TELL IT TO THE MARINES
starring Lon Chaney and William Haines
PHOTOPLAY
March, 1927
No, it doesn't tell about the Marines at Belleau Wood. It doesn't touch the World War. But it clicks as a story of the making of a marine. Skeet Burns is a race track tout, and a fresh one, until he wanders into the service. The hard boiled Sergeant O'Hara moulds him into something else again. The high spot of "Tell It to the Marines" is a fight between a handful of leathernecks and Chinese bandits. It's a thriller.
This picture is going to do a whole lot towards making a star of William Haines. He does very commendable work as Skeet Burns. Lon Chaney, sans grotesque make-up for a change, proves himself as an excellent actor by his playing of O'Hara. Indeed, his O'Hara has all the authentic earmarks of a real, honest-to-Tunney marine.
TELL IT TO THE MARINES
Starring Lon Chaney, William Haines and Eleanor Boardman
PICTURE PLAY
April, 1927
The training of the United States Marine is the reason behind the picture aptly named "Tell It To The Marines," as one might have guessed, and the result is straightforward, melodramatic entertainment of the "cheer, boys, cheer" order. It will delight admirers of William Haines, for the role of Christopher "Skeet" Burns puts over his ingratiating impudence in fine style, and Lon Chaney as the hard-boiled Sergeant O'Hara proves to those who doubted that he can create a convincing character quite as well without a particle of make-up as he has in the past when masked by a baffling disguise. However, "Tell It To The Marines," with all its stirring fights and gun play, is hardly a world beater for heart interest or imagination. But if you accept it as propaganda for the Marine Corps and just that, you will give it a big hand.
Skeet Burns begins as a flippant youth who has applied for
enlistment in the Marine Corps for the purpose of getting a free
trip to California, expecting to pass up the barracks and go on
to Tiajuana and follow the races. He ends as a full-fledged soldier
of the sea. But the way has been hard and his setbacks may, his
discipline coming chiefly from Sergeant O'Hara and his recompense
from Norma Dale, a beauteous nurse in the person of Eleanor Boardman.
On the whole, "Tell It To The Marines" is well worth
a place on your list.
Video source: Movies Unlimited