It's hardly surprising that this spectacular wartime adventure is well up to top Hollywood standards, since it was one of the very few films made in Britain by acclaimed American director Raoul Walsh, the man behind such action classics as James Cagney's The Roaring Twenties and Errol Flynn's They Died With Their Boots On.

Wallace Ford stars as Jim Tracey, a New York gangster on the run from a murder rap who hightails it to England and joins the Army, posing as a Canadian. Once there he's befriended by Corporal Bert Dawson, and a friendly rivalry develops when the two men both fall for the sergeant majors's daughter. Eventually the regiment is shipped off to China, where Ford is given a chance to redeem himself in action against the ferocious Chinese bandits.

Review:
GB under the command of Michael Balcon as production head decided to aim its productions at the American market.Unfortunately as this film shows it would have missed its mark by a mile.As Rachel Low in her estimable book on British Film Production in the 30s says,either they shows actors of insufficient stature or those who were of sufficient stature didn't come up to the mark.Wallace Ford is after all an amiable enough actor but by no stretch of the imagination was he a star.So there was little likelihood that he would draw the customers in the states.Even employing Raoul Walsh as director is nullified by the longueurs of the first half when clearly as a quid pro quo to the army we see drilling and marching and bands playing so that the film grinds to a halt.Ironically at the end the British Army are shown as all conquering in the Asian conflict whereas a few years later they were routed by the Japanese army.It is little surprise that shortly after this film was made Gaumont British closed down their production arm and Shepherds Bush studios and was eventually sold off t rank.A sad end to a misguided dream.

Director: Raoul Walsh
Writers: Lesser Samuels ,Ralph Gilbert Bettison

Complete credited cast:
Wallace Ford ... Jimmy Tracy
John Mills ... Cpl. Bert Dawson
Anna Lee ... Sally Briggs
Grace Bradley ... Jean Burdett
Frank Cellier ... Regimental Sergeant-Major Briggs
Peter Croft ... Student
James Pirrie
Henry Hallett
Frederick Leister ... Vice Consul
Lawrence Anderson ... Trader

Country:UK
Language:English
Release Date:15 April 1937 (USA) See more »
Also Known As:You're in the Army Now See more »
Filming Locations:Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK
Runtime:
Sound Mix:Mono (Full Range Recording System)
Color:Black and White