Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? *** (1970, Tony Curtis, Brian Keith, Ernest Borgnine, Don Ameche) – Classic Movie Review 10,770

If you like the wacky Sixties title Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?, you might like director Hy Averback’s uneven and unwieldy 1970  army satire about a trio of US tank buddies (Tony Curtis, Brian Keith, Ivan Dixon) at war with the locals in the redneck Deep South town that houses their US Army base.

Don Ameche plays base commander Colonel Flanders, who assigns his plan to throw a feel-good community dance to Warrant Officer Michael M Nace (Brian Keith), sergeant Shannon Gambroni (Tony Curtis) and sergeant Jones (Ivan Dixon), and captain Myerson (Bradford Dillman), with unexpected, chaotic results, as the plan backfires and local tensions escalate into a war.

Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? is pretty well made and performed by a tasty, expert cast. It boasts an often witty and inventive script by Hal Captain and Don McGuire, securely based on an engaging, throwaway, offbeat satirical sense of humour, mixing comedy and drama.

The film’s title is derived from an American anti-war slogan from the hippie sub-culture during the Vietnam War era, made popular by Charlotte E Keyes’s 1966 McCall’s magazine article Suppose They Gave a War and No One Came.

It also features Suzanne Pleshette, Pamela Britton, Tom Ewell, Arthur O’Connell, Robert Emhardt, John Fiedler, Maxine Stuart, Christopher Mitchum, and Grady Sutton.

It was advertised, rather temptingly, as ‘The motion picture that will melt your chocolate bar.’ But not many chocolate bars were melted. It flopped, recording an overall loss of $4,160,000.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,770

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