Line #6 Film/Doughboys


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doughboys12_9432.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Buster Keaton swallowed by mud.]]
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4	''Doughboys'' (1930) is a film directed by Edward Sedgwick and starring Creator/BusterKeaton. Keaton plays Elmer Stuyvesant, a lazy aristocrat who cares only for wooing Mary, a local secretary. Mary is not too impressed with Elmer, but bigger problems soon arise when the United States enters UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Elmer joins up and has various comic misadventures in boot camp and in France. Mary, who has also joined up as a morale worker, is impressed by Elmer's patriotism, but the war intervenes.
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6	''Doughboys'' was Keaton's fourth starring vehicle for MGM and his second talkie. Critical opinion is divided on this film: Creator/LeonardMaltin called it the worst of Keaton's career while Keaton himself considered it his best talkie (admittedly a low bar). It is loosely inspired by Keaton's experiences as a soldier and entertainer in France, and was the last MGM film with which Keaton had any creative input.
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9	!!Tropes:
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11	* AshFace: Sgt. Brophy has one after a grenade thrown by Buster explodes in the American trench.
12	* ContrivedCoincidence: Buster meets his old valet, a German, in the opposite trench.
13	* CreatorCameo: Director Edward Sedgwick plays the camp cook.
14	* DescriptionCut: An American officer tells his French counterpart "We are proud to be with you in your sunny France", and the camera cuts to show Buster's unit marching through a Biblical rainstorm. Later, when the men have gone into the trenches, their officer says "This is a quiet sector." Cue immediate heavy German bombardment.
15	* DrillSergeantNasty: Sgt. Brophy, the hot-tempered drill sergeant who repeatedly bawls out poor bumbling Elmer.
16	* ExtraExtraReadAllAboutIt: Used word-for-word as Elmer's ineffectual courting of Mary is interrupted by newsboys selling papers announcing American intervention in the war.
17	* {{Fainting}}: Elmer and several of his comrades do this when Sgt. Brophy, during drill, gives an overly detailed description of bayoneting someone.
18	* GentlemenRankers: Elmer is a very rich young man who blunders into enlisting by mistake (see UpperClassTwit below).
19	* HappyEnding: Not only has Buster married Mary and started his own business with his Army buddies, but Sgt. Brophy is his janitor.
20	* IdleRich: Elmer lives off his family's money, which is one reason Mary rejects him.
21	* MathematiciansAnswer: Elmer tends to give these.
22	--> '''Army recruiter''': Who's the nearest relative?\
23	'''Elmer''': My sister. She lives right around the corner.
24	* NotWhatItLooksLike: Buster, tossed out of his billet, wanders into a random cottage and finds a bed. It turns out the next morning to be the second bed in a young woman's room, and her father is pissed.
25	* ShellShockedVeteran: Used for the closing gag, weirdly enough. The sound of a rivet gun sends Buster and all his old Army friends diving for cover, and causes Sgt. Brophy to shift from servile janitor back to antagonistic DrillSergeantNasty.

Context Film / Doughboys