Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

calvinnme I am confused by the title and the synopses that say the protagonist wants out of the army to get back to the girl he left behind. That is not at all what is going on here.First, this is just a weird film. The first third of it has a "Leave It To Beaver" like voice over complete with goofy light music talking about how easy youngsters have it in this period of peace and prosperity - the mid 1950s - and then the narrator says, let's go meet them. This voice-over and music continues until into the basic training part of the film and appropriately disappears.Eventually we land upon Andy Shaeffer (Tab Hunter), the well off son of an attorney and a mother who just won't stop smothering Andy. Don't get me wrong, he seems to like being smothered! He is unbelievably "pinned" (pre-engaged back in the day) to Susan Daniels (Natalie Wood), who has a good work ethic. They are both college students. She asks Andy what he wants out of life. He says he wants to avoid the draft board, so he'll keep going to college until he is too old to be drafted, then let dad set him up in a cushy job. Surprisingly this shirker's attitude does not induce projectile vomiting in Susan, or at least a break up. What does start a fight is when he borrows her car, promises to pick her up so she can get to class, and then arrives as class is ending. Their fight causes him to fail a couple of examinations, and that gets him kicked out of college, and that gets him drafted.So Andy is a guy in the service who would rather do something else. Well that describes about 90% of the fellows who got drafted from 1945-1975. He proceeds to be a real jerk, talking back to drill sergeants, getting into fights with the rest of the platoon, and writing a love letter to his girl when he is supposed to be looking out for civilians who might wander into the firing range. Now Andy Griffith as Will Stockdale in "No Time For Sergeants" and Gomer Pyle as a marine both were well meaning and enthusiastic screw ups. They wound up on latrine duty and singing with a bucket over their head, respectively. But for some reason the non comms in charge give this guy unrealistic pass after pass until finally he makes a mistake so bad that he is offered a discharge - a dishonorable one. He asks where does he sign, not caring that this is the same as a felony conviction on his record. How will all of this turn out? Watch and find out.The only thing that makes this a 4 instead of a 2/10 are all of the supporting players who give outstanding performances. There is Jessie Roy Landis as Andy's mom who just can't get that Andrew has to let go of her breast and eat solid food sometime. There is Jim Backus and David Jannsen as officers, and most prominent is Murray Hamilton as Sgt. Clyde who gives Andy chance after chance. For some reason he believes in this guy. There is Henry Jones as Hanson, a WWII vet who has failed as a civilian and rejoined the service to try to straighten himself out, plus he missed the camaraderie of the army. Finally there is James Garner as just another soldier who still manages to impress. Natalie Wood looks cute here with her Italian cut, but I just don't believe it when she says she loves awful Andy.

jjnxn-1 Referred to by both its leading players as The Girl With The Left Behind this is by no means a great movie but one certainly better than its sullied reputation would lead you to believe. A large part of that bad rep comes via its two stars, Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood. A large portion of their distaste for this and several of their other co-starring pictures is surely attributable to the fact that they were contract players at the time and handed one indifferent script after another until Natalie graduated to A level stardom and Tab left the studio. The film itself is an innocuous trifle about a selfish spoiled young man who has a problem with authority and the pains he and the officers over him suffer when he's drafted. Hardly a new plot or revolutionarily enacted this is stuffed with excellent character actors all contributing fun performances. A few standouts are Jessie Royce Landis as Tab's addled mother, Murray Hamilton as his exasperated direct superior and Henry Jones as an amiable cohort. Natalie's disregard for the film is understandable though since she's handed one of the nothing girl parts she had to endure while toiling her way to the top.An unremarkable studio product this is still an enjoyable picture.

bkoganbing The title role of The Girl He Left Behind is none other than Natalie Wood. But it is Tab Hunter who is doing the leaving because he's gotten a greetings letter from President Eisenhower inviting him to join the US Army. Those draft notices can ruin the plans of many a young man.In this case the young man Hunter is playing is quite rich and really acts to the manor born. If he's got the right stuff it will take all the people above him in his training company from captain David Janssen to First Sergeant Jim Backus to platoon sergeant Murray Hamilton to bring it out of him.Fifteen years after this film was made I was doing basic training at a lovely garden spot of the earth called Fort Polk, Louisiana. It would never have occurred to me to mouth off the way Tab Hunter was doing to those above him. I've also never seen a basic training film that didn't have one trainee doing a single pushup. Hunter should have been down in a prone position on all fours pushing the good earth of Fort Ord away from him.The Girl He Left Behind was filmed at Ford Ord and that certainly made it look authentic if it wasn't quite. In the cast as Hunter's fellow trainees are Alan King, Henry Jones and James Garner in what was his second film appearance. Both Hunter's memoirs and a recent biography of Natalie Wood mention that at this time the two of them were linked romantically in a series of studio arranged dates. We know now just how far from the truth that was, but at least from Hunter's point of view, Natalie Wood was a good scout about it all. One of the lines I remember best from his autobiography was that he (Tab) could have qualified for veteran's benefits with all the military movies he was cast in. He certainly did have that all American military look about him.The Girl He Left Behind is one of the most unrealistic of army films I've ever seen, still it has a great cast and I'm a fan of a whole lot of the people in this film.

moonspinner55 Tab Hunter plays a disgruntled college football star with bad grades who reluctantly joins the Peace Time Army, immediately getting on the wrong side of the other G.I.s with his surly attitude. I doubt, even in 1956, that Army officers would have put up with as many of Hunter's time-wasting shenanigans as they do here: he nods off and snores during a speech, he gets sarcastic and throws a few punches, his mother and former girlfriend both come for visits during Basic Training. The Fort Ord locations in California are well-captured, but this script seems conjured up by Hollywood persons unfamiliar with the milieu. For his part, Tab Hunter does almost nothing naturally as an actor. When he focuses on another performer, Hunter's intense stare makes him look furious--and when he's joshing or sweet-talking his mama, the smile is forced and nervous. Hunter isn't a bad actor, necessarily; there are one or two scenes where he seems in the moment. Still, both he and Natalie Wood are slumming here, giving about fifty-percent of what they've got. Supporting players Henry Jones, Jim Backus, Murray Hamilton, James Garner (in a small role), David Janssen, and even Alan King (as the proverbial barracks clown) do much better work than the stars. ** from ****