Doughboys (film) : Plot, Cast, Reception Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Doughboys (film)

1930 film by Edward Sedgwick

August 30, 1930 (1930-08-30)

Running time

79 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

Doughboys is a 1930 American Pre-Code comedy film starring Buster Keaton. It was Keaton's second starring talkie vehicle^[1] and has been called Keaton's "most successful sound Picture."^[2] A Spanish-language version was also made under the title, De Frente, Marchen.

Plot

Elmer (Buster Keaton), a member of the idle rich, is smitten by working girl Mary (Sally Eilers), who will have nothing to do with him. When Elmer's chauffeur gets caught up in an army recruitment drive and quits, Elmer goes to an employment agency to find a new driver and accidentally enlists in the army. Elmer learns that Mary is on the base to entertain the troops and learns that his drill sergeant, Brophy (Edward Brophy), is also interested in Mary.

Cast

Buster Keaton as Elmer
Sally Eilers as Mary
Cliff Edwards as Nescopeck
Edward Brophy as Sgt. Brophy
Victor Potel as Svendenburg
Arnold Korff as Gustav
Frank Mayo as Captain Scott
Pitzy Katz as Abie Cohn
William Steele as Lieutenant Randolph
Edward Sedgwick as Guggleheimer the Camp Cook (uncredited)

Reception

Keaton had creative input in Doughboys, which was partly inspired by his own experience in World War I. Although the writers kept inserting puns and verbal jokes into the script, Keaton insisted that his dialogue, at least, be less "jokey."^[3] Keaton felt that Doughboys was the best of the films he made for MGM.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b Neibaur, James L. (2010). The Fall of Buster Keaton: His Films for M-G-M, Educational Pictures, and Columbia. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-8108-7682-8.
^ Flamini, Roland (1994). Thalberg: The Last Tycoon and the World of M-G-M. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. pp. 231–232. ISBN 9780517586402.
^ Doughboys^{[permanent dead link]}, TCM.