Salute to the Marines

Salute to the Marines
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	S. Sylvan Simon
Written by	George Bruce
Produced by	John W. Considine, Jr.
Starring	Wallace Beery
Distributed by	MGM
Release date	1943 (1943)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Salute to the Marines is a 1943 Technicolor World War II propaganda war film drama from MGM, produced by John W. Considine, Jr., directed by S. Sylvan Simon, that stars Wallace Beery. The film co-stars Fay Bainter, Reginald Owen, Ray Collins, Keye Luke, and Marilyn Maxwell. Beery's older brother Noah Beery, Sr. also appears in the film. The film is set in the Philippines just prior to the beginning of the Pacific War.

Plot

After 30 years in the United States Marine Corps, NCO Sgt. Maj. William Bailey (Beery) is retired a few months prior to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese invade the Philippines shortly thereafter, Bailey confronts and strangles a Nazi secret agent. The spy had posed as a pacifist until a devastating Japanese air attack caused many casualties among the unarmed civilians. Bailey then takes command of the Filipino militia that he earlier had trained prior to his retirement. They fight a series of delaying actions against a Japanese ground invasion force, while waiting for U.S. Marine island forces to arrive and counter-attack. Later, while wearing his one time "dress blues" uniform jacket, he takes out an enemy machine gun emplacement while Marines blow up a vital bridge, halting the Japanese advance. Sgt. Major Bailey is suddenly killed by an air bombing attack after his heroic delaying actions have succeeded. Years later at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, CA, Sgt. Major Bailey is posthumously awarded, by his former commander in the Philippines, the Corps' highest medal for valor. His daughter (Maxwell), now a sergeant in the Marine Corps, gratefully accepts the medal for her late father, as the entire base's assemble corps passes in review.

Cast

• Wallace Beery as Sgt. Maj. William Bailey
• Fay Bainter as Jenny Bailey
• Reginald Owen as Henry Caspar
• Ray Collins as Col. John Mason
• Keye Luke as Flashy Logaz
• Marilyn Maxwell as Helen Bailey
• William Lundigan as Rufus Cleveland
• Donald Curtis as Randall James
• Noah Beery, Sr. as Adjutant
• Dick Curtis as Cpl. Moseley
• Russell Gleason as Pvt. Hanks
• Rose Hobart as Mrs. Carson
• Hugh Beaumont as Sergeant (uncredited)
• Robert Blake as Junior Carson (uncredited)
• Jim Davis as Pvt. Saunders (uncredited)
• Chester Gan as Japanese Officer

Reception

(Review by T.S., New York Times, August 30, 1943)

"That old saurian-countenanced leatherneck, Wallace Beery, is back in uniform and fighting trim in Salute to the Marines, which burst into the Globe on Saturday. We say burst because MGM hasn't spared any ammunition in making Mr. Beery's personal defense of the Philippines a wild, rootin-tootin, bang-up affair, and in Technicolor, too. Many a model set has been demolished, many an extra smeared with scarlet, and many a Japanese blown sky-high before this extravagant yarn is over. Mr. Beery's language, now that the lid is off, is hardly less colorful: "little yellow mustard-colored monkeys" is merely one of his several definitions of our Pacific enemy".

"Briefly, it is a story tailored to Mr. Beery's familiar dimensions. An overgrown bad boy with a gilt-edged heart and a coy way of confessing his numerous sins, Mr. Beery is a bellows-lunged marine sergeant who never won a citation though he would dearly love one. He is a service chauvinist to the core; when anyone so much as breathes a word against the Marines he polishes them off even if its costs him the brig. Finally retired, amid the pacifist inhabitants of the Philippine settlement, the old sergeant calls all the shots on the Japanese game of duplicity and is finally vindicated when the Zeros come. Hollywood hindsight makes unconvincing foresight in the movies. But at any rate, Mr. Beery and some stout Filipinos fight their roaring battle and Mr. Beery, at least, wins".

"It is all Rover Boy drama in the bellowing, homespun fashion that has come to be associated with Mr. Beery, and there are many who like it. But displays of patriotism, no less than acting, can be guilty of the same cheaply theatrical excesses that, in the theatre, are defined as "ham." Mr. Beery's "Salute to the Marines" has many a hectic, as well as embarrassing moment, but he is still fighting a small boy's war".

External links

• Salute to the Marines at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Salute to the Marines at IMDb,