Advance to the Rear

Honestly, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Initially, I wanted to see it because my favorite camp song, Today, was written for it. I've been searching for it on my cable guide for years and finally found it. I was surprised how fun it was!

Be prepared for something that by almost any standard should not be even remotely good and find yourself laughing out loud in almost every place through it. Mad magazine run rampant, and far better than the likes of much overrated and obvious stuff like Blazing Saddles. Glenn Ford walks through it to superb effect. The entire thing looks like it was all done in one take and is all the better for it. The James Bond movies were famous for their tongue in cheek humor, always stupidly it seemed to me: this one shows how tongue in cheek all the way back and down the throat works. Forget John Ford's sentimentality, Andre de Toth's subtleties, this is just flat out in your face fun. Never a western before or since like it. One of a kind always beats the rest.

Glenn Ford wades through this lame-duck comedy in his usual low-keyed, somewhat bashful manner playing a Union army captain in 1862 who is sent out west with an outfit comprised of foul-ups--and one irritating soldier prone to hiccups. Rebel spy Stella Stevens, posing as a prostitute, tries reeling Ford in as he attempts to thwart the hijacking of a gold shipment by stagecoach. Completely lackluster comedy full of pratfalls and fisticuffs, coy attempts at titillation, and a supporting cast of shouters (General Jim Backus is the worst offender). Melvyn Douglas shouts, too, as the Colonel, but he and Ford work well together when the material gives them a chance. Otherwise, desperation time. * from ****

Glenn Ford is solid as usual. It is the rest of the cast that make this film fun. Melvyn Douglas and Joan Blondell are at their comic best. Stella Stevens is also quite funny and at the height of her beauty and gets the full grooming treatment by MGM's William Tuttle and Sydney Guillaroff.