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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»1970s Movies»Movies 1970
    Movies 1970 Movies W 2 Mins Read

    Which Way To The Front? (1970)

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    Gung-ho billionaire playboy Brendan Byers III (Jerry Lewis) is rejected “4-F” for active service during the Second World War and decides to train his own private army of misfits to help fight the Nazis.

    Declaring that “it’s every man’s right to be killed fighting for his country,” Brendan finances his own army, enlisting a handful of Uncle Sam’s rejects as recruits: Finkel (John Wood), Sid (Jan Murray), Peter Bland (Steve Franken), Terry Love (Dack Rambo) and Lincoln (former LA Dodger Willie Davis).

    whichwaytofront

    Perfunctory basic training takes place on Brendan’s 35-acre estate and the misfits are transformed into dead-eye marksmen on a golf-course-turned-rifle-range, instructed in sea survival in a swimming pool, hardened into unflinching hitmen under the tutelage of an ex-Mafioso, and alerted to the lethal usage of Camembert cheese.

    The “dizzy half-dozen” then sail off to war in Europe onboard Brendan’s yacht.

    Brendan poses as a sputtering Nazi commandant with a hair-brained scheme – the invasion of Switzerland . . . by tourists. He also becomes the bumbling bomb carrier in the ‘General’s plot’ assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler (Sidney Miller).

    Few things in showbusiness are sadder to see than a comedian deserted by his muse. At Paramount, Jerry Lewis delivered comedies of genius such as The Nutty Professor (1963) – funny, witty and inspired.

    At Columbia, this work declined, and here, in one of only two films he made for Warner Bros, he hits rock bottom with some untenable and tasteless material appallingly assembled and perfunctorily put together.

    Jerry himself mugs unwatchably, and John Wood and Jan Murray offer professional, but futile, support.

    In the UK, the title was mirthlessly preceded by “Ja, Ja, Mein General, But… “.

    Brendan Byers III
    Jerry Lewis
    Sid Hackle
    Jan Murray
    Finkel
    John Wood
    Peter Bland
    Steve Franken
    Lincoln
    Willie Davis
    Terry Love
    Dack Rambo
    Schroeder
    Paul Winchell
    Adolf Hitler
    Sidney Miller
    Colonico
    Robert Middleton
    Major’s wife
    Kaye Ballard
    General Luther Buck
    Harold J Stone

    Director
    Jerry Lewis

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