Formulaic Warners pic about the WWI exploits of the famous/eponymous fighting unit that included Father Duffy & Wild Bill Donovan. The Hollywood Irish Mafia are all here (James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, Alan Hale, George Brent, Frank McHugh, et al.) and the expected you’re-in-the-army-now tomfoolery is hardly leavened by all the ethnic wisecracks. What makes the film (barely) watchable is seeing just how far Cagney goes with his braggadocio-turned-coward character. There’s no winking at the camera as he screws up his duties and causes more casualties than the Germans. Naturally, he gets a chance to turn hero/martyr in the last reel, but an unpleasant undertow hangs on him right to the end in the gaunt, haunted look in his face and eyes.
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