''Women of All Nations'' is a 1931 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

military

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Raoul Walsh Raoul Walsh (born Albert Edward Walsh; March 11, 1887December 31, 1980) was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He wa ...

and starring

Victor McLaglen Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen (10 December 1886 – 7 November 1959) was a British boxer-turned-Hollywood actor.Obituary ''Variety'', 11 November 1959, page 79. He was known as a character actor, particularly in Westerns, and made sev ...

Edmund Lowe Edmund Dantes Lowe (March 3, 1890 – April 21, 1971) was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film. Biography Lowe was born in San Jose, California. His father was a local judge. His childhood home was a ...

Greta Nissen Greta Nissen (born Grethe Rüzt-Nissen; 30 January 1906 – 15 May 1988) was a Norwegian-American film and stage actress. Stage and screen actress Born Grethe Rüzt-Nissen in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway, Nissen was originally a dancer. Whil ...

and

El Brendel Elmer Goodfellow "El" Brendel (March 25, 1890 – April 9, 1964) was an American vaudeville comedian turned movie star, best remembered for his dialect routine as a Swedish immigrant. His biggest role was as "Single-0" in the sci-fi musical ' ...

. It was the second of three sequels to Walsh's 1926 film, '' What Price Glory?'', with McLaglen and Lowe reprising their roles.

Plot

Greta Nissen, Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe 2

The film opens at the end of World War I, with lifelong rivals Captain Jim Flagg and Sergeant Harry Quirt in the trenches. After the war ends, both men re-enlist, and the film follows their adventures through the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, Asia, and the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

. After a stint in the brig, Flagg is given command of a recruiting office in Brooklyn, New York, where he works with Olsen, who has a persistent sneezing problem, much to the annoyance of Flagg. Quirt, meanwhile has been discharged. When a local "joint" is raided by the police, Flagg discovers it is being run by Quirt, and he forces Quirt to re-enlist, or be turned over to the police. Flagg has been highly unsuccessful as a recruiter, managing only a single other recruit, Izzy Kaplan, who Flagg promised to look after to his father. El Brendel and Greta Nissen

They are sent to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

, where a love triangle develops between Flagg, Quirt and a dancer they meet in a café, Elsa. Elsa's boyfriend, Olaf, eventually intervenes, and the three Marines leave Sweden, bound to

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the coun ...

, to help out in earthquake rescue and relief efforts. During the efforts, Izzy is killed, and Flagg digs out a buried marine, discovering it is Quirt. Their final mission takes them to the Mid-East, where they find Elsa as a favorite in a harem. She had arrived there from Paris, where she had met Prince Hassan, in whose harem she now finds herself. Quirt, Flagg and Olsen rescue Elsa from the Harem, sneaking her out in an enclosed harem chair. As they argue about who will end up with Elsa, they hear Olsen's sneeze from within the chair, and they understand that Olsen will wind up with Elsa, much to the chagrin of the other two Marines.

Cast

as Captain Jim Flagg *

as Sergeant Harry Quirt *

as Elsa *

as Olsen * Fifi D'Orsay as Fifi * Marjorie White as Margie * Jesse De Vorska as Izzy Kaplan *Marion Lessing as Gretchen *

T. Roy Barnes Thomas Roy Barnes (August 11, 1880 – March 30, 1937) was a British-American actor. Biography Barnes appeared in over 50 films between 1920 and 1935, primarily in comedies. Although born in England, he lived in the United States from early chil ...

as Captain of the Marines *Ruth Warren as Ruth *

Bela Lugosi Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''S ...

as Prince Hassan *

Joyce Compton Olivia Joyce Compton (January 27, 1907 – October 13, 1997) was an American actress. Biography Compton was born in Lexington, Kentucky, the daughter of Henry and Golden Compton. (Despite frequent reports to the contrary, her name was not ...

as Kiki *

Mischa Auer Mischa Auer (born Mikhail Semyonovich Unkovsky (Михаил Семёнович Унковский; 17 November 1905 – 5 March 1967) was a Russian-born American actor who moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s. He first appeared in film in 192 ...

as Hassan's Aide (uncredited) * Charles Judels as Leon (uncredited)

Reception

Mordaunt Hall Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' gave the film a favorable review. In his autobiography, Walsh did not have too much positive to say about the film, calling it "...a turkey because it could not be anything else. A third McLaglen-Lowe film was too much for the public; I had been afraid of this from the start. It should have been called `The League of Nations,' because it flopped just as hard."

Notes

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...

was cast in the role of ''Stone'' in the film, but in the final edited version, none of his scenes made it to the screen. This was the second sequel to Walsh's 1926 film ''What Price Glory'', the first being Walsh's film, '' The Cock-Eyed World'', released in 1929. A third sequel, entitled, '' Hot Pepper'', was directed by

John Blystone John G. Blystone (December 2, 1892 – August 6, 1938) was an American film director. He directed 100 films between 1915 and 1938. He was born in Rice Lake, Wisconsin and died in Los Angeles, California from a heart attack. His grave is ...

and released in 1933, with McLaglen and Lowe once again reprising their roles.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Women of All Nations 1931 films 1931 comedy films American comedy films Fox Film films Films directed by Raoul Walsh Films about the United States Marine Corps 1930s American films