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poster of The Tanks Are Coming
Rating: 5.1/10 by 6 users

The Tanks Are Coming (1941)

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.

Directing:
  • B. Reeves Eason
Writing:
  • Owen Crump
Stars:
Release Date: Sat, Oct 04, 1941

Rating: 5.1/10 by 6 users

Alternative Title:

Country:
United States of America
Language:
English
Runtime: 00 hour 20 minutes
Budget: $0
Revenue: $0

Plot Keyword: taxi driver, patriotism, world war ii, tank, maneuver, volunteer, recruiting, armored truck, yellow cab, military training, joining the army, armored vehicle, u.s. army, wartime propaganda, militar tank, tanks
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CinemaSerf

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?!


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