Main Cast: Lon Chaney, William Haines, Eleanor Boardman, Eddie Gribbon, Carmel Myers
Release Year: 1926
Country: US
Run Time: 9rl minutes
Plot
A tough-as-nails Marine sergeant sets about training a rag-tag group of boys into men. Though sporting a rough and gruff exterior, the sergeant is really a caring, gentle sort. During training, he is especially rough on a smart-alecky young man, whom he hones into a first rate fighter. More tension arise between the men when they fall for the same girl. In one of the film's highlights the sarge, and his protege save an imperiled group, including the girl, from a vicious gang of Chinese bandits. After the rescue, the selfless sergeant gracefully steps aside and returns to training recruits to allow the heroic young Marine and the girl to find romantic bliss. Featuring a nice blend of comedy, adventure and romance, Tell It to the Marines was MGM's second highest grossing film of 1926. It is also one of the rare instances when Lon Chaney, known as "the man of a thousand faces," appeared sans elaborate make-up. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Review
On paper, the pairing of brusque Lon Chaney Sr. and breezy William Haines just doesn't compute; on film, however, it became a winning combination for MGM, which cleaned up at the box office with this tale of Marine life. Chaney had recently scored in the blockbuster Phantom of the Opera -- one of a string of major successes -- but he didn't need makeup to brilliantly bring gruff Sergeant O'Hara to life. Haines, on the other hand, was the new kid on the block; although he'd been in films for several years he had only just achieved stardom with Brown of Harvard. As in Brown, he plays a wise-cracking, self-centered young man, Skeet Burns, who has signed up for the Marines purely for a free train ride to San Diego and a quick hop across the border to the horse races in Tijuana. But he winds up in O'Hara's regiment, suffers through some tough training and hard lessons, and emerges four years later as a better man. Although Burns has at least as much screen time as O'Hara, Chaney's multifaceted characterization dominates the film. With a mug not unlike the one on his bulldog, he still manages to charm pretty Navy nurse Norma Dale (Eleanor Boardman), along with the audience. Haines has to work hard to keep up, and it's to his credit that he doesn't vanish completely under the power of Chaney's performance. While Chaney needs no tricks to make Tell It to the Marines his own, one actor -- the Chinese bandit leader at film's end -- is a wicked scene-stealer; it's Warner Oland in a very memorable bit. Although the picture retains a streamlined MGM feel, the details of the Marine's day-to-day activities have a crisp reality, no doubt due to the U.S. Marine Corps, which offered its cooperation during filming. Though not a recognized classic, Tell It to the Marines stands as an excellent example of mid-1920s filmmaking. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
Tell It to the Marines is a 1927 silent movie starring Lon Chaney and directed by George W. Hill. The involves the adventures of a Marine sergeant. It was the biggest box office success of Chaney's career and the second biggest moneymaker of 1926/1927[1].
Skeet Burns goes to San Diego, California on the pretext of joining the Marines, then skips to Tijuana on arrival. Later, he returns, penniless and hungry, and under Sergeant O'Hara's care he joins the Leathernecks. Skeet becomes enamored of Norma Dale, a commissioned Navy nurse, but on tour duty in the Philippines he is taken with Zaya, a native girl, and incurs the wrath of her friends. Hearing of the affair, Norma breaks off with Skeet, and the latter blames his misfortune on O'Hara. Norma is ordered to Hangchow, and when news arrives that her party is endangered by Chinese bandits, the Marines rescue the beleaguered whites; O'Hara is wounded in the fighting but is happy because he has at last made a man of Skeet. After his hitch, Skeet leaves the service and his friend O'Hara behind, promising Norma that he will wait for her.
Cast
Lon Chaney ... Sgt. O'Hara William Haines ... Pvt. George Robert 'Skeet' Burns Eleanor Boardman ... Nurse Norma Dale
Eddie Gribbon ... Cpl. Madden
Carmel Myers ... Zaya (a native) Warner Oland ... Chinese bandit leader
Mitchell Lewis ... Native starting fight
Frank Currier ... Gen. Wilcox
Maurice E. Kains ... Harry (as Maurice Kains)
MGM brought in General Smedley D. Butler, commander of the Marine base in San Diego, for technical consultation on the film. Lon Chaney formed a close friendship with Marine Corps General, which lasted for the rest of Chaney's life.
The studio was also allowed to shoot on the base which made Tell It to the Marines the first motion picture made with the full cooperation of the U.S. Marine Corps. Battleship USS California (later involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941) was used for the scenes at sea and the final sequence of the film, where the marines rescue the hostages, was filmed at Iverson's Ranch in Chatsworth, California, the location for such films as Fort Apache and The Good Earth.
A writer in Leatherneck Magazine wrote that "few of us who observed Chaney's portrayal of his role were not carried away to the memory of some sergeant we had known whose behavior matched that of the actor in every minute detail ..."
For his role in the film, Chaney became an Honorary Marine, the first film star to do so.
