Homeward Bound

By JAY COCKS

BABY BLUE MARINE

Directed by JOHN HANCOCK Screenplay by STANFORD WHITMORE

Marion Hedgepeth (Jan-Michael Vincent) wants to be a Marine. His ambition recalls that old joke: he wants to be a Marine in the worst way. The harder he tries, the clumsier he becomes, until the Marines give up. He washes out of boot camp as a "baby blue." His uniform is taken away and he and his fellows-in-disgrace are sent on their way in powder-blue fatigues.

It means a lot for Marion to be a Marine. His father was in the corps, and his uniform still fits. The time is 1943, and a young man's honor is at stake. Waiting for an eastbound bus. Marion buys a drink for a full-fledged Marine Raider, who wears a skull-and-cross-bones patch on his sleeve and stares fixedly ahead, as if trying to make out messages on the liquor bottles. Marion listens to the Marine's reminiscences of battle, envies all his medals. The Raider is of a rather different frame of mind. He gets Marion drunk, clobbers him and steals the baby blue outfit, leaving his own uniform behind. At last Marion gets the chance to act like a real Marine.

Baby Blue Marine, sentimental and good-natured, concerns Marion's discovery that manhood is not something that comes along with rank and wardrobe. Working his way home from California to St. Louis, Marion gets as far as a small Western town named Bidwell. He falls for a young waitress (Glynnis O'Connor) and lets himself become BidwelFs major curiosity, accepting the honor and privileges due a Marine who has seen extensive combat duty.

It is a little difficult to determine what Director John Hancock (Bang the Drum Slowly) and Scenarist Stanford Whitmore had on their minds here. Hancock re-creates some lovely home-front ambience and gets winning performances from Vincent and O'Connor. Still, to give the movie some resolution, it is necessary to bring on a trio of Japanese youths who have run away from an internment camp. Their appearance triggers the film's one action sequence. Marion and most of Bidwell's male population beat the woods and brave the rapids in search of the three boys--a slapdash man hunt and a suitably awkward ending for this gangling, occasionally affecting little movie. Jay Cocks

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