Blood, Sweat & Stanley Poole (by
James and William Goldman) shoots its best line in the title. In three acts, this small-bore saga of the peacetime army in the mid-'50s rarely hits a comic target that has not already been riddled in the long and simple-minded annals of G.I. humor.
Lieut. Stanley Poole (Darren McGavin), a hard-bitten campaigner, has been frightened out of his dimmish wits by a directive. To hold his rank, he must pass a college test; to pass the test, he is bribing the post education officer with every last field jacket and wall locker in his supply room. Peter...