Women of All Nations 1931

The film opens at the end of World War I, following lifelong rivals Captain Jim Flagg, Victor McLaglen, and Sergeant Harry Quirt, Edmund Lowe, as they endure the trenches one last time. After the war ends, both men re-enlist, and their adventures carry them from the front lines through the Philippines, across Asia, and eventually to the Panama Canal, where duty and rivalry continue to push them forward.

Flagg is given command of a recruiting office in Brooklyn after a stint in the brig, where he toils alongside Olsen, El Brendel, a co-worker who suffers from a persistent sneezing problem that tests Flagg’s patience. Quirt has been discharged, but when a local “joint” is raided by the police, Flagg discovers it is run by Quirt, and he forces Quirt to re-enlist or face arrest. Flagg has had little success as a recruiter, managing only a single other recruit, Izzy Kaplan, whom Flagg has promised to look after for his father.

They are sent to Sweden, where a love triangle develops between Flagg, Quirt, and a dancer they meet in a café, Elsa, Greta Nissen. Elsa’s boyfriend, Olaf, intervenes, and the three Marines depart Sweden for Nicaragua to help with earthquake rescue and relief efforts. In the course of these operations, Izzy is killed, and Flagg digs out a buried marine, only to realize that the fallen soldier is Quirt.

Their final mission carries them to the Mid-East, where Elsa becomes a favorite in a harem after arriving there from Paris, where she had met Prince Hassan, Bela Lugosi. In this perilous backdrop, Quirt, Flagg, and Olsen work together to rescue Elsa from the Harem, smuggling her out in an enclosed harem chair. As the trio debates who will win Elsa’s hand, they hear Olsen’s sneeze from inside the chair, and the moment reveals that Olsen will wind up with Elsa, much to the chagrin of the other two Marines.