Red Salute (1935)

Redundant and unnecessary.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This independent film released through United Artists was Barbara Stanwyck's first venture into comedy. According to a biography of her she made this one immediately after splitting from husband Frank Fay and she was staying with Zeppo Marx and his wife.Reading the blurb about Red Salute I can hardly believe that anyone got so worked up over this rather innocuous screen comedy. Actual fistfights occurred in the audience and the American Communist Party picketed this film probably bringing in a few more bucks at the box office as a result.Stanwyck is an army brat, daughter of General Purnell Pratt and she's committed the foulest of sins according to him, she's in love with a Communist student Hardie Albright. But the army has the goods on him, he's not a US citizen and can be deported for something if they can find some kind of charge like inciting to riot. Mere free speech won't do it, there's that First Amendment you know.Through a series of comical and drunken accidents she and enlisted man Robert Young leave together and even hijack a trailer from its owner Cliff Edwards. Truth be told Edwards would like to get away from that harridan of a wife he married Ruth Donnelly.After this it becomes one of dozens of imitation films of It Happened One Night. That time on the road with Young with Cliff Edwards crooning I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now make Stanwyck see the error of her ways even if she won't admit it.Red Salute is a pleasant and innocuous sort of film, a much better view of radical student politics of the 30s is found in The Way We Were. I also couldn't help thinking that if Albright avoided deportation he'd be in front of the House Un American Activities Committee in a dozen years.A sequel film with that as a premise might have proved interesting.

When you've got rebellious socialite Barbara Stanwyck on the run in a cheaply made trailer driven by Ukelaile Ike and sparring with AWOL soldier Robert Young, there's bound to be amusement. Stanwyck is engaged to political activist Hardie Albright but when her papa sends her off to Mexico to get her away from him, she goes into overtime trying to get back. And Cliff Edwards, desperate to get away from harpy wife Ruth Donnelly, is more than overjoyed to be kidnapped by Stanwyck and Young after they crash across the Mexican/United States border, causing international scandal. Hilarity follows, but the communist leanings of the script are so obscure to pick up (other than "red" in the title and Albright's speech demanding a new government) that the controversy of the film in its original release is unwarranted.Lovable Edwards sings "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now", and he's not talking about that wonderful Donnelly who can't help even being funny when playing a shrew. Comparrisons to "It Happened One Night" can't be helped, but I find this faster moving and even funnier than that slightly overlong Best Picture from the previous year. An independent release from innovative producer Edward Small, it is worthy of re-discovery.

It's obvious that somehow both Barbara Stanwyck (with Warner Brothers) and Robert Young (with MGM) had somehow ticked off someone in authority at their respective studios. This is the only way to explain why they were loaned out to a "poverty row" studio to make such a god-awful mess of a film. It is only due to the high quality of their acting and the welcome assistance of Cliff Edwards that the film manages to earn even a 3 on IMDb! It's just awful and hokey.Barbara plays, of all things, a spoiled brat daughter of a general AND she's in love with a card-carrying Communist agitator!!! Considering how ardently anti-Communist her next husband (Robert Taylor) was, it's amazing he ever agreed to marry her! Though if memory serves me, Taylor himself starred in SONG OF Russia--a pro-Communist film in 1944 (when the US, for expediency sake, suddenly acted pro-Soviet since we were both fighting against Hitler). So my guess is they both just wisely agreed not to discuss either of these awful films! In Barbara's defense, her film was meant to ridicule Communism, not embrace it like SONG OF Russia! Anyway, back to the film. Because Barbara is such an embarrassment to her dad, he arranges to have her kidnapped by an aunt to Mexico--hoping that putting some distance between her and her fiancé might cool their romance. Once there, she bumps into Robert Young, who plays a rather dim-witted enlisted man from the US Army. They argue but inexplicably, they both end up stealing a US government-owned car and crashing across the American border!! Now if none of this seems to make sense to you, join the club! As for the rest of the film, it looked like a combination of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT and I MARRIED A COMMUNIST! That's because most of the rest of the film, the pair trekked cross country as a pair of mismatched future lovers AND once rescued, she ran back to her fiancé--that is until the conclusion where Young proves two things once and for all. First, that Democracy beats Communism. Second, that just because you steal and wreck a government vehicle, illegally cross the border and go AWOL doesn't mean there will be any consequences and you get to live happily ever after!!! So after my description it probably sounds to you like a pile of crap of a film. If it DOESN'T, then I suggest you talk to a doctor immediately. This movie is bad and only worth seeing so that you can see two respected actors embarrass themselves. It's not often that you can see two famous actors perform in their worst film--together!By the way, if you don't know who Cliff Edwards is, watch the film and listen to him sing. You will no doubt instantly recognize him as the voice of Jimminy Cricket, though he did quite a few supporting roles in films during the 30s and 40s.

Barbara Stanwyck portrays Drue van Allen, the spoiled college brat daughter of General van Allen. Drue dabbles in leftist politics, sponsoring the commie lecturer, Arner (played by Hardie Albright), chiefly for the agitation value it has for her father. Robert Young plays Jeff, a red-blooded young American soldier who can't seem to stay out of the guard house. General van Allen (Purnell Pratt) encourages Jeff's interest in Drue despite his less than perfect military record in an effort to steer her clear of the foreign leftists under whose sway she has fallen. In a series of misadventures, Jeff goes AWOL and he and Drue wind up in Mexico via a stolen travel trailer. Romance ensues and Drue and Jeff put aside their political differences. They return to the USA, Jeff returns to duty, the commies are routed, and everybody lives happily ever after, at least until WWII.In several ways this simple little film seems to presage "The Way We Were." It won't make anybody's all-time favorites list, but Stanwyck and Young go well together and are pleasant to watch.