Customer Reviews

Advance To The Rear (1964)-A Union army outfit of misfits and rejects is sent to the Western territory

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First off, let me assure you that the one star I have accorded this product is not for the movie itself. Advance to the Rear is a classic comedy starring Glen Ford, Jim Backus and Stella Stevens and would rate four stars by itself. It's an off-beat story concerning a group of misfit soldiers during the Civil War who are grouped into a special unit (company Q) and are accidentally assigned to protect a large gold shipment in the west. Even the quirky music is perfectly matched to the action and will get a snort out of the viewer. While the movie may not be in the same league as 'Gettysburg' or 'Saving Pvt Ryan', it has its own charm as the antics of this company of clowns will keep you in stitches for the entire 100 minutes of play time.

But ... I cannot recommend this 'release' of the film by AH Films. I had long searched for a copy of the movie and jumped on this when I found it in 2009. Problem is, it is a homemade copy from cable/satellite or premium television. This will be readily apparent when you first unwrap the package and notice that the disc is a recordable DVD-R that you can buy in any computer store. And while the picture (black and white) is clear and sharp, the sound varies and is often unintelligible. The disc will also skip large sections of the film leading you to a frustrating viewing experience.

The vendors of the film were helpful enough and sent a second copy of the film (at no charge) to me, but the second was as bad as the first. Some of my DVD players would not even play the movie at all. I did not bother to contact them further as the movie was not all that expensive at that time and undoubtedly any further copies they might send would suffer the same problems.

I sincerely advise you to wait until the film is released by one of the major publishing companies. It will save you a great deal of frustration. If released by a regular publisher, I will be happy to revise my rating and comments.

Not recommended at this time due to source.

~P~

Clearly a bootleg. Looks like it might have been grabbed off of satellite, where it was featured a few months ago. After checking with the studio, they confirmed that legal copies of this movie do not exist. The seller, AH Films, packaged this in a generic case and the DVD is clearly a standard Memorex recordable disc. I am very disappointed that Amazon would allow this to occur via their otherwise excellent store. The recording is uneven, with some noticeable gaps (missing scenes). The movie itself is of course great, one of the best civil war farces, and performances by Glenn Ford and Melvin Douglas, and music by the New Christy Minstrels is superb.

It looks like this is a bootleg copy. The DVD case is not for the video but instead a generic one for the company selling it. The label on the DVD has the name of the video mispelled. It wouldn't play on my computer, although it did play on a regular DVD player. The quality of the video itself is good.

The Skipper barks orders at a bunch of inept misfits, and Mr. Howell is in charge of the Gold shipment ... one year before Gilligan's Island begins ... Co-incidence??? I do not know. But seeing it happen was a Very Strange Experience!

I just saw a very clean print of "Advance To The Rear" on TMC. So the 3 stars are for the movie itself. It looked fantastic on TMC, just about crystal clear, although there were a number of abrupt edits and obvious scene deletions that I honestly couldn't tell were done when the movie was first released to theatres, or happened to it later. Anyway...

This is a unique comedy. It's not too big a surprise (for this era) that the one Indian with a speaking part graduated from West Point and speaks perfect (modern) English, but a lot of things happen that don't happen in other western comedies, such as "Paint Your Wagon" or "The Great Bank Robbery" (both 1969). However, even with several good actors, this movie is somehow not as good as those two movies. The main problem, I think is those deleted scenes. It's too bad when studio execs decide that a movie is too long, and order it cut shorter and shorter, until scenes vital to the story are cut, and then the movie just doesn't make sense, and really does seem too long, because it's not enjoyable any more.

The first half of "Advance To The Rear" is a farce filled with guys doing a lot of slapstick, and one liners that try to generate a lot of laughs, but don't quite make it. The second half, however, becomes a semi-serious drama that is actually pretty interesting.

You might get the very strong, somewhat odd feeling that this movie is based more accurately on true events than most other Civil War movies.

The music by Randy Sparks of The New Christy Minstrels, performed by his group, sounds a lot like Henry Mancini (Hatari, Pink Panther) doing Incredibly Strange Music, or Novelty Music with cowbells, banjos, kazoos. It's fun music performed well, and...

It's a fun movie with a very good cast portraying some good characters, but just lacks brilliant directing, and the script could be a lot better in many places. And the ending is very disappointing. It's one of those movies that just sort of ends, without anyone resolving anything. You get an idea of how things went, but you don't see any of it actually happen. It's just an abrupt silly ending, to a long movie that had become really interesting half way through.

Premise. During the Civil War the Union Army sends a company of hand chosen misfits to garrison a fort in the Western territories, after their commanding officer's 'Melvyn Douglas' horse runs off with him to the rear with his entire regiment following. This comedy was based on Company of Cowards, a novel by Jack Schaefer. Directed by George Marshall. With Glenn Ford, Stella Stevens, Melvyn Douglas, Jim Backus, Joan Blondell, Andrew Pine, Alan Hale, Jr., James Griffith, Whit Bissell, Michael Pate etc.
Ok there is no reason this movie should have been made. Except that it is completely stupid, a great laugh and fun vehicle to watch. I understand the two seasoned comedy series F Troop is loosely based on the film. Enjoy