Willie and Joe Back at the Front
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
George Sherman
Tom Ewell
Harvey Lembeck
Mari Blanchard
Barry Kelley
Vaughn Taylor
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
At the end of World War II, reluctant soldier Joe convinces his pal Willie to sign up for the Inactive Reserve in order to obtain early discharges. When they are recalled to active duty only months later, however, Willie is furious. Within weeks of rejoining the service, Joe has a new plan to obtain discharges by faking injuries. After convincing the Army doctors that Willie has lost his hearing and Joe his eyesight, however, Joe insists that they join their old troop buddies for drinks that night. During their cavorting, they start a bar fight and are arrested, after which Col. Harkins tears up their discharges and sends them to Japan to repeat basic training. In Tokyo at Camp Drake, Sgt. Rose treats the wily veterans roughly, requiring them to lead their troop in various physical endurance tests. When the friends learn that they will soon be separated, they pretend not to care but are saddened. Joe then realizes that they can volunteer for the Quartermaster Corps in order to stay together, but when they do so, they are immediately assigned to be test subjects for a series of torturous equipment tryouts. After several grueling weeks on the job, they are finally rewarded with a one-week leave permit to Tokyo. Their uniforms, however, have become so filthy during their assignment that they cannot enter the city without being arrested by M.P.s. Knowing this, Joe nonetheless drags Willie onto a city-bound bus, and they spend their first afternoon in Tokyo running from the police. Eventually they steal an M.P. jeep and take it to the Emperor's palace. Spotted there, they narrowly escape when a Japanese woman named Nida ushers them into her limousine. Although Willie mistrusts her, Joe, an inveterate womanizer, is so taken by her beauty that he agrees to meet her later. She drops them off, suggesting that they visit a nearby club to clean up. When they go there, however, they find that the club is for officers only, so Joe pays the rickshaw driver to show them the back door. While they bathe, they are identified as enlisted men and disguise themselves as geishas to escape. Just as they are about to be trapped by the back door, the doorman hears them mention Nida's name and shows them a secret passage to a private room. There, they are greeted by Nida's friend, dapper American Johnny Redondo, who invites them to his home. They drink all evening, and when Johnny drops them off at the Servicemen's Club, they are promptly arrested for intoxication. Maj. Lester Ormsby, who remembers them from the fracas at the officers' club, sends them to Gen. Dixon to be disciplined. The general orders the pair locked up until he hears them mention Johnny, after which he drops all charges. After they leave, Dixon, who has been trying to arrest Johnny for smuggling explosives, orders his staff to follow Willie and Joe, who will unknowingly act as bait. Later that day, the freshly laundered soldiers are brought to Johnny's. The smuggler lies to Willie and Joe that his crab meat shipments have been repeatedly hijacked on their way to his private airport. When Nida suggests that only an Army truck could travel the roads without being hijacked, Willie and Joe volunteer to steal an Army truck and make the delivery for Johnny. The next day, Ormsby discovers them stealing a truck and arrests them, only to be severely reprimanded by Dixon and forced to release them. Dixon's men follow as Willie and Joe drive the truck, loaded with crates, to the airport, but when the soliders notice the police following them, they assume the car contains hijackers. After leading the police on a wild chase, they are pulled over by Ormsby, who recognizes them and, fearing retribution from Dixon, lets them go. Moments later, however, Dixon catches up to Ormsby and, upon hearing that he let the truck escape, demotes the major to sergeant. Meanwhile, Willie and Joe make it to the airport, where Johnny and Nida take off with the crates, hurriedly leaving some cans behind. Just then, the police arrive and inform Willie and Joe that Johnny is a smuggler. Furious, Willie hurls a can at the plane, and when it explodes, the plane is grounded. As the police arrest Johnny, Dixon promises to discharge Willie and Joe on the condition that they never return to Japan.
Director
George Sherman
Cast
Tom Ewell
Harvey Lembeck
Mari Blanchard
Barry Kelley
Vaughn Taylor
Richard Long
Russell Johnson
Palmer Lee
Benson Fong
Aram Katcher
George Wallace
Duane Thorsen
John Doucette
Lane Bradford
Mike Ragan
Robert Dane
Ted Jordan
Corp. Sam J. Costadina
Corp. Roy Prichard
Aen-ling Chow
Jimmy Shaw
Robert Bray
George Ramsey
Norman Evans
Larry Hudson
Gordon Wynne
Guy Williams
Claudette Thornton
Ken Christy
Paul Smith
Bill Cassady
Harris Brown
Robert Pike
Herbert Lytton
Van Des Autels
Freeman Lusk
Tyler Mcvey
Roland Varno
Ted Hecht
Howard Chuman
Archer Macdonald
Tom Carr
Howard Banks
Dee Carroll
Mari Young
Amy Ding Dong
Rollin Moriyama
Frank Iwanaga
May Takasugi
Ray Barnes
Bob Wehling
Doug Carter
Hugh Prosser
Gayle Kellogg
Jack Daly
Brick Sullivan
Pat Combs
Chuck Courtney
John Pickard
Mal Alberts
Warren Mace
Ed Rickard
Earl Brown
Ralph Brooks
Clyde Mcleod
Bud Cokes
S. Kawaguchi
Doug Henderson
Crew
Pat Betz
Robert Boyle
Lou Breslow
Lou Breslow
Oscar Brodney
Leslie I. Carey
Don Cunliffe
Oliver Emert
Russell A. Gausman
Joseph Gershenson
Leonard Goldstein
Bernard Herzbrun
Lew Leary
Don Mcguire
Don Mcguire
Gordon Mclean
Harry Moran
Rosemary Odell
Robert Pritchard
Augustus Roberts
Tom Shaw
Joan St. Oegger
Clifford Stine
Paul Weatherwax
Bud Westmore
Walter Woodworth
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Back to the Front. The title card reads: "Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Back at the Front." The film begins with a written foreword that reads: "The actual Japanese locales seen in this production were made possible through the cooperation of the Departments of Defense and Army and The Far East Command." Willie and Joe Back at the Front was a sequel to 1951's Up Front (see below for more information about Mauldin's cartoon series), which starred David Wayne as "Joe." No information has been found to explain why Harvey Lembeck replaced Wayne. Willie and Joe Back at the Front begins where the last ended, with the soldiers in Italy awaiting a discharge. Actor Vaughn Taylor reprised his role as the beleagured Military Police major.
According to studio press information, Tokyo locations include the Imperial Palace and Mt. Fuji, and some scenes were shot on just outside Tokyo at Camp Drake. Hollywood Reporter news items add Chuck Horvath, Paul Baxley and Mark Scott to the cast, but their appearance in the final fim has not been confirmed. A May 1952 Hollywood Reporter news item states that actor Richard Long, who plays "Sgt. Rose," was stationed at an Army base in Tokyo when the production crew arrived, and was given a temporary leave of absense so he could return to Hollywood to shoot his scenes.
