What a waste of my time!!!

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

In his last screen role, WIlliam Haines gave it a shot, but this movie is too clearly an B movie recapitulation of earlier movies, half TELL IT TO THE MARINES and half Quirt & Flagg. Loose cannon Marine lieutenant Haines is assigned to by-0the-book Captain Conrad Nagel, steals Esther Ralston from his superior while dodging firebrand girlfriend Armida, and gets in enough trouble that he's forced to resign just before the company is shipped out on a filibuster to a generic banana republic. But old war horses can't hear "Semper Fidelis" without charging into the battle, so he enlists as a private to get into the fight.There are lots of good bits in this movie and lots of fine performances by old pros, but Haines sounds phony in his longer speeches, and Armida acts like a cut-rate Lupe Velez. Even so, there are enough good points in this movie to keep it interesting through the end. Most of what prevents it from being outstanding is the sense that it was over-edited to keep it to 70 minutes, second-feature length.Perhaps had there been enough grace notes added to more than suggest older, more successful movies, Haines might have cared to continue making movies. Still, he had his successful decorating business to fall back on and given the Hays Office, his homosexual relationship with Jimmy Shields -- sometimes called "the most successful marriage in Hollywood -- must have made it seem like too much of a bother.

In the late silent and early talking picture era, William Haines was one of MGM's top stars. While his films were EXTREMELY formulaic (they invariably involved a very accomplished blowhard finally screwing up and then making good by the end of the film), they were super- popular and he was money in the bank. But by the time he made "The Marines Are Coming", he was a has-been--starring in films by third-rate studios and this one is from tiny little Mascot. Some blame this on Louis B. Mayer's hatred of Haines, some blame it on the new Production Code and the code's dislike of anything hinting at gay but I honestly think most of the problem was because Haines just wasn't pretty any more and there was a serious sameness to his film. He'd put on a few pounds, his hair starting receding and he looked more like an accountant than a handsome leading man by 1934. Whatever the reason, after finishing this film he changed careers and became an interior decorator to the stars...and a very successful one.This film finds Haines a Lieutenant in the Marines and is a bit of a bad boy. After causing all sorts of problems involving two ladies, he is forced to resign in disgrace but per the usual Haines formula, he makes good by the end of the film. He rejoins as a lowly private and ends up earning back his self-respect after he tangles with a low- life named 'The Torch'.Overall, there's nothing new but nothing objectionable about this one. Worth seeing if you are a Haines fan, otherwise it's just an agreeable time passer.

Odd mix of action and comedy never completely works. The plot has a Marine Lieutenant assigned to a base in San Diego. he is pursued by a Latin singer who is love with him. Our hero also ends up wooing the fiancé of his former rival and winning her. He ends up disgraced when a fracas in a gambling den goes wrong and resigns his commission and starts over as a private. Eventually sent to South America he ends up fighting a bandit who seeks t kill the marine contingent sent to stop him.First half comedy gives way to second half action and the two halves don't quite come together. The cast is game and manages to sell it as best they can but the shifting gears from one genre to another never quite works. What doesn't help the proceedings is the fact that the film is trapped in the weird warp between silent and sound films that many independent films got caught in where some of the actors seem overly made up, the sound track is free of a musical score and some of the performances are a bit over done. Its not a bad film, its just not a great one.

A sad end to a popular star's career. William Haines tries hard to recapture his former glory in this comedy/drama that also features silent star Conrad Nagel. But this grade Z production just can't do it. You can tell that Haines had no real illusions about regaining his stardom. Using the formula that was so successful in the late 20 and early 30s--a formula that had made Haines a top-5 box office star--the storyline just seems tired.