Cinema: Union Blue Comedy

Advance to the Rear. Since any departure from formula comedy seems worthy, a slapstick farce about the Civil War perhaps deserves a nod for trying a different attack. This frolic manages, however, to be unremittingly fast, flip, energetic, and for the most part humorless. Based on a sober historical novel by Jack Schaefer (Shane), the movie attempts to spark laughs by logging the misadventures of Company Q, a detachment of Yankee misfits led by inept Colonel Melvyn Douglas and his wry-smiling lieutenant, Glenn Ford. The boobs under their command include a firebug, a flagpole sitter, a kleptomaniac, a skittish soldier afflicted...

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