Baby Blue Marine *** (1976, Jan-Michael Vincent, Glynnis O’Connor, Katherine Helmond, Dana Elcar, Bert Remsen, Bruce Kirby) – Classic Movie Review 6734

Director John Hancock’s 1976 drama film Baby Blue Marine stars Jan-Michael Vincent as Marion ‘Hedge’ Hedgepeth, a World War Two US Marine recruit who is sent home in a leftover military surplus baby blue uniform after failing basic training in San Diego, and takes on the war vet uniform of an actual battle hero who wants to go AWOL.

On a bus stopover on his trip back to his home in St Louis, Hedge meets a Marine Raider veteran, who does not want to return to the war and knocks Hedge out and swaps uniforms.

While hitch-hiking penniless on home to St Louis, Hedge stops in the idyllic small mountain town of Bidwell, California, below Mount Shasta, where people think he is a war hero and he finds a true sweetheart in Rose (Glynnis O’Connor), a waitress at the local café, who invites him to stay with her family.

Hancock’s intriguing film has some difficulty carving out a fresh variation on a theme aired many times before in the movies. Here it offers an acceptably amusing view of provincial USA, satirising complacent Middle America attitudes.

Baby Blue Marine is given a lift through conscientious direction, a sturdy production and solid, fresh-seeming performances from Vincent, O’Connor, Katherine Helmond, Dana Elcar, Bert Remsen and Bruno Kirby, all of whom are appealing. More comedy and more real honest emotional feeling in Stanford Whitmore’s workaday screenplay would have done the trick.

Among the interesting cast, there is an early screen role for Richard Gere (in his second feature film, after Report to the Commissioner) as the hero’s drinking buddy Raider, and it is the last (uncredited) film role of John Drew Barrymore, aged 44: he became a recluse and died in 2004, aged 72.

Art Lund, Michael Conrad, Allan Miller, Michael LeClair, Will Seltzer, Kenneth Tobey, Lelia Goldoni and Marshall Efron are also in the cast.

Baby Blue Marine is directed by John Hancock, runs 90 minutes, is made by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Stanford Whitmore, is shot in Metrocolor by Laszlo Kovacs, is produced by Aaron Spelling, Leonard Goldberg and Robert LaVigne, and scored by Fred Karlin.

It was released on 5 0 May 5, 1976.

Jan-Michael Vincent also stars in Tribes (1970), another film featuring the Marine Corps.

The cast are Jan-Michael Vincent as Marion ‘Hedge’ Hedgepeth, Glynnis O’Connor as Rose, Katherine Helmond as Mrs Hudkins, Dana Elcar as Sheriff Wenzel, Bert Remsen as Mr Hudkins, Bruno Kirby [B. Kirby Jr], Richard Gere as Raider, Art Lund as Mr Elmore, Michael Conrad as Drill Instructor, Allan Miller as Capt. Bittman, Michael LeClair as Barney Hudkins, Will Seltzer as Pvt. Phelps, Kenneth Tobey [Ken Tobey] as Buick Driver, Lelia Goldoni as Mrs. Townsley, Marshall Efron as Cook, Barton Heyman as Barker, Adam Arkin as Rupe, Damon Douglas as Dobbs, Barry Greenberg as Idiot #1, John Blyth Barrymore as Idiot #2, John Calvin as Paratrooper, Richard Narita as Masamura, Evan C. Kim [Evan Kim] as Harakawa, Keone Young as Katsu, Phyllis Glick as Girl Behind Bus Counter, William Martel as Bartender, Warren Burton as Second Serviceman, Abraham Alvarez as First Serviceman, Bill Sorrells as Coach, Carole White [Carole Ita White] as Girl On Bus, Duncan Gamble as Sailor, Tita Bell as Girl #1, Lani O’Grady as Girl #2, Barbara Dodd as Mother Tom Lee McFadden as First Shore Patrolman, and James Carroll [James Lough] as Second Shore Patrolman.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6734

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com