Stalag 17

Stalag 17

Paramount

June 6, 1953

War Comedy

DVD

C

Although this is not really my genre, I did appreciate the dark humor, as well as the interesting cast.  Billy Wilder directed and co-wrote.

Mulan (1998)

Mulan (1998)

Disney

June 19, 1998

Historical Drama, Historical Comedy, War Drama, War Comedy, Musical*

DVD
B-

A G-rated Disney movie about cross-dressing, implied nudity, concubines, and of course war?  It was The Nineties.  Anyway, while not a typical princess movie, I like it better than most, if not as much as I did when I saw it for the first time about fifteen years ago.  The voice acting is fun, if not always culturally appropriate.  (Not that I will ever knock June Foray of course.  The woman was a long-lived legend.)

Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook co-directed.

*I'm skipping the "romance" tag because it's such a minor part of the story.

Mister Roberts

Mister Roberts

Warner Bros.

July 30, 1955

War Comedy, War Drama

DVD
C-

I watched the whole movie about a decade ago and didn't get that into it.  This time I gave it fifteen minutes, so I didn't even see Jack Lemmon.  The movie is based on the play based on the novel by Thomas Heggen.  And there were three directors: John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy, and Joshua Logan!

Kelly's Heroes

Kelly's Heroes

MGM

June 23, 1970

War Comedy

DVD

D+

Booking a hotel during WW II.  Brian G. Hutton directed a decade before The First Deadly Sin.

In Smog and Thunder

In Smog and Thunder

Studio Unknown

January 20, 2003

Parody, War Comedy
DVD
C

I could see someone finding this parody of war documentaries, here with Northern and Southern California battling for obscure reasons, hilarious but it just didn't quite click with me.  Sean Meredith directed.

How I Won the War

How I Won the War

United Artists

18 October 1967

War Comedy
DVD
D+

Not even worth watching for the occasional Lennon line.  This is based on the Patrick Ryan novel and directed by Richard Lester.

War Babies

War Babies
Educational Film Exchanges (!)
September 18, 1932
War Comedy?
DVD
D+

I don't know what to say.  I knew of the Baby Burlesks series of shorts that preschool-age Shirley did and had seen a bit of one (Polly Tix I believe) in a documentary on censorship, but this is even weirder and more twisted than you'd imagine.  Still, I might go with a C- if the dialogue weren't almost incomprehensible.  Nine minutes with some jaw-dropping imagery.  (And, yes, definitely an odd inclusion for a "Family Classics" collection.)

Charles Lamont, later of the Ma & Pa Kettle series, directed.

Delta Farce

Delta Farce
Lionsgate
May 11, 2007
War Comedy
DVD
D-

Unfunny, crude, and predictable, directed by C.B. Harding.

Falling Hare

No victory here

Falling Hare
Warner Bros.
October 30, 1943
War Comedy, Fantasy, Animation
DVD
C

Robert Clampett directed this very much wartime short where not only doesn't Bugs triumph over a mischievous gremlin, but the ending is a cop-out.  Still, it's mildly amusing, and a reminder that when this aired on television in the 1970s, we Gen-X kids (and of course our Baby Boom predecessors) were expected to get jokes that were well before our time, like "It ain't Vendell Villkie!"

(This is on a collection of eight cartoons, alphabetized under "Bugs" of course.)