''Marching On!'' is a 1943 American

race film The race film or race movie was a genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and the early 1950s, consisting of films produced for black audiences, and featuring black casts. Approximately five hundred race films were produce ...

directed and written by

Spencer Williams Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs " Basin Street Blues", "I Ain't Got Nobody", "Royal Garden Blues", "I've Found a New B ...

. Sequences were filmed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The film was later rereleased with additional musical sequences under the title ''Where's My Man To-nite?''.

Plot

The film focuses on a young

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

who continues his family’s tradition of military service when he is drafted into the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Despite complications that arise during his basic training, including his jealousy following his girlfriend's flirtatious attention to his sergeant, the young soldier becomes a hero when he locates Japanese saboteurs operating a radio station outside of his military base.“The Movies, Race, and Ethnicity: African Americans,” University of California Berkeley
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Cast

* Hugo Martin as Rodney Tucker Jr. * George T. Sutton as Gramps Sam Tucker * Emmet Jackson as Sgt. Robert L. Keene * "Pepper" Neely as Wash, soldier *

Mickey McZekkashing Mickey is a given name and nickname, almost always masculine and often a short form (hypocorism) of Michael, and occasionally a surname. Notable people and characters with the name include: People Given name or nickname Men * Mickey Andrews (bor ...

as Wimpy, soldier * Myra D. Hemmings as Mrs. Ellen Tucker * Clarissy Deary as Ginny * L.K. Smith as Rufus *John Hemmings as Rodney Tucker Sr. *

Georgia Kelly Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

as Martha Adams

References

External links

* * 1943 films 1940s English-language films American black-and-white films Films directed by Spencer Williams Race films World War II films made in wartime American drama films 1943 drama films {{1940s-drama-film-stub