Military Comedy Films

<p> Beginning with Charlie Chaplin's <I>Shoulder Arms</I> released in America near the end of World War I the military comedy film has been one of Hollywood's most durable genres. This generously illustrated history examines over 225 Army Navy and Marine-related comedies produced between 1918 and 2009 including the abundance of laughspinners released during World War II in the wake of Abbott and Costello's phenomenally successful <I>Buck Privates</I> (1941) and the many lighthearted service films of the immediate postwar era among them <I>Mister Roberts</I> (1955) and <I>No Time for Sergeants</I> (1958).</p><p> Also included are discussions of such subgenres as silent films (<I>The General</I>) military-academy farces (<I>Brother Rat</I>) women in uniform (<I>Private Benjamin</I>) misfits making good (<I>Stripes</I>) anti-war comedies (<I>MASH</I>) and fact-based films (<I>The Men Who Stare at Goats</I>). A closing filmography is included in this richly detailed volume.</p>