The Tanks Are Coming is a two-reel (20 minute) short film directed by B. Reeves Eason.
It was made in 1941 as war loomed and America desperately struggled to ramp up its defense production, and regular Americans might have been nervous about either or both of those things. The central message of this film is: don't worry, our tanks are great! After a prologue noting FDR's declaration of a national emergency which required a buildup of the armed forces, men from all across America start joining the military. One of them is a cheerful cab driver, Malinowski (played by veteran character actor George Tobias) who drives his taxi right up to basic training at Fort Knox.
From there the film portrays basic training, with affable but not-too-bright Malinowski struggling to keep up. Malinowski is sent to the tank corps, where he and his fellow soldiers do basic drills but also do various exercises like how to drive a tank, how to fix a tank, and how to fire a tank's guns. The film ends with an exercise in which the tanks of Fort Knox ramble about the countryside in a war game.
Gig Young, so new to Hollywood that he was still going by his real name of Byron Barr, appears as Jim, another soldier.
Tropes:
- Boot Camp Episode: A short film showing basic training at Fort Knox, with special emphasis on tank training.
- Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: The sergeant, whom Malinowski sniffs out as a former traffic cop, angrily threatens him with being "run in" if he keeps driving a cab around the base. Cut to the colonel, who affects a fatherly manner and explains to Malinowski that he has to set aside civilian concerns and get rid of his taxi.
- Documentary: Sort of a hybrid of documentary and fiction, as the film shows Real Life training techniques and real U.S. Army tanks (albeit crappy obsolete ones) on a real Army base, while also having actors play fictional characters.
- Match Cut: From Malinowski pretending to play "Reveille" using his hand as an imaginary trumpet, to an actual Army trumpeter doing it for real.
- Naïve Newcomer: Malinowski, who knows so little of military life that he thinks he can park his cab at Fort Knox and pick it up when the war's over.
- Narrator: A horribly over-the-top narrator gives bombastic commentary about how our men are getting the best training and how our tanks are unstoppable and will run over everything.
- Spelling for Emphasis: Malinowski can't take his sweetheart to the dance because he's joined the Army—"A-R-M-I-E!".
- Stock Audio Clip: The film begins with a recording of an FDR speech announcing a national defense emergency.
- Stock Footage: The scene of the Continental Congress signing the Declaration of Independence is from Declaration of Independence, a color short film from 1938.
- Tank Goodness: The Movie! Ironically, the tanks seen in the film, variations on the M2, were wholly inadequate to face the Germans and only saw some brief action in the Pacific theater.note
- Title Drop: At the end, as the tanks in the exercise are running down a shallow stream, the narration booms "And the tanks are coming! Nor can mountains, forest, or rivers stop them!" That phrase is repeated a couple of more times before the final The End card.
