The Tanks Are Coming
1941 | 20m | English
Popularity: 0.2 (history)
| Director: | B. Reeves Eason |
|---|---|
| Writer: | Owen Crump |
| Staring: |
| Educational short about the status of battle tanks and tank training in the U.S. Army in pre-War 1941, featuring a comical Army trainee from the Bronx. | |
| Release Date: | Oct 04, 1941 |
|---|---|
| Director: | B. Reeves Eason |
| Writer: | Owen Crump |
| Genres: | War, Comedy |
| Keywords | patriotism, taxi driver, world war ii, us army, maneuver, volunteer, tank, recruiting, armored truck, yellow cab, military training, joining the army, armored vehicle, wartime propaganda, militar tank, tanks |
| Production Companies | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Box Office |
Revenue: $0
Budget: $0 |
| Updates |
Updated: Feb 02, 2026 Entered: Aug 11, 2024 |
| Name | Character |
|---|---|
| George Tobias | Malowski |
| Richard Travis | Pete |
| Gig Young | Jim Allen |
| Frank Wilcox | Colonel |
| Knox Manning | Narrator |
| Byron Barr |
| Name | Job |
|---|---|
| B. Reeves Eason | Director |
| Owen Crump | Screenplay |
| Name | Title |
|---|
| Organization | Category | Person |
|---|
Popularity History
| Year | Month | Avg | Max | Min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 2024 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| 2024 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| 2024 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2024 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
| 2024 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 2024 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| 2024 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| 2024 | 12 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| 2025 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2025 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2025 | 12 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| 2026 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2026 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Trending Position
George Tobias is quite amusing here as the New York taxi driver "Malowski" who heeds President Roosevelt's stirring call to arms in 1941 and - much to the disbelief of his gal - joins up. He decides to drive his cab all the way to Fort Knox in Kentucky where he enlists and is trained on the rudiment ... s of learning how to drive a tank. I'm not sure this is really about tanks at all, it's more of an educational training film that extols the virtues of the US Army, it's training and equipment - all with a view to tugging at some patriotic heart-strings and increasing recruitment. Some of the commentary is just a little on the over-zealous side and I'm not sure anyone would describe the military infrastructure as a "democracy" - regardless of your caste or creed! Tobias and his yellow "Betsy" try to inject a little humour and humanity into this quite brutal tree-bashing film before a rather rousing denouement that only needed a poster from Lord Kitchener. These films all had their purpose and the war may have turned out quite differently had they not achieved their goals - but the almost fervent tones of narrator Knox Manning did grate after a while. PS: Didn't Benjamin Franklin take an awful long time to write his name?!