Military Academy (film)
Encyclopedia
Military Academy is an American
film directed by D. Ross Lederman
, scripted by Karl Brown
and David Silverstein from a story by Richard English and released as a low-budget programmer
by Columbia Pictures
on August 6, 1940. It is one of numerous military-school or patriotic-adventure-themed, quickly-produced second features for a primarily juvenile audience, which every studio rushed before the cameras following the September 1939 outbreak of war in Europe and, subsequently, the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
, passed by Congress on September 14 and signed by President Franklin Roosevelt on September 16.
Starting in November 1939 with Warners
' On Dress Parade
, which became better known as The Dead End Kids on Dress Parade, virtually all male adolescents working in Hollywood were put through their on-screen paces. Tommy Kelly and Jackie Moran who had starred as Tom and Huck in 1938's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
appeared in Military Academy and 1939's The Spirit of Culver
, respectively. Culver, another version of the military-school classic, Tom Brown of Culver, starred former child stars Jackie Cooper
and Freddie Bartholomew
, who were also being cast in other similar productions. Bartholomew's next titles, in fact, were Naval Academy, Cadets on Parade and Junior Army.
Military Academy presents top-billed Tommy Kelly as a fifteen-year-old sent to the title institution under an assumed surname, because his father, a well-known crime figure, although now reformed, has made the family name so notorious that his relatives find it difficult to relate to society at large once the truth becomes known. At the school he makes friends with two other misfits — second-billed Bobby Jordan
, primarily known as a key member of the Dead End Kids
acting ensemble, but here revising his usual character to portray a cocky champion athlete whose self-aggrandizing behavior alienates him from most fellow cadets, and third-billed David Holt who played the pampered sissy and prissy cousin Sid Sawyer to Tommy Kelly's Tom in the 1938 film, and was again cast as a similar type, an overprotected son of a wealthy family who cannot adjust himself to the strict regimen. Fourth-billed Jackie Searl
, at nineteen, playing a senior cadet, had the longest career among the junior cast members, with credits going back to the beginning of sound in 1929, almost always portraying sneaky, nasty, pampered, disagreeable kids, including an earlier prototype of cousin Sid to Jackie Coogan
's Tom in the 1930 Tom Sawyer
and its 1931 sequel, Huckleberry Finn. True to form, his upperclassman character immediately becomes the nemesis
of the three younger boys. At midpoint, Tommy Kelly's family name is exposed and he faces ostracism from fellow cadets, except for his two friends who continue to support him. Ultimately, however, all the boys prove themselves to be fine, upstanding, patriotic young Americans on the eve of World War II, with Pearl Harbor little more than a year away.
The remaining cast members are Don Beddoe
as Tommy Kelly's former-gangster father, Jimmy Butler
as Cadet Dewey, Walter Tetley
as Cadet Blackburn and Earle Foxe
, Eddie Dew
and Warren Ashe as the officers in charge, Major Dover, Captain Kendall and Captain Banning, respectively. Last-billed, and introduced to Tommy Kelly in the final scene as David Holt's appealing sister, Marjorie, is fifteen-year-old Joan Brodel who, rechristened Joan Leslie, would be launched by Warner Bros.
as an ingenue and, subsequently, leading lady of the 1940s in a film released five months after Military Academy, High Sierra.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film directed by D. Ross Lederman
D. Ross Lederman
David Ross Lederman was an American film director noted for his western/action/adventure films of the 1930s and 1940s....
, scripted by Karl Brown
Karl Brown (cinematographer)
Karl Brown was a pioneer American cinematographer who had a close association with director D. W. Griffith. Brown also became a noteworthy director and screenwriter. The most successful film he worked on as cinematographer was The Covered Wagon...
and David Silverstein from a story by Richard English and released as a low-budget programmer
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
by Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
on August 6, 1940. It is one of numerous military-school or patriotic-adventure-themed, quickly-produced second features for a primarily juvenile audience, which every studio rushed before the cameras following the September 1939 outbreak of war in Europe and, subsequently, the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, also known as the Burke-Wadsworth Act, was passed by the Congress of the United States on September 17, 1940, becoming the first peacetime conscription in United States history when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law two days later...
, passed by Congress on September 14 and signed by President Franklin Roosevelt on September 16.
Starting in November 1939 with Warners
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
' On Dress Parade
On Dress Parade
On Dress Parade is a 1939 Warner Bros. film that marked the first time The Dead End Kids headlined a film without any other well-known actors.-Plot:...
, which became better known as The Dead End Kids on Dress Parade, virtually all male adolescents working in Hollywood were put through their on-screen paces. Tommy Kelly and Jackie Moran who had starred as Tom and Huck in 1938's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938 film)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a 1938 American drama film directed by Norman Taurog. The screenplay by John V.A. Weaver was based on the classic 1876 novel by Mark Twain.-Plot:...
appeared in Military Academy and 1939's The Spirit of Culver
The Spirit of Culver
The Spirit of Culver is a 1939 drama starring Jackie Cooper and Freddie Bartholomew. Directed by Joseph Santley and written by Whitney Bolton and Nathanael West, the film is a remake of 1932's Tom Brown of Culver.-Plot:...
, respectively. Culver, another version of the military-school classic, Tom Brown of Culver, starred former child stars Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...
and Freddie Bartholomew
Freddie Bartholomew
Frederick Cecil Bartholomew , known for his acting work as Freddie Bartholomew, was an English-American child actor. One of the most famous child actors of all time, he became very popular in 1930s Hollywood films...
, who were also being cast in other similar productions. Bartholomew's next titles, in fact, were Naval Academy, Cadets on Parade and Junior Army.
Military Academy presents top-billed Tommy Kelly as a fifteen-year-old sent to the title institution under an assumed surname, because his father, a well-known crime figure, although now reformed, has made the family name so notorious that his relatives find it difficult to relate to society at large once the truth becomes known. At the school he makes friends with two other misfits — second-billed Bobby Jordan
Bobby Jordan
Robert "Bobby" Jordan was an American actor, born in Harrison, New York, most notable for being a member of the Dead End Kids, the East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys.-Early life and career:...
, primarily known as a key member of the Dead End Kids
Dead End Kids
The Dead End Kids were a group of young actors from New York who appeared in Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play Dead End in 1935. In 1937 producer Samuel Goldwyn brought all of them to Hollywood and turned the play into a film...
acting ensemble, but here revising his usual character to portray a cocky champion athlete whose self-aggrandizing behavior alienates him from most fellow cadets, and third-billed David Holt who played the pampered sissy and prissy cousin Sid Sawyer to Tommy Kelly's Tom in the 1938 film, and was again cast as a similar type, an overprotected son of a wealthy family who cannot adjust himself to the strict regimen. Fourth-billed Jackie Searl
Jackie Searl
Jackie Searl was an American child actor who began performing on a local Los Angeles radio at the age of three...
, at nineteen, playing a senior cadet, had the longest career among the junior cast members, with credits going back to the beginning of sound in 1929, almost always portraying sneaky, nasty, pampered, disagreeable kids, including an earlier prototype of cousin Sid to Jackie Coogan
Jackie Coogan
John Leslie Coogan , known professionally as Jackie Coogan, was an American actor who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films. Many years later, he became known as Uncle Fester on 1960s sitcom The Addams Family...
's Tom in the 1930 Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer (1930 film)
Tom Sawyer is a 1930 American drama film directed by John Cromwell. The screenplay by Grover Jones, William Slavens McNutt, and Sam Mintz is based on the 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain....
and its 1931 sequel, Huckleberry Finn. True to form, his upperclassman character immediately becomes the nemesis
Archenemy
An archenemy, archfoe, archvillain or archnemesis is the principal enemy of a character in a work of fiction, often described as the hero's worst enemy .- Etymology :The word archenemy or arch-enemy originated...
of the three younger boys. At midpoint, Tommy Kelly's family name is exposed and he faces ostracism from fellow cadets, except for his two friends who continue to support him. Ultimately, however, all the boys prove themselves to be fine, upstanding, patriotic young Americans on the eve of World War II, with Pearl Harbor little more than a year away.
The remaining cast members are Don Beddoe
Don Beddoe
-Career:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Beddoe made his Broadway acting debut in 1929, receiving top billing in Nigger Rich....
as Tommy Kelly's former-gangster father, Jimmy Butler
Jimmy Butler
Jimmy Butler was an American, juvenile, motion-pictures actor, active in the 1930s and early 1940s....
as Cadet Dewey, Walter Tetley
Walter Tetley
Walter Tetley , an American voice actor, was a child impersonator in radio's classic era, with regular roles on The Great Gildersleeve and The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, as well as continuing as a voice-over artist in animated cartoons, commercials, and spoken-word record albums...
as Cadet Blackburn and Earle Foxe
Earle Foxe
Earle Foxe was an American actor.-Background:Foxe was born Earl Aldrich Fox in Oxford, Ohio, to Charles Aldrich Fox, originally of Flint, Michigan, and Eva May Herron. His older half sister was Ethel May Fox, a music teacher, born in Michigan to Charles Aldrich Fox and Katie Eldridge. Always very...
, Eddie Dew
Eddie Dew
Eddie Dew was an American actor, film director, and television director. As an actor he is best remembered for his starring roles in B movie western films during the 1940s...
and Warren Ashe as the officers in charge, Major Dover, Captain Kendall and Captain Banning, respectively. Last-billed, and introduced to Tommy Kelly in the final scene as David Holt's appealing sister, Marjorie, is fifteen-year-old Joan Brodel who, rechristened Joan Leslie, would be launched by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
as an ingenue and, subsequently, leading lady of the 1940s in a film released five months after Military Academy, High Sierra.
External links
- T.S. (Theodore Strauss) "THE SCREEN; At the Globe" (review of Military Academy in the August 5, 1940 edition of The New York Times)
- "South of Pago Pago Playing At Padre Theater" (Military Academy and other films opening that week are given brief reviews in the September 21, 1940 edition of San Jose Evening News)