Pack Up Your Troubles (1939) User Reviews

Ritz' swan song at Fox, but film better than it reputation.

[porridge-80884 · 5/10 · 14 October 2017]

Pack up Your Troubles is a joint vehicle for spunky, talented Jane Withers and zany comedy masters, The Ritz Brothers, Zanuch short- changed the Ritz Brothers (who intended to leave Fox" by second billing them to young Miss Withers. Jane performs a musical number and an impersonation of George M. Cohan (who was still well-known in 1939) and Eva Tanguay, the biggest of vaudeville headliners, but unknown by 1939. The Ritzes open the movie with A comedy and song routine that is supposed to tell the film audience why they could no longer get vaudeville gigs and thus had to join the Army to keep body and soul together. Sadly that is the last time we get to see a Ritz routine, so there is no precision dancing. Pack up Your Troubles seems less like a 20th Century Fox film than one from Universal, the boys' next studio, but it is better than its reputation. By the way, demeaning the Ritz Brothers is a demonstration of poor judgment. They may not be to everyone's taste, but Harry Ritz, along with Chaplin, Frank Fay and Ted Healy were the four most influential comedians of their era to other comedians. Ask Mel Brooks.

Despite the presence of the Ritz Brothers, it's worth seeing.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 23 March 2014]

In 1932, Laurel & Hardy made a film by the same name. And, like this 1939 film, it's about WWI and an orphan! Confusing, huh? Well, not so much because this 1939 film also features the Ritz Brothers and there is no way that this 'comedy' team would EVER be mistaken for Laurel & Hardy. Heck, they weren't even good enough to be in the same league as the Three Stooges or even Wheeler & Woolsey. I would venture to say that they were the most obnoxious and untalented comedy team in movie history! Fortunately, they are used in the film rather sparingly and it's a Jane Withers starring vehicle. However, had they been eliminated from the movie, it certainly would have been better.

The film begins with the Ritz Brothers joining the cavalry during WWI. When their unit arrives in France, they meet a nice girl, Colette--who seems VERY American. Her mother is supposed to have been an American and her father a Frenchman--but she sure sounds American! Regardless, she apparently is an orphan yet has a sweet personality--sort of the role that Shirley Temple usually handled. But, unlike Shirley, Jane later becomes more of a child hero--sneaking through the German lines in order to save the day for the Allies. Unfortunately, the Ritz Brothers tag along to help.

So is the film any good? Well, it has its flaws but the film is enjoyable as a simple time-passer. Jane helps overcome the Ritz Brothers and the overall product is decent. Plus, while these obnoxious brothers are in the film, it's fortunately in small doses and they don't anchor the movie.

By the way, the film is filled with strange anachronisms. Sure, the Germans all speak English and drive cars circa 1930s but the part that really made me laugh was when the mule gave birth to a baby mule. Mules do NOT work that way--they are sterile offspring of a horse and a donkey!

Jane Withers Minus the Ritz Brothers

[boblipton · 6/10 · 23 January 2014]

I like the movies of Jane Withers, the Shirley Temple of the B movies. However, in this one, she is paired with the Ritz Brothers. As usual, Al, Harry and Jimmy pall very quickly in this World War I story about how American Jane Withers, who has been living in the war zone, goes to rescue her father the spy, who is trapped in Germany.

It sounds improbable. Yet if it weren't for the comedy interludes of the Ritz brothers, you wouldn't have time to notice. Director Bruce Humberstone, who never got out of the Bs, directs at speed and the second unit work is very good; Miss Withers is quite believable as a terrified girl while sneaking through the lines under fire. Lots of other talent is on display, including Fritz Leiber as a one-legged French cobbler, Stanley Fields doing his Wallace Beery imitation, Joseph Schlidkraut as Jane's father, and a very pretty Lynn Bari, who smiles charmingly as she does a cleaned-up can-can. Miss Withers' solo song has music by Jules Styne.

All in all, superior example of the entertainment that one of the big studios' B department could do. If it weren't for the Ritz Brothers, it would be excellent.

Completely unfunny

[gridoon2024 · 4/10 · 1 June 2015]

The Ritz Brothers are largely forgotten today. I have watched several of their films over the years and on the whole I would consider myself a mild fan of them, but "Pack Up Your Troubles' is one of their worst films, and certainly wouldn't be a good "sample" movie for newcomers. In fact, the Ritzes are basically supporting players here, as the real star is top-billed Jane Withers, a toothy substitute for Shirley Temple. The comedic material for the Ritzes is close to nonexistent; the bathos and the war environment (in one scene, for example, Withers is alone and scared in the middle of a chaotic battlefield) work against what little comedy there is. Lynn Bari is a terrific "bad girl"....but her part is so small it's almost a cameo. *1/2 out of 4.

Nay to the Ritz, Yay to the Withers.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 31 August 2018]

That young little rascal, Jane Withers, just might steal your heart here as she searches for a supposedly dead father (Oscar winner Joseph Schildkraut) whom she discovers is actually pretending to be on the side of the Germans in this World War I set comedy/drama. However, to the detriment of the film, the Ritz Brothers manage to be mainly unfunny as they also play spy, running around like targets in a shooting gallery when they make the mistake of wearing German helmets in the base they work at. The film opens with them adopting a cute baby mule after its mother dies, getting some milk from the enthusiastic orphaned Withers, then basically turning the mule over to her, from where the mule is never seen again. After Withers does a musical number spoofing both Eva Tanguay and George M. Cohan, she discovers from an adopted uncle (Fritz Leiber) on his death bed that her father is indeed alive and she must get through to the front to warn him that he is in danger.

With the help of the Ritz Brothers (disguised as a horse), she manages to get through security at the American base to get to the front, but somehow ends up in the middle of the battle where bombs fly all around her. In the meantime, somehow the Ritz Brothers capture a major German officer and attempt to get back to their base without ending up as targets once again. In defense of the Ritz Brothers, they are trying to avoid their typical schtick for most of the film, but when it does come out, it disturbs the pacing and turns the film from poignant to silly. That is especially evident when they attempt to hide out in an air balloon that seems to be heading into outer space as the French air force attacks it, blowing each side of the basket out until there's nothing left but the balloon. The film is saved by Withers who manages to be cute without being cloying and sure knows her way around a song and dance.