MovieChat Forums > The Girl He Left Behind (1957) Discussion > Just dopey, and not in a good way as a s...

Just dopey, and not in a good way as a service comedy should be.

posted 8 years ago by lnoft97
1 reply | jump to latest

Tab plays, woodenly, an Army recruit in this misfired service comedy, a spoiled kid who gets away with all kinds of stuff, perhaps due to his good looks. It certainly isn't his winsome personality. Tab wanders about like a Tennessee Walking Horse in a field of plow horses with a blank, sullen, faintly deer-in-the-headlights look on his face, as he doesn't like the Army one bit and wants o-u-t. He is badly miscast and does some truly awful acting.

By the way, this has very little to do with Natalie Wood, 'THE GIRL' he left behind. She plays a minimal role, the kind of girl of the 50's who blows off studying for her finals and drives 100 miles to hook up with her handsome, wooden sweetie. (I swear, his expression never once changes from pouty ennui and distaste).

I really think this thing was made to jump on the 'Ensign Pulver' 'Wackiest Ship In The Army' 'See Here, Pvt. Hargrove' craze, to recruit for the Army (in spite of that little Korean War thing) and to get young men into the movie theaters with their swooning Tab Hunter fan girlfriends.

[–] dannieboy20906 8 years ago

The Korean War was over more than two years before this was released, otherwise I think you are pretty much spot on. The best that I can say for the director is that I've never seen a performance by Tab Hunter that impressed me positively. So I don't blame him for Tab's week performance. In fact, I'm amazed that the most credible performances are by David Jansen as Captain Genero and Murray Hamilton as Sergeant Clyde. Unfortunately, they can't get much credit because we must compare them to a very lackluster ensemble of mediocre acting by people I think could do much better. Of Course, it didn't help that they had little to work with in the script.

The movie probably hangs around in spite of its weaknesses because it portrays an accurate snapshot of the peacetime, Cold War army. Hurry up and wait became the watchword as the army spun up several times for various crises (e.g. Suez, Berlin Wall, Cuban Missiles) from 1953 until 1964.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.