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The Tanks Are Coming

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5.1/10 • 6

1941-10-040h 20m

ComedyWar

Educational short about the status of battle tanks and tank training in the U.S. Army in pre-War 1941, featuring a comical Army trainee from the Bronx.

Directors
B. Reeves Eason

Top Billed Cast

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  1. George Tobias

    George Tobias

    Malowski

  2. Richard Travis

    Richard Travis

    Pete

  3. Gig Young

    Gig Young

    Jim Allen

  4. Frank Wilcox

    Frank Wilcox

    Colonel

  5. Knox Manning

    Knox Manning

    Narrator

  6. Byron Barr

    Byron Barr

Reviews1

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CinemaSerf Avatar

CinemaSerf

Feb 8, 2024

5/10

George Tobias is quite amusing here as the New York taxi driver "Malowski" who heeds President Roosevelt's stirring call to arms in 1941 and - much to the disbelief of his gal - joins up. He decides to drive his cab all the way to Fort Knox in Kentucky where he enlists and is trained on the rudiments of learning how to drive a tank. I'm not sure this is really about tanks at all, it's more of an educational training film that extols the virtues of the US Army, it's training and equipment - all with a view to tugging at some patriotic heart-strings and increasing recruitment. Some of the commentary is just a little on the over-zealous side and I'm not sure anyone would describe the military infrastructure as a "democracy" - regardless of your caste or creed! Tobias and his yellow "Betsy" try to inject a little humour and humanity into this quite brutal tree-bashing film before a rather rousing denouement that only needed a poster from Lord Kitchener. These films all had their purpose and the war may have turned out quite differently had they not achieved their goals - but the almost fervent tones of narrator Knox Manning did grate after a while. PS: Didn't Benjamin Franklin take an awful long time to write his name?!

Media

  • The Tanks Are Coming backdrop

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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
--
Revenue
--
Keywords
taxi driverpatriotismworld war iitankmaneuvervolunteerrecruitingarmored truckyellow cabmilitary trainingjoining the armyarmored vehicleu.s. armywartime propagandamilitar tanktanks