Watch The Marines Are Coming For Free

Very disappointing...

Overrated and overhyped

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

I had never seen William Haines in a feature film until I saw this, and while many people say that this was far from his best effort, I found it and the Haines persona displayed here to be quite entertaining. This was a Mascot film, and that studio was not known for great films, but it was competently made with an entertaining story about a "renegade" marine who never seems to follow the rules. Esther Ralston appears as the leading lady to good effect. Both she and William Haines were banished from MGM at about the same time. It almost seems like a reunion of tarnished MGM stars to watch these two very talented people at a poverty row studio. Conrad Nagel has the most thankless job as the bland good guy of the piece. Armida adds spice to the film as Willie's erstwhile girlfriend, and she does a musical number competently. A pleasant way to spend 70 minutes. The Alpha DVD of this has it as a double feature with a 1937 Republic feature, Join The Marines.

William Haines stars with fellow silent stars, Conrad Nagel and Esther Ralston, in this rehash of several of Haines' big hits from the 1920s.He plays a brash Marine officer, a rival with Nagel for the hand of Ralston, who sails through life with a smart comment for everybody. But after he goes too far and is drummed out of the corps, he signs up as an enlisted man, goes through boot camp, and returns to plague Nagel and Ralston until the guys get trapped in a "banana republic" uprising and Haines come through.The Haines formula from the 20s usually cast him as a smart-aleck in a military or sports setting, but the basic plot was the same: in the end Haines "grows up" and learns a big lesson as he wins the girl.After Haines bailed from MGM where he ranked as a major star for about 5 or 6 years, he returned for a couple of cheapie films at Mascot. Neither one was a hit and Haines disappeared from the screen.Production values here are about what you'd expect from Mascot. The story is unbelievable, but Haines is still a master comic and breezes through the proceedings. Nagel is stalwart, Ralston is pretty. Along for the ride are Edgar Kennedy, Hale Hamilton, and the very annoying Armida.The Haines legacy will always cast him as a gay icon, the man who quit MGM rather than give in to L.B. Mayer, and a major star of his time in films with the likes of Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, Marie Dressler, Eleanor Boardman, Anita Page, Jack Pickford, Ben Lyon, and Madge Evans.Haines' final film is worth a look.

Odd mix of action and comedy never completely works. The plot has a Marine Lieutenant assigned to a base in San Diego. he is pursued by a Latin singer who is love with him. Our hero also ends up wooing the fiancé of his former rival and winning her. He ends up disgraced when a fracas in a gambling den goes wrong and resigns his commission and starts over as a private. Eventually sent to South America he ends up fighting a bandit who seeks t kill the marine contingent sent to stop him.First half comedy gives way to second half action and the two halves don't quite come together. The cast is game and manages to sell it as best they can but the shifting gears from one genre to another never quite works. What doesn't help the proceedings is the fact that the film is trapped in the weird warp between silent and sound films that many independent films got caught in where some of the actors seem overly made up, the sound track is free of a musical score and some of the performances are a bit over done. Its not a bad film, its just not a great one.

The first half of this low budget comedy/drama is terrific fast-paced fun. William Haines, looking splendid in his marine uniform, plays a wild playboy marine officer who just can't obey the rules. He drinks, he gambles, he womanises, and gets away with it all. Only William Haines could make such a role so utterly charming. He races through this film with great style and pizazz - stealing every scene he's in, except perhaps for those he shares with the Mexican fire-ball Armida. She plays a girl hopelessly in love with Haines who follows him all around the world. An hilarious little bundle of energy, she is one of the few actors who can match Haines in sheer exuberance.Silent film veterans Esther Ralston, Edgar Kennedy and especially Conrad Nagel also lend strong support. Nagel's role is rather unrewarding though, and decidedly humourless.Sadly the second half of the film gets bogged down into some totally unbelievable war action on a tropical isle, and loses its way. Haines was never very comfortable when he had to be serious on screen, and the hilarious hi-jinks of the first half of the film make a transition to action drama virtually impossible. Still the final scenes return to the comic mood of the first half, and the film is a satisfying, if minor, entertainment, that sadly closed the career of a unique and exciting screen personality. There has never been another star like William Haines, and I suspect there never will be. That Hollywood didn't look after this wonderful performer is a sad indictment of the studio system, and of homophobia.