Movie Review: Hillbilly Blitzkrieg (1942)

Synopsis: In the Army and under the command of Sgt. Homer Gatling, the revenuer who used to harass him over his still, Pvt. Snuffy Smith is assigned to a unit tasked with guarding an experimental missile being built at a lodge owned by his cousin, Barney Google. After organizing a horse race to raise funds for the final missile part, Snuffy, along with Gatling, find themselves facing a group of spies determined to steal the plans.

Who's in it? The movie stars Bud Duncan, Edgar Kennedy, Cliff Nazzaro, Doris Linden and Nicolle Andre.

Review: I came across Hillbilly Blitzkrieg while looking for the movie I intended to watch this morning. Even though I'm not overly familiar with the Snuffy Smith comic book character and knew this was a sequel to a film I haven't seen yet, I figured I'd give it a try anyway. As it turns out, it wasn't bad.

One of the things I liked right away about this movie is, while it didn't go into a great deal of depth about the main protagonist, Snuffy (Duncan) and his sergeant (Kennedy), it gave just enough detail for me to understand their past history. This, in turn, made their love/hate relationship make sense, as well as Snuffy's constant insubordination.

While the overall plot did seem a bit too simple at first, it proved to be entertaining. The horse race, rigged with the help of a female mule, was fun to watch and there was just enough bumbling from both main characters to make the attempts at stealing the missile plans realistically achievable, especially with the beautiful Marlene (Andre) providing a feminine distraction (though I am still a bit confused how the bad guys managed to get into the guarded barn undetected).

I did think the film's ending was a bit drawn out. It was funny at first, especially with Duncan being able to show off some physical comedy. By the end though, it just seemed to be a bit repetitive and made me wonder if the filmmakers were just trying to stretch out the runtime.

My only other complaint is the writers seemed to be a bit indecisive about what kind of character Sgt. Gatling was supposed to be. There were times when he seemed very competent, especially when he managed to keep two of the spies from entering the barn despite being drugged. Other times, he made me wonder how exactly he got promoted to sergeant in the first place. It wasn't a huge deal, but it would have been nice to see the movie pick a lane.

Final Opinion: The movie might have been slightly better had I seen the film that preceded it and had a better understanding of the characters and their motivations and, as I said, the drawn-out ending isn't as funny as it could have been. However, I'd still describe it as a fun and entertaining comedy.

My Grade: B

_______________________________________________________________________

Here are some reviews of other military comedies:

Movie Review: Major Payne (1995)

Movie Review: Sgt. Bilko (1996)

Movie Review: Tanks a Million (1941)