Rating: NR
Genre: Comedy
Release Date: 07/10/2007
SubTitles: English/Espanol
Dubbed: English/Espanol/French
Sound: DD4.0/DD1
Run Time: 107 Minutes
Flags: Questionable for Children
Distributor/Studio: 20th Century Fox

Director Leo McCarey was clearly past his prime when he made this screen version of Max Shulman's comic novel Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys; still, the film was a success, no small thanks to the star power of real-life husband and wife Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. The scene is Putnam's Landing, Connecticut, where commuter Harry Bannerman (Paul Newman) is driven crazy by his wife Grace's (Joanne Woodward) insistence upon joining every civic committee known to man. When the government chooses Putnam's Landing as the location for their new missile base, Grace immediately joins a committee to halt this project-which causes no end of trouble for Air Force reservist Harry, who is expected to be the government's liason man for the new base. Adding to the dilemma is local vamp Angela Hoffa (Joan Collins), whose efforts to get her lunchhooks into Harry lead to a dizzying series of recriminations and misunderstandings. Satirical barbs are aimed at military stupidity (as personified by thick-eared Captain Hoxie, played by Jack Carson), small-town hypocrisy, and the teenaged "beat" craze. Among the supporting players are Dwayne Hickman and Tuesday Weld, cast respectively as Marlon Brando wannabe Grady Metcalf and nubile high-schooler Comfort Goodpasture (!); within a year of this film, Hickman and Weld would be reunited on the TV series Dobie Gillis, likewise based on a Max Shulman novel. Also appearing are reliable comedy foil Gale Gordon and an uncredited Murvyn Vye as Angela Hoffa's neglectful husband. Considered fairly racy in 1958, Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys seems slightly childish and draggy today; one wonders how it would have fared had Leo McCarey been at the height of his powers.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Cast:
Paul Newman - Harry Bannerman
Joanne Woodward - Grace Bannerman
Joan Collins - Angela Hoffs
Jack Carson - Capt. Hoxie
Dwayne Hickman - Grady Metcalf
Tuesday Weld - Comfort Goodpasture
Gale Gordon - Col. Thorwald
Tom Gilson - Opie
O.Z. Whitehead - Isaac Goodpasture
Ralph Osborn III - Danny Bannerman
Stanley Livingston - Peter
Jon Lormer - George Melvin
Joseph Holland - Manning Thaw
Burt Mustin - Milton Evans
Percy Helton - Waldo Pike
Nora O'Mahony - Betty O'Shiel
Richard Collier - Zack Crummitt
Murvyn Vye - Mr. Hoffa

Production:
Leo McCarey - Director
Leo McCarey - Producer
Cyril Mockridge - Composer
Louis Loeffler - Editor
Claude Binyon Leo McCarey - Screen Writer
Stuart A. Reiss Walter Scott - Set Designer
Leland Fuller - Art Director
Lyle Wheeler - Art Director
Max Shulman - Book Author
Leon Shamroy - Cinematographer
Charles LeMaire - Costume Designer
Ben Nye, Sr. - Makeup
Lionel Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision
Eugene Grossman - Sound/Sound Designer
L.B. Abbott - Special Effects
Harry M. Leonard - Sound/Sound Designer

1959 Directors Guild of America