THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND (1956)

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Tab Hunter, Natalie Wood, Jessie Royce, Jim Backus, Henry Jones, Murray Hamilton, Alan King, James Garner, David Janssen. Director: David Butler

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For about a ten-year period from the smash-hit Mr. Roberts (1955) to the deepening involvement in Vietnam, Hollywood produced a spate of service comedies, including this one. These were movies trading on the lighter side of military service. They existed in what might be called the triumphant after-glow of WWII, and perhaps as a way of further forgetting that awkward war in Korea. Of course, Hollywood being Hollywood, liberties with real military service were taken, sometimes in wholesale lots. Nonetheless, comedies like Mr. Roberts, Operation Mad Ball (1957), Operation Petticoat (1959) were genuinely funny and harmless entertainment unless taken seriously. Few people, I expect, remember this entry and for good reason—it's not even amusing, let alone funny. Which means for one thing that folks familiar with Basic Training are not apt to overlook the many liberties taken, as other reviewers detail. Clearly, Warner Bros. intended the movie as a vehicle for its younger players, probably hoping for chemistry between Hunter and Wood. And that's the trouble. Hunter simply lacks the skills for what's actually a rather difficult role. Shaeffer needs to be not just arrogant, but also likable at some level. Unfortunately, Hunter's Pvt. Shaeffer is just obnoxious without the redeeming qualities that a Jack Lemmon or a Tony Curtis, for example, could have managed. And since Hunter's miscasting is in about every scene, the movie is more unpleasant than anything else.  Wood's role as the girlfriend is clearly secondary to Hunter's, and one most any young actress less talented could have handled. But at least, the movie's a payday for such fine supporting players as Jones, Janssen, and especially the arch Murray Hamilton whose platoon sergeant is made to suffer indignities from a trainee no real sergeant would put up with. I'm just sorry James Garner wasn't young enough to bring his superb light-comedy skills to the lead role. Then the movie might have worked.