Back at the Front (1952)
- Starring:
- Tom Ewell, Harvey Lembeck, (more)
- Director(s):
- George Sherman
Synopsis of Back at the Front
Back at the Front is the second of two film comedies based on the wartime cartoons of Bill Mauldin. As in Up Front, the principal characters are woebegone GIs Willie and Joe: Tom Ewell is back as Willie, but Harvey Lembeck replaces David Wayne as Joe. The original purpose of Mauldin's newspaper cartoons--to give enlisted men a surreptitious means of blowing off steam concerning the iniquities of war and the occasional idiocies of their officers--is completely ignored in Back at the Front. Instead, we are offered a very standard spy plot set in postwar Tokyo, involving femme fatale Mari Blanchard and a shipment of booby-trapped food tins. Back at the Front could have been done just as well with Abbott and Costello--better, in fact. Watch in the closing scenes for David Janssen, playing a one-line bit as a rookie soldier. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Complete Cast of Back at the Front
- Tom Ewell - Willie
- Mari Blanchard - Nida
- Vaughan Taylor - Maj. Ormsby
- Russell Johnson - Johnny Redondo
- Aram Katcher - Ben
- George Ramsey - Pete Wilson
- Harvey Lembeck - Joe
- Barry Kelley - Gen. Dixon
- Richard Long - Sgt. Rose
- Benson Fong - Rickshaw Boy
- Aen Ling Chow - Sameko
- Gregg Palmer - Capt. White
- Director(s):
- George Sherman
- Writer(s):
- Oscar Brodney, Don McGuire, Lou Breslow
- Producer(s):
- Leonard Goldstein
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