"Soldier in the Rain" is that rare thing, a comedy starring Steve McQueen. It was the third successive film in which he played a member of the armed forces, but his character here, Sergeant Eustis Clay, is very different to either the "Cooler King" from "The Great Escape" or the arrogant and reckless Captain Rickson from "The War Lover". Clay has more in common with Phil Silvers' Sergeant Bilko, having joined the army not to serve his country but to serve his own interests. Clay is in charge of the stores, which he sees as a golden opportunity to engage in pilfering in order to line his own pockets. Clay, however, is much less intelligent than Bilko, who was a smart, shrewd wheeler-dealer, and frequently allows his greed and enthusiasm for a quick buck to get the better of his rather limited powers of judgement. As a result he has to rely on his older friend and mentor, Sergeant Maxwell Slaughter, who frequently has to get Clay out of trouble, particularly as the military police have their suspicions about Clay and are just waiting for him to make a wrong move.
This could have been the basis of a very amusing film, but it never really works. Much of the blame must lie with McQueen, who was not, on this evidence, a natural born comedian. (He probably realised that himself, as he made very few comedies in his later career). Whereas Bilko is a likable rogue, Eustis seems more of cross between an unlikeable rogue and a village idiot. At times he comes across as so stupid that one wonders why he was ever promoted to sergeant. Indeed, I wondered why the Army ever accepted him in the first place instead of categorising him as unfit for active service on the grounds of congenital imbecility.
Unlike McQueen, Jackie Gleason was a natural comedian, and from an acting point of view he is the best thing about the film. The trouble is that the naturally funny Gleason ends up playing straight man to a "funny" man who isn't funny, which is not a pairing which makes for great comedy. Tuesday Weld (who was later to star with McQueen in "The Cincinnati Kid") is simply irritating as Slaughter's eighteen-year-old blonde bimbo girlfriend Bobbie-Jo. While I cannot claim to be an expert on American dialects, her Southern accent is obviously fake. Incidentally, I also wondered whether the film-makers of today would have been quite so blasé about a relationship between a teenage schoolgirl and a forty-something man as were their counterparts in the early sixties.
The other good thing about the film is the attractive jazz score from Henry Mancini, reminiscent of his famous "Pink Panther" theme. ("Soldier in the Rain" was written and produced by Blake Edwards, the mastermind behind the "Pink Panther" series). There is, unfortunately, little else to admire about the film, a failed comedy whose jokes frequently misfire. Towards the end there is a rather muffled attempt to make the film more serious, but it does not work any better as a tragedy than it did as a comedy. One for McQueen completists only. 4/10
This could have been the basis of a very amusing film, but it never really works. Much of the blame must lie with McQueen, who was not, on this evidence, a natural born comedian. (He probably realised that himself, as he made very few comedies in his later career). Whereas Bilko is a likable rogue, Eustis seems more of cross between an unlikeable rogue and a village idiot. At times he comes across as so stupid that one wonders why he was ever promoted to sergeant. Indeed, I wondered why the Army ever accepted him in the first place instead of categorising him as unfit for active service on the grounds of congenital imbecility.
Unlike McQueen, Jackie Gleason was a natural comedian, and from an acting point of view he is the best thing about the film. The trouble is that the naturally funny Gleason ends up playing straight man to a "funny" man who isn't funny, which is not a pairing which makes for great comedy. Tuesday Weld (who was later to star with McQueen in "The Cincinnati Kid") is simply irritating as Slaughter's eighteen-year-old blonde bimbo girlfriend Bobbie-Jo. While I cannot claim to be an expert on American dialects, her Southern accent is obviously fake. Incidentally, I also wondered whether the film-makers of today would have been quite so blasé about a relationship between a teenage schoolgirl and a forty-something man as were their counterparts in the early sixties.
The other good thing about the film is the attractive jazz score from Henry Mancini, reminiscent of his famous "Pink Panther" theme. ("Soldier in the Rain" was written and produced by Blake Edwards, the mastermind behind the "Pink Panther" series). There is, unfortunately, little else to admire about the film, a failed comedy whose jokes frequently misfire. Towards the end there is a rather muffled attempt to make the film more serious, but it does not work any better as a tragedy than it did as a comedy. One for McQueen completists only. 4/10