted standards. At's also a message about how some accepted standards should be lowered for children vs. adults, and the need to consider individual idiosyncrasies. But, it's also a troubled love story between the commandant(Major Benson) of a pre- high school catholic military school and the resident doctor: Kay Lamberi(Julie Adams). A bevy of nuns serve as subordinate authorities, headed by Mother Redempta(Nana Bryant). William Demarest, as John, appears to be mostly a handyman.

The Major appears to have been cut from the same mold as General George Patton, who occasionally was reprimanded for being too strict. Major Benson(Charlton Heston) appears to have been a commander in the recent Korean War, where his strict style is sometimes necessary to get things done with minimal casualties, He's having trouble finding a challenging role in peacetime. Recently, he's been leading war games: teaching milk-drinking boys to become whiskey-drinking soldiers, as he puts it. But , it takes him quite a while to agree that he should lower his standards somewhat for the children.

Benson is devastated when the boys unanimously agree that his perfectionism in their football play, which led to a trophy, was not appreciated. At their ages, football should not be so competitive as to seem more like work than enlighten play.

The Major softens his approach somewhat. But when he is laid up for a while in a measles quarantine, and one of the boys takes his place as drill sergeant, the boy's approach is exactly like the Major's, for which he was criticized as too demanding.

Major Benson seems to have a low opinion of the leadership potential of women, saying that women are 10% brains and 90% emotion. He gradually revises this assessment during his stay. He seems to need the attention of at least one woman, who presently is Dr. Kay, and aggressively pursues a romance with her. They have an up and down stormy relationship, often disagreeing on policies. She's hoping she can smooth out his rough edges before making a long term commitment.